Beyond Good and Evil: Violence in Children's Media; A Brief Takeaway

 Today I will be discussing the film titled, "Beyond Good and Evil: Violence in Children's Media", and where power fits into the equation: 

Violence in general is the most basic form of power there is. I would even go so far as to call it a crude form of power because it's looked at as a "Do as I say or else." (Focault's Repressive power) This makes it the easiest to teach people and mold them into the shape you would like them to be. For example, if a child acts out, then they will most likely receive some form of discipline, be it a swat on the bottom, or hopefully a more gentle form of correction of said behavior. But it is easy to use the bottom swat as an example of exerting power over a child because it uses force and gets the child to "be good".To be good is to be compliant.

What does it mean to be evil? To be evil is to be "immoral" or "wicked". But who says what is immoral? What are these sacred morals? Where do they come from? That's where the media comes into play. 

From the beginning of time, media has told stories and informed the masses, be it paper media, cave drawing, radio, television, or in recent times, digital media. With the invention of the television, you can have a barrage of live images and messages rapidly fed to you. This is extremely effective when given to children especially if they aren't of reading age yet. They can listen and watch. That is the very first form of learning, and with that comes doing. A baby will see their family walking, and eventually, they will imitate that behavior until they finally get the hang of it. Media is designed to create normalcy in what a person is supposed to be in the eyes of others. 

 Media can come into play and tell people what they should be thinking about what good and evil are. In movies, the bad guy is usually someone who might be conventionally unattractive, dark, mysterious, and may move about in a sneaky manner. But a good guy is deemed as light, virtuous, kind, and well-meaning. This movie implies that excessive violence is the answer for those who are fighting what is evil in the world.

But this is the story of American history: The "good guys" write the history, but the losers live the aftereffects. 

What should be done about these interpretations of good and evil that have been fed to us in various ways? We must undo the black-and-white thinking the media has fed us for so long.  Life is no longer black and white. It is varying shades of gray, and it's up to us to dissect and turn this puzzle around and look at it from all angles. If we don't our children will carry the same legacy that was left for them, and that is a very intolerant world.