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32
doing experimental research to deter–
mine the effects of
TV
violence on
chil–
dren. His pceliminary conclusion is that
those children who have watched
TV
the most show the least emotional and
pbysiological response to episodes of
violence. His opinion? We are creating
"violence addicts
!"
He also lamented
the fact that he was having great diffi–
cuJty finding "undesensitized" or non–
TV
watching children
foc
bis reseacch
(Lije,
January 30, l970, p. 57). Witb
95% of American bornes boasting at
least one television set, non-watchers are
cace
specimens indeed.
Referring to American
TV
as "the
expanding theater of cruelty," British
wciter Pamela Hansford Johnson said
that her greatest concern with our
exploding new genecation was its
increasing exposure and insensitivity to
the spectade of cruelty. In her words it,
" ... at first shocks the sensibilities and
then
blttnts
them
(Saturday Review,
June
8, 1968,
p.
63).
And, in bis book,
Violence: America
in the Sixties,
the eminent historian
Arthur Schlesinger coined the term
"televiolence." He concluded that it,
"... does more than condition emotion
and behavior. It also may attenuate
people's sense of reality." "Men mur–
dered on the television screen," he
observed, "ordinarily spring to life after
the episode is over ... (the impact of]
all death is therefore diminished" (p.
57). How true. Think back and try to
recall how many times you watched Lee
Harvey Oswald murdered, only to be
resurrected and murdered again - and
again. Almost hypnotized, your mind
finally rejected the reality you were
viewing.
But consider sorne of these words for
a moment.
lmmune
-
bl11nted
-
desensitized- vio/enee addicts.
Do you
really understand and feel the tragic
perversion of human conscience and
character wbich they represent? The
once-tender emotions of children, capa–
ble of full expression, now seared
beyond healing. What are we doing to
ourselves? Have you asked yourself
lately?
Well, so it is with "televiolence."
It
satisfies a morbid desire to witness vio–
lence without bruilt. The viewer is
WHICH IS THE TRUE SCHOOL?
During an
Average
Year a
Chilcl, Age 6-ll . . .
Affends
·School
98DHou,.
By
Age 18,
a
Chilcl has ...
Watched TV
22,000 Hours
AHended School
merely an innocent bystander. He is nei–
ther the aggressor nor the victim. He is
excused because there is nothing he can
do but watch. He cannot intervene in
the course of events so he is graduaJly
conditioned to a mentality of
fascinated
iuaction.
Given enough exposure, and
the separation between fantasy and real–
ity becomes indistinguishable. He then
stands by and watches brutality in real
life without lifting a finger.
Yes, given enough exposure and we
falJ into the trap described by Alexan–
der Pope many years ago. He wrote:
"Vice is a monster of so frightful
mien,
As to be hated needs but be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her
face,
We first
end11re,
then
pit)',
then
embrace."
(Essays on Man,
Epistle II.)
Apparently we baven't learned the les–
son yet.
But what about your borne? What
television characters have become too
familiar to your children? Just what
vices
are they learning to endure, pity,
and
embrace?
lt's happening, you know.
Mental Health at Stake
Yes, it's been happening for a long
time. And, if we would adrnit it, we are
reaping the bitter harvest of alienation,
12,000 Hours
frustration, cyn•c•sm, and sadism. The
roots of every form
of
youthful mental
illness can be traced in sorne measure to
endless hours of passive exposure to
false and degrading models of human
life and behavior.
Without personal interaction tbere is
little chance of developing a healthy
sensitivity toward others. But a child
sitting in front of a
TV
set gets no such
interaction. Dr. S.
l.
Hayakawa, presi–
dent of San Francisco State College, asks
if there is a connection between this fact
and, "... the sudden appearance in the
last few years of an enormous number
of young people from educated and
middle class families who find it diffi–
cult or impossible to relate to anybody,
and therefore drop out?"
(The Ameri–
can SchooJ Board Jollmal,
October,
1968,
p.
5.)
But, difficulty in relatíng to others is
only part of the problem. Equally serious
is the widespread rejection of reality by
chíldren and youth.
Did you know that the combination of
these symptoms is usually classified as
schizopbrenia? Just look around and
then consider this definition from the
book
A Psychiatric Glossary
published
by the American Psychiatric Associa–
tion. Stripped of scientific jargon, the
condition is described as "A severe emo–
tional disorder ... marked by a
retreat