| social desensitization |
When
we are children, life is a lot more simplistic, we have the ability to
interact with the world for the first time. The first steps you take, the
first tooth you grow and the first you loose, your first day at school,
your first friend. When we are children we feel things in different ways,
possibly because it is the first time we are actually feeling these feelings.
We are in effect un-tainted by social programing, some are subjected to
this early in life, ie religion. Not all social programming is bad, but
all is corruptive at its core, because it changes our view points on what
is morally right and what is not. For instance; when you are 10 years old,
you will cry at the thought of a dead animal, which has been hit by a car,
yet you will happily eat a meat pie. To most children death is an scary,
dark thing, something they do not understand a lot of, they do not realize
that by eating meat that they are in a secondary effect causing the death
of an animal.
If you
told a child that what was in a pie, was meat, and that meat came from
a dead animal, they probably would burst out crying and not want to eat
meat anymore. However as the child grows into a teenager, they realize
that meat is in effect a piece of a dead animal, yet they are no longer
disgusted by the fact. This is were social desensitization comes into effect,
around the time of child arrogance, society twists its moral fibers to
accommodate the new generations. It states the meat is natural and healthy,
difference is a reason to be ostracized, heterosexuality is "normal", pornography
is what sex is like, violence in is okay. It seems that almost any angle
that is economically viable in any sense is deemed acceptable by society.
But of course by writing this iam being hypocritical, because everyone
of us, except maybe some people, are desensitized to an extent. To prove
this point, i ate meat, and all manner of animal produce until the time
i was 19, now to say that i didn't know what i was eating, would be ridiculous.
So now you could argue that my site is rather holier then thou, although
i have never believed my veganism to be a direct result of my love for
animals. True, to an extent it played a part in abstention of animal produce,
so was my personal health. But the fact of the matter is simply that i
knew that i was eating meat, and it was in effect a dead animal, but for
one reason or another i didn't care.
Its
a strange feeling to realize that you dont care about animals, but when
you were younger you cared so deeply, most children do. As we grow into
adults, we loose the compassion for our fellow animals, this compassion
lives on in our pets, and other animals that we consider to be "cute".
The animals that we consume or exploit in many different ways, become little
more then what we feel comfortable with them being. For instance, cows,
pigs, chickens etc are easily considered to be worth less then a dog or
cat. As children we simply consider a life to be equal, no matter what
the life is, it is worthy of existence. As we grow older it seems that
we have to draw lines between what is consumable and what is not to make
ourselves (humans) feel more in control of such issues as animal rights,
or as society has outlined animal rights suitable for humans; animal welfare.
CAUSES
For the most part, social desensitization occurs through two main factors; multi media; television, newspapers, magazines, movies, etc. The other main factor is popular opinion, which is; popular thoughts or beliefs in society, impact on the overall attitudes and actions of the people of the society. As children grow into adults they are bombarded with these attitudes and beliefs, and inevitably come to their own conclusions to how they believe, for a large part the positions they come to at a young age are constituted by the majority of the factors of desensitization they are subjected to in their daily lives. One could say that the process of social desensitization has become a simple factor of growing up in modern day society, and for the most part it is. But that doesn't make it necessarily right, the problem lies in the fact that most multi media attitudes are focused by financial means rather then meaningful moral stand points.
So in exchange for financially motivated commercialization of television; probably the most influential form of media for youngsters we end up with "morals" directly taken from money making schemes, what we grow up thinking is healthy is really un-healthy. For instance, the dairy industry, in Australia, airs commercials stating how dairy milk is so full of "goodness" and so "healthy" for you. Anyone who has taken some time and actually looked into the medical downsides of dairy milk would know that there are no real health benefits from dairy milk, over simple soya milk. Yet if the truth about this was to come out dairy milk, say on a commercial for soya milk, a large law suit would inevitably follow, simply because of the financial backing of the dairy industry alone. Anyone considering airing the truth about dairy milk on national television wouldn't be to popular, not only would (probably) over half of the audience viewing the facts you were putting forth would be even more sure that dairy milk is their choice. For the most part of course this is just hypothetical, but it is an interesting rhetoric.
