Friedman on TV & a different take on violence
I’m re-reading Friedman’s “A Failure of Nerve” for the Art of Ministry cohort I’m leading next week.
In a particular chapter on “blame displacement” and a societies inability to accept responsibility, thus blaming others for their circumstances, Friedman leaves this little nugget on TV violence.
“Television, in fact, is a good example of how displacement works to avoid dealing with personal resources. The most pernicious violence on television is actually in the story line -how the simplistic concept of human struggles “does violence” to the nature of life. The most insidious message that children -and adults- get from the average television program is the notion that motivation is singular, that all questions have answers, that justice always triumphs, that love conquers all, that life is unambiguous, and that there will always be a deus ex machine “in the wings” waiting to rush in. This view of existence is a far more dangerous addiction for a regressed society than escape into vicarious violence. Thus the worry of parents that violent television will affect their children adversely is the epitome of a chronically anxious society focusing on outside forces rather than inner strength. Parents cannot possibly hope to insulate their children against all the pathogenic forces and ideas in the environment. That way of thinking has to lead to unending cycles of anxiety.”
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