DESENSITIZED TO VIOLENCE
Desensitization is defined as the diminished emotional responsiveness to a negative or aversive stimulus after repeated exposure to it. It also occurs when an emotional response is repeatedly evoked in situations in which the action tendency that is associated with the emotion proves irrelevant or unnecessary. Desensitization was initially intended to assist individuals to unlearn phobias and anxieties and was developed by psychologist Mary Cover Jones.
But under our existing social environment the prolonged and repeated exposure to violence in the media (e.g. the frequent and recurring news of those killed in the current war on drugs) may likewise reduce or habituate the initial psychological impact until violent images do not elicit these negative responses. Eventually the observer may become emotionally and cognitively desensitized to these current mass killings.
According to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group (as of August 5, 2016), 852 drug suspects have been killed since May 10, when Duterte’s election win became clear. Of the total number, 525 were killed during police operations, 249 were gunned down by unidentified assailants, while 78 were found dead in apparent vigilante killings. This translates to 10 drug-related fatalities per day. Now, begin to show these killings on TV, Radio, Newspaper and Social Media on a daily basis, and tell me if this will not systematically desensitized people on the gravity of these violent acts?
Moreover, two studies (in the University of Michigan) tested the hypothesis that exposure to violent media reduces aid offered to people in pain. In the 1st Study, participants played a violent or nonviolent video game for 20 min. After game play, while completing a lengthy questionnaire, they heard a loud fight, in which one person was injured, outside the lab. Participants who played violent games took longer to help the injured victim, rated the fight as less serious, and were less likely to ‘‘hear’’ the fight in comparison to participants who played nonviolent games.
In the 2nd Study, violent- and nonviolent movie attendees witnessed a young woman with an injured ankle struggle to pick up her crutches outside the theater either before or after the movie. Participants who had just watched a violent movie took longer to help than participants in the other three conditions. The findings from both studies suggest that violent media make people numb to the pain and suffering of others.
As a sociologist, I fear that when we have been fully desensitized to violence that we then risk forming A CULTURE OF VIOLENCE with our communities, and eventually the country as a whole. What will happen to our country where “extra-judicial killings” are normal and commonplace? What kind of country glorifies mass killing, assaults and abuse; one that looks down on pacifist non-violence as sissy or unpatriotic, yet claims to be peace loving? And in this Culture of Violence, as a society we begin to justify or legitimize such structural violence in the guise of fighting crime and illegal drugs.
Such paradigm shift makes direct and structural violence look or feel "right", or at least not wrong. The study of cultural violence highlights the ways the act of direct violence and the fact of structural violence are legitimized and thus made acceptable in society. One mechanism of cultural violence is to change the "moral color" of an act from "red/wrong" to "green/right", or at least to "yellow/acceptable".
Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” In the endless battles between good and evil, the victory doesn’t always go to the side that has the biggest numbers. There are many examples in history where the side that was fighting for truth and goodness would win even though the odds were stacked against them. Many times the only reason evil wins is because good men are not willing to stand up and fight for what is right because when good men do nothing, nothing good gets done. In the same way, the CULTURE OF VIOLENCE will only prosper if we allow this continued violence to invade our way of living.
“Everyone, regardless of gender, color, race or creed, class – whether communist or criminal – has the same right to life. A suspected criminal or even a condemned criminal does not lose his right to life. No one – whether a government official or police or an ordinary citizen – has a license to kill suspected criminals. Extra-judicial killing is a violation of the right to life, as well as the right to due process. It is murder… Peace and order must be grounded on the respect for human rights – especially the right to life. A peace that is maintained by extrajudicial killings and ignoring the right to due process and the right to life is the peace of the cemetery. It is not genuine and lasting peace. Order that is maintained through murder leads to greater disorder and chaos. It leads to abuse. This is what happened under the Marcos dictatorial era and this is what could happen again” (Rev. Fr. Amando L. Picardal, CSsR).