Ever wonder if soldiers are born or created?Mediabully here, giving you the 411 on the reality of television violence.
Once upon a time, we had human individuals with a conscious. These individuals would be afraid to murder another human being. In combat, these individuals would purposely aim low or miss the enemy when shooting. They perturbed at the fact of killing and felt heavy remorse when doing so. One day the government came along and noticed the “weak” behavior of their soldiers and knew they would have to find a way to combat the guilt that the individuals encompassed. A few shaved heads, identical uniform and loss of identity later you have a soldier. Desensitizing the individuals creates the soldier. Media is played into this very easily as soldiers were to view violent images on screen especially before going into battle. After World War 2, the US Army realized their need to create a soldier more willing to kill.
It has recently occurred to me that the desensitization of soldiers is more than just aimed at individuals 18 or older but can be targeted at a younger generation. Why not 18 months when a child is able to discern what is happening on television. Upon that age, a child is able to view the substance of the medium and mimic the actions it sees. The children may be adversely prone to view harmful material such as somebody being shot, stabbed, raped, brutalized, degraded or murdered on TV but will be told, “Don’t worry. This isn’t real. It’s just TV.”
How many of you have heard "It's just TV” before? In a way, this somewhat justifies the negative actions we view on TV and almost normalizes it. Sooner or later, we have soldiers giving ‘high 5s’ after having just killed the enemy, along with higher crime rates in our society.
If you agree or care to disagree, drop a comment in that big white box below
Until then... Farvel, Hwyl fawr, 再见
Mediabully signin
I think that the clear distinction between fantasy and reality is an important factor in our behavior, regardless of how much violence we've been exposed to. Other than that, I do find it immensely interesting the way you pointed out that soldiers have to be stripped of their identity in order to be more efficient killers... hasn't really crossed my mind before.
ReplyDeleteour behavior is molded by many psychological conditioning that both the media shares as well as army officials who uses them. i'd thought this would be an interesting topic to bring up because I myself have never really thought of soldiers tat way myself and the way it can be compared to the media's influence or conditioning.
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