OUTCOMES
If you were to bring up a child following a vegan lifestyle, then would that child not loose their compassion for animals as they grew into an adult? its possible. The obvious impact on the child when they interacted with other children at sleep-overs or outings would be difficult at an early age. In some respects it would seem that the price we pay for our loss of compassion as we mature, is not just our inevitably desensitization but also our alienation of those who do feel compassion, this is more noticeable with males then females, being male myself i can honestly say that when i grew up guys who showed too much compassion were alienated, to an extent that is still a factor now. Whether its because men feel intimidated by another man showing compassion to them or they just envy the openness of that person i dont know, but it does seem to be a matter of maturity in a sense. For instance as we grow older we show more compassion, as we realize that its not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength, trying to hide your feelings is in effect one of the most futile and weakest acts of male kind. It just goes to show that women are definitely alot more mature then men, especially at an earlier age group. Females dont seem to become as desensitized as males, but then you could argue that at an early teen age a male finds comfort in showing signs of no compassion and more aggression. Were as females for the most part dont rely on aggression as a means of communication, to an extent they do (i learnt that from my girlfriend). So to an extent you could say that a factor of desensitization is based on maturity, but from another angle it would seem that desensitization has become a part of human maturity. Which is a sad thought.
Its as if, in our (human-kind) effort to find more convenient and comfortable methods of living our our societies, we have in effect lost a part of humanity. We have lost the will to care to an extent. Some people view, wars for instance, as little more then a proof of status for a country, a way of saying, we have the power. But of course people are dying, not to the extent of World War Two or Vietnam, but poeple are still dying, and of course people will be sympathetic to these wars, but how many poeple actualy cared about Operation Desert Storm? as from the point of view of the people involved, not just US or Australian troops but for the poeple who were being killed? the iraqian people? Of abortion, how many poeple actualy care about the mothers? the mothers who have to live with that discision for the rest of their lives? hardliners, say that a life is worth a life etc, and i feel that is true too. But their are boundries to that belife when you are refering to humans. For some people a child would have to live in a foster home for the majority of their life, or endure a life of poverty, or pain, or disabilities, of course these are not always factors with abortion, and aboriton can and is abused in many ways, as is anything. But the point is, how many people actualy care about the lives involved, rather then just jumping on the "socialy correct" bandwagon.
CONCLUSION
The main problem with society, is that it exists. If human-kind were to abolish society, and return to the ways of our tribe like ancestors we would purge the majority of the problems put forth by daily existence. This does however pose a seemingly impossible task for humans. For instance we cant even discard our green house gas emissions, and it has been proven that in 10 to 15 years, many island's populated by islanders will be submersed under the ocean, due to global warming. These peaceful people, living of their native lands, as they have done for centuries, are effectively being evicted from their homelands, of several hundred in some case possibly thousand years, just for the convenience, of modern day America, Australia, England, and other "developed" nations. The reason we dont take advantage of alternatives, to our ever depleting fossil fuels, is because of (again) convenience, this time not so much the convenience of society, but of the wealthy owners of fuel companies, mining companies, power plant owners etc, if society were to turn its back on petrol for instance, alot of people would stand to loose big money. Of course, when alot of money is concerned attitudes can be bought or curved.
But to an extent, this is all just speculation, most poeple will probably tell you that the green house effect is a myth, perhaps it is. But it is important to remember, that people are being hurt, or put at in a situation were they do not wish to be, against (of course) their own free will. Not to mention, the depletion of the environment, its animals, vegetation, etc, this is the true tragedy, becasue this is what society deems as expendable, a resource to be depleted and used to its full extent. The most sad element of this is, that people dont seem to care, and as we race towards the total depletion of our animal and forest life on planet earth, its as if we do not seem to realise that once these are gone, they will never be back. One day, children will only see animals in a zoo, and eventualy they will only see them in photographs, in books or websites. Its amazine to belive that the majority of society feels that the extinction of our planet is "not to bigger deal", if that is true, then what is a big deal? does a human have to hurt to make it a big deal, becasue in some circumstances, this isnt truly enough either. It seems that the only thing that casuses a public outcry in these days is a school shooting masacre, but what about the kids who are pulling the triggers? noone seems to care about these kids, unltil they open fire and kill a whole load of other kids. My point is that a life is worth a life, and the life of kids who decide to use a school shooting, or whatever they do is just a side effect from the society we have created for ourselves, and more importantly our children.
So this is the convenient society we have created for ourselves, as our cities reach population max, and the depletion of natural resources eventuate, the effects of green house gasses kick in, the crime rate will rise, so will inflation, and it would seem nothing is going to get any better; before it gets alot worse. Look at kids today, and image what it will be like in 10 to 20 years, or even our own children, what social fate will they have to look forward too?
