The Visual Media - Essay Example

Question six The saturation of visual media in our lives has changed the way we view the world, and with it our relation to death and violence. Discuss with reference to the events of 9/11. Visual media has historically been used to demonstrate varied themes and occurrences in life. It has been widely been used to display acts of suffering, violence and death. For example, the photos of lynching exhibited at the New York Historical Society, the images of the invasion and killing of innocent people by terrorist groups, the photos that exhibit the killing and annihilation of Jews by the Nazis are some of the occurrences in life that have widely been exhibited by the visual media (Fazenda, 1997). Importantly, these images and photos arouse different feelings in our lives that have changed the way we view the world and with it our relation to death and violence. September 11 is a historical date in the calendar of the world due to its relation to terrorism activities and events of war. For instance, in 1973 a coup led by Augusto Pinochet and sponsored by CIA led to the ousting of President Salvadore Allende in Chile (Zizeck, 2001). More than 35,000 civilians were killed during the coup and many more were also killed after the coup before the country stabilised. September 11 is also remembered as the date when the United States declared war against Iraq where numerous lives were lost and violence heightened in the process. More recently, September 11 2001 is still afresh date in the minds of many Americans after the Twin Towers was attacked by terrorists and numerous deaths reported in the process (Fazenda, 1997). Our lives have been saturated by the visual media regarding the above events which have become a norm on a daily basis. The saturation of the visual media in our lives regarding the above events characterised by immense violence and uncountable deaths has changed the way we view the world in a number of ways. First, the saturation of the visual media reveals that the events that occur in the world have existed with us for many years even before they occur (Zizeck, 2001). For example, the images and photos saturated by the visual media about events such as the Lockerbie Bombing and many more terrorist attacks in different parts of the world is a quick reminder that terrorist activities live with us and the bombing can take place any time even in our own closet. This can be illustrated by the fact that Americans had for long thought that terrorists activities were issues that affected “the others’ and not ‘us’ until the September 11 2001 when the World Trading Centre was hit. Even though the Americans saw terrorism as far away issues, September 11 awakened them to the reality that the events that occur in the world exists with us for many years but until they happen we never know that we are surrounded by such events. Hence, this has changed our view about the world by helping to understand that reality surrounds us by us and that out blindness to reality obstructs from seeing the reality. Second, the saturation of the visual media in our lives has changed the way we view the world by helping us raise curiosity about the occurrences of events in the world. Curiosity in the sense that there could be some forces behind the different occurrences of events in the world. For instance, September 11 has historically marked the day when violence and numerous deaths are witnessed in different parts of the world. Trading-card game called Illuminati: New World Order (INWO) has a number of cards that predicted the same events of 9/11 such as the explosion that occurred at the World Trading Centre (WTC) and the smoke rising from the Twin Towers. This shows that the events that occur in the world might be a conspiracy between certain groups in order to achieve their objectives (Fazenda, 1997). This raises curiosity about the intense efforts undertaken to deal with terrorism and other calamities that befall humankind and the world at large. Hence, the saturation of the visual media in our lives has changed the way we view the world by raising the level of curiosity about the role of certain organizations and individuals in influencing the events that occur in the world. This has helped us to understand that some events could be pre-meditated and well planned for many years before they occur in the real world. Visual media supports this by saturating the images and photos of such events even before they become a reality. Third, the saturation of the visual media in our lives has changed the way we view the world by instilling in us the fear that the world is no longer safe for habitation. It is clear that in order to be real an event must already been familiar with the media. This means that the script is written and then recycled by the attackers to carry out their terrorist operations. It means that by reading different scripts on terrorism available to us through the visual media it is possible to know that we are not safe because the same scripts can be recycled and used by the attackers to execute their activities any time (Fazenda, 1997). It also means that the same patterns of attacks are likely to occur to us because the attackers just recycle that which is written in the scripts to execute their attacks. If there are historical scripts of bomb attacks on certain people, we should construe this to mean that the same attack is likely to be executed by the attacker son us. Thus, the saturation of the visual media in our lives has helped us to understand that the world is not as safe as we try to visualize it. Fourth, the saturation of the visual in our lives has also changed the way we view the world in that it has helped to understand also that the world is full of numerous lies used by particular organisations and individual to achieve and advance their own agendas. The visual media appropriates reality so closely that it becomes impossible to distinguish one from the other (Fazenda, 1997). For example, the visual media has helped us understand that war can be used by politicians as an electoral smokