Re: crappy music of the masses

[Douglas Baldwin <coyotelk@optonline.net>]

Paul wrote:

> Do you really believe the volume of crime that the US experiences
currently
> existed here since this country's inception? And that media broadcasting
the
> various crimes is the only difference between the different historical
eras
> of the US as regards crime????
>
> Where in the history of this country did high schoolers blast away at
their
> schoolmates & teachers? Where in the history of the US did workers take
> rifles/revolvers/etc. into work and slay a couple of dozen former
> co-workers? When were leaders of various liberal movements
slain/asassinated
> in this country like the past 40 years? When did blacks in the cities
shoot
> each other dead EVERY SINGLE DAY?
>
> I rest my case.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to seek statistical proof/disproof of
your statements. But consider this:

Our country, and countries all over the world, have been plagued by 
violence
for as long as history has been recorded. If children weren't bringing guns
to school, they were using guns elsewhere. And knives. And whatever else
they could get their hands on. By the way, when did a single worker kill 
two
dozen co-workers? Not to minimize the tragedy, but most of the reports of
"going postal" are of one, two or three people dying, not a couple dozen.
Re. death in the workplace - what about the repression of organized labor,
when police and paramilitary forces killed hundreds of workers at a time? 
Or
the use of child labor? And the belief that "hitchhiking was safer then"
would be more accurately phrased as "hitchhiking was more common then." And
do you have a statistical source for stating that "blacks...shoot each 
other
dead EVERY SINGLE DAY?" It's very easy to get agitated by the appearance of
increased violence, but I would suggest that it is the increased media that
generates an *image* of increased violence, not the result of the media
generating violence. After all, how did we have all those wars before TV?

When I was growing up (born 1953, raised in the suburbs of Long Island),
there were seven channels I could get on TV. No FM radio meant no AM "talk"
radio. No computers. No video games. But I honestly don't believe that the
world was "less violent" simply because I didn't hear about it as
incessantly, nor do I believe that the world has become "more violent"
because we see more of it today. My take on it is that it's like dealing
with alcoholism or substance abuse: part of the cure is speaking openly
about its existence. Just because we used to say that "Mommy wasn't feeling
good today" didn't mean that she drank less the night before. Our media
obsession with violence may be our cultural way of talking out the problem.

I wish peace for you, and for everyone around you.
dB