Everyone has a pet theory... Pikachu, I CHOOSE YOU!

[firetalon]

Just as a forewarning/FYI, this relates to another post, which I may make and link to later.

Comments

Patches and flowcharts

[genemorph]

Hmm. "Perception patches." Sounds like a good metaphor for drugs and booze.

You know, I think you're right about 'numbness' towards violence being an inaccurate statement. As you said, numbness implies a lack of feeling about an experience. In truth, 'desensitization' is a wholly complete term to describe the phenomenon. Being exposed to anything in large measures brings about a certain degree of familiarity.

Many periods of human history have been filled with horrible events to which untold numbers of children (and adults) were exposed. Those children, for example, who lived during the French Revolution, saw more real beheadings than any child in America today. Those children were familiar with an incredibly brutal act. Many probably grew up considering it a normal occurrence within their lives. I doubt, however, that such exposure made those children more inherently violent in and of itself. What that exposure *did* do was teach them that such violence was acceptable. Most modern Americans (or folks anywhere really) would find such acceptance deplorable.

So I think what the violence portrayed in the media does to kids is show them that *lots* of people hurt each other. And as nearly any kid will tell you, the equation is: "If they can do it, I can do it." It takes years of maturity, or perhaps a few broken bones, to dispel that equation among children. Many, I'm convinced, never learn the lesson.

If you want to take a 'computerized' slant towards the way human beings relate to the world around them, perhaps a flowchart would work a little better. This chart would represent the expected flow of events of a person's life. As a child, the chart is small and has few complications. With age, more 'subroutines' are added as more of the real world is experienced. The older we get, the more complicated our lives become, and the more complicated our 'flowchart' for life gets.

In a world like ours, saturated with information, our 'flowcharts' can become terribly large and complicated. We can get lost in the multitude of paths. Some parts of the chart loop on themselves, leaving us weary from the journey but no farther along the path. Religion, I think, does this a lot.

This flowchart is taught to most people early on. It's called 'civilized behavior.' Adhering to the chart = civilization. Ignoring it = anarchy. Oversimplified, yes, but I'm already comparing a person's life to simple geometric shapes connected by lines.

To deal with overly complicated charts, some people trim them down; instead of A-B-C-D they skip B-C and go strait to D because those parts were too hard or confusing or painful. This skipping could be in the form of denial or close-mindedness or simply strong opinions.

On the other hand, when life suddenly adds factors we are not familiar with (nor ready for), our charts are suddenly expanded and those who thought they knew how to proceed may become hopelessly lost. The twin towers forced a great many people to 'add to the flowcharts' of their lives. To get from one point in their life to the next they now have to factor in the feelings and actions of a region of the world that previously only related to gas prices and a ten year old war.

As to your question of 'what should we filter out and what should pass through', I've told you this before. The most important filter a human needs is called 'empathy.' Experiencing and understanding the feelings of others is vital to our humanity. I think if humans *couldn't* filter out the pain of their fellow human beings, their would be less pain inflicted in the first place.

And while we're at it, why not adjust the filter that deals with those self-serving attitudes of greed and bias?

And there you have it. The key to human salvation. "Think more of others, less of oneself."

Supposedly, there was a carpenter who offered this advice a long time ago. How horribly ironic.

Re: Patches and flowcharts

[firetalon]

Heya! :)

Yeah, I agree with your "imitation of observed behaviour" idea. Watching some kids nowadays, I get to wonder how much their parents realize the influence of TV and movies.

And I dig the flowchart model, too. Heh... sometimes, it scares the CRAP out of me when I hear some people explain their "train of thought" in that way. I think it's kinda amazing that a culture so diverse (in beautiful and ugly ways) can operate so smoothly.

Heh... it seems the modern version of "Empathy" is "I want to get in touch with your feelings only as much as it helps me reach my goals." Indeed, it's hard to fathom what the Founding Christians would think of what we've got going today.

Thanks for the input! :)