In light of the recent Virginia Tech massacre and the ensuing Texan NASA hostage situation and subsequent deaths, I’d like to share a blog article posted by a friend on Myspace and my subsequent response. I haven’t asked his permission to do this so far, so it may disappear shortly, but I thought it necessary that this issue reach as wide an audience as possible, and its also an opportunity to shamelessly promote the work of someone who really is trying to make a difference.
From Richard Lear on Myspace
A friend wrote a statement about Virginia Tech and the right to bear arms, and it has brought me back to the reason I created my company, Little Ricky Productions. Our problems are much deeper than a simple right to bear arms.
I am a firm believer that the film industry is at least partly responsible for what has happened in society. The public is barraged with shoot-em-up films where no one pays a price. An arsenal of weapons appears out of thin air. A mass onslaught occurs and many people are killed. The good guy never dies or shows remorse for the people he/she has killed. The public is desensitised by the blood and gore that is plastered on every screen.
Sure, the majority will not go slaughter a bunch of people because a rapper tells them to kill their bitch or a film shows them how, but the few that will watch and listen to the same things.
I do not believe that violence should be removed from film. Our world is clearly a violent place. Rarely can you turn on the television without hearing of a murder, or some other tragedy like Virginia Tech. And when we look at the revenue generated from murder mystery novels alone this leads one to believe society is fascinated by it. I just feel the entertainment industry has gone too far. Alfred Hitchcock frightened the world to death with a knife, a shower curtain and a can of Hershey's syrup. When do we start using our creativity and utilize suspense instead of gore? When do we show the viewer the ramifications of these types of actions?
I believe it goes back to "what we are putting into the human animal." If you feed it full of gun fights with bitches and ho's, what can you expect? Pavlov's dog is not exclusive to the animal kingdom. We absorb our world and react accordingly.
When do we start acknowledging that killing is not acceptable? Only during periods of tragedy?
When do we show the devastation of the survivors?
When do we start respecting ourselves?
How many of the following do we need to want to make a change?
James Byrd Jr. – Dragged to his death behind a truck because he was African American.
Matthew Shepard – Tied to a fence, beaten and set on fire because he was gay.
Billy Jack Gathers – Murdered and then thrown onto a pyre of burning tires to dispose of his body because he was gay.
The 8 year old boy that shot his female classmate with a gun he found in a night stand.
Columbine High School Shooting
West Nickel Mines School Shooting
There are many more.
Shouldn't we be concerned? Shouldn't we start to feed the public a different outcome? Do you think that maybe we can make a difference in our world simply by changing how we display violence in film and television?
I hope so because that is what I plan to do.
Richard Lear
Little Ricky Productions
www.littlerickyproductions.com
The Repsonse
Richard
I’m so pleased you wrote this and I commend you too for your devotion to such a worthy cause.
You’re absolutely right. The media, especially film, has a hell of a lot to answer for in its glamorisations of death and destruction without balancing out any of the consequences. This ritualistic desensitisation has, over the years, contributed to society’s ever increasing intolerance toward not only our international neighbours, but our next-door ones too!
But as you rightly pointed out in my original bulletin, the problems run deeper than just the right to bear arms. We need to incorporate all visual media in this. No type of medium affects a person more readily. TV itself creates and runs series that promote and glamorise violence & hatred and again fail to show the realities or the consequences. Look at ‘The Sopranos’ as one example; not a week goes by where someone isn’t beaten or murdered. ‘Cop Shows’ are another. It seems in many ways that violence can only be treated with violence. No wonder no one has any faith in the police service anymore.
Music TV is a major culprit. MTV, VH1 and the hundred or so other music channels all devote specific time to this specific genre of music that invokes us all to be pimps, gangsta’s and beyond. Only this time, you get an insinuation of a lifestyle, the glamour it can bring and all in three minutes or thereabouts.
And lets not forget the news agencies, quite possibly one of the biggest offenders of them all. These agencies originally created to report current affairs in an unbiased fashion regularly fail to do so. Look at the criticism CNN came under during its reporting of the Iraq war. The American expatriate community here in London were appalled at how CNN consistently withheld information and yet they were able to receive readily on channels such as Sky News and BBC 24. These news agencies often have political affiliations and operate selective propaganda policies. Of course, we all know that without the support of the mighty dollar, they wouldn’t exist. But by selling themselves out, aren’t they also selling out the people they’re meant to be keeping informed?
You mention the story of the 8 year old that took a gun from a nightstand and then shot his classmate. One needs to ask who is to blame here? Is it the child for pulling the trigger, the parent for irresponsibly storing the gun, the store for selling to the parent or possibly the black-marketeer for selling from the boot of a car on a street corner. Maybe it’s the manufacturer, or maybe it’s the government for allowing the possession of weapons in the first place.
There are many reasons for where we are today and many places to lay blame. When problems occur, they need investigation and resolution. A quick fix is never a good idea. A bicycle tyre may continue to work after repair, but its never going to last. And as such, quick fixes to national problems never work either. The second amendment may have given an initial impression of safety, but the secondary fear within that is that everyone suspects everyone else may have a gun. The problem with fear is that people tend to act first and think later. If everyone has a gun, the outcome is inevitable.
If that child had not found that weapon, there would have been no bloodshed within that school. If guns are made illegal, and amnesties in place for weapons to be handed over without reprise, then people will follow. Its not a quick fix, it never could be. I live in a nation were to bear arms without licence or responsible storage is illegal. Percentages of murders per capita on nation versus nation show a vast difference. Intolerance of weapons has proved successful here; maybe it could there too. It’s the start of a change in mentality, much the same as you are admirably trying to affect with Little Ricky Productions, for this you should be applauded.
So once again I’ll state why the second amendment is a stupid amendment. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.
So lets not give them guns in the first place.
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If you would like to see and support the work of Little Ricky Productions, or contact Richard Lear, please click on either name and follow the links.
