After watching some of the Emmy Award show last night - I was again made wary of the fact that the most popular award winning shows on television are steeped in gratuitous violence. Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, True Detective, Homeland and all the forensic who-dunnit crime dramas that begin with a slaughtered/raped dead female in a nasty location. Makes you wonder about the writers' in Hollywood vibes towards women. Especially if you consider the crime rate in America has gone steadily down around 40% over the last 25 years. One would never think this based on the number of these popular violent crime shows with men, and now women dancing around, shooting people with guns, and of course are never hit by any bullets. Total unrealistic crap.Yet they are the most popular shows on TV. Why?
Is it because we are an inherently violent society of degenerate immigrants from around the world that are subdued by the police state created post Reagen Era and even more so post 9/11 - and live vicariously through nasty characters in these violent TV shows? Are people so bored with their mundane lives that the only escape that satisfies during leisure TV watching time are narratives steeped in violence? It seems the answer is yes if one goes by the popularity and award recognition of these types of violent programs.
Yet I wonder if the viewing public were given more quality choices they may choose to watch other types of stories that are more down to earth and deal with complex human dynamics. Shows that would help humanity evolve toward a higher consciousness level.
For the first 30 years (1950s-1980s) or so of TV - there were little if any gratuitous violent programs on the air. Sure - there has always been cop shows and court room dramas but little if any scenes of people getting their heads chopped off or women being raped or folks being shot in the face etc. From Leave it to Beaver in the 1950s to The Cosby Show in the 80s - family programming was somewhat wholesome if not unrealistic in the other extreme of too good to be true. However, I feel this ideal of a healthy nuclear family unit to aim for is a better alternative to the current negative bombardment of horrific images kids take in from a young age into adulthood.
There were other shows in the 1970s that achieved a decent balance between entertainment and reality. Such as All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons, and Maude - all created by progressive producer Norman Lear. Shows during the golden age of TV - 1950s-1970s - did not rely on the lowest common denominators such as violence, death and destruction. These reptilian aspects of the human psyche are very primitive and at some point we need to shed them like the snake sheds its skin, if we are ever to move forward in evolutionary terms.
People will argue that if all shows were less violent and negative it would not be a realistic view of reality. But which is feeding the perpetual ongoing negative feedback loop? Are glamorized violent shows that feature the under belly of society really a reflection of where humans are at (based upon real crime levels) or are perverted writers in Hollywood merely spreading their mental sickness via these high budget productions?
Granted these shows have the best actors, directors and writers technically - but what about the negative, violent content and its long and short term effects on society? Does not this constant bombardment of hard core violence and empty sex imagery pollute our minds? We may block out these images after watching, but once they are in your mind's hard drive aka sub consciousness - they are there forever and eventually desensitize you and may influence in a negative way, how you deal with life in general.
If we as a human society are to reach our full potential as a gifted species with the ability to shape our own destiny - then we need to make the simple realization that we are what we consume - mentally, physically and spiritually. The prophets and sages - Jesus and Buddha in particular both projected the ideal of a harmonious world where all respect each other and avoid violence by all means. These visionaries set the bar high 2500 years ago and yet here we are in the 21st century in a supposed new golden age of television that glorifies violence and empty no-love sex. This negative madness is in all our creative entertainment - films, TV shows, sports, music and video games. Sad but true.
We as human consumers with freewill have the choice of saying NO - I will not watch/consume negative and violent content anymore. I choose to be part of the progressive element of human society which wishes to make a better, more peaceful world for all to live in. If this sounds corny or unrealistic - then you are steeped in denial of the fact that unless we change our maladaptive primitive consuming behaviors - humans will never reach their full potential.
As someone who grew up in a semi-violent household - I can tell you that the lasting misery and damage to the psyche that comes out of verbal negativity and violence spreads like a cancer through the family unit and is not something anyone with any common sense would ever want to experience - period. I hear a similar story from all soldiers that have fought in wars, which is basically hell on earth - and the innocent people who survive to talk about it. We now we have a medical term - PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) to describe this dark emotional baggage caused by exposure to horrific violence and the negative consequences of human on human violence.
Only we can set us free and truly evolve by making healthy consuming choices. Let's not let sick minds in Hollywood dictate and affect our cosmic evolution as a species. Turn the channel and if you cannot find anything positive or interesting - turn off the TV! Try some new hobbies. Food for thought.
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