Happy Murders
Years ago, when my mom-in-law was staying with us, we had a big chuckle one night when she asked us to find a happy murder on TV. “A happy murder!” we exclaimed. “What in the world is that?” After some discussion we determined that she liked the older murder mysteries like Murder She Wrote. No blood and gore, just a dead body and a murderer to be found, and you don’t know who did it till the end when the detectives solve the case. So now, when we are looking for a movie or a series, we joke about finding a happy murder to watch. These days they are hard to find.
I’ve blogged before about current films that feature questionable heroes, graphic bloody scenes, explicit sex, endless destruction of infrastructure and human casualties (See blog March 19, 2021, Hollywood Script) - all played out in a world of excess wealth. In many of today’s films it seems violence is king and special effects have become far more important than a good story line.
There is a tendency to embrace the ugly side of humanity in all media these days. Even music has some pretty rough edges. (Happy) Murder ballads, where the murderer usually gets hanged, have been replaced by screaming profanity and hate speech. Video games have come a long way since PacMan. They are very realistic, the enemy’s destruction by whatever means being the goal, with our own avatar inserted directly into the drama. Our news programs are no exception either, shocking us with school killings, hate crimes, domestic violence, war…
Nearly everyone seems to question the effect media is having on people. Today’s media has a double edged sword. Most certainly there are many good aspects - some excellent movies, investigative journalism, information at our fingertips. On the downside though, there’s a constant, negative, desensitizing, media storm bombarding us from all directions on a daily basis. This can’t be good for our mental health.
Maybe it’s time to pay more attention, make better choices, for ourselves and especially for our children. People tend to perceive what they see or hear as truer when they see or hear it repeatedly. This is known as the illusory truth effect, and it helps explain why advertisements and propaganda work, why people believe fake news to be true, why some confuse fiction with reality, even why folks begin to believe some people’s crazier not so accurate tales. If we repeatedly soak up violent media, will we begin to see violence as normal, acceptable? Or does media reflect who we already are? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Note: My mind jumped all over the place while attempting to narrow the scope of this blog. I realized that this topic is broad enough to warrant the writing of a thesis, or maybe the commissioning of one of those endless studies our government likes to pour taxpayers money into. One sentence, like the previous one, can open up a giant can of worms to ponder over.
https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/,
February 18, 2024
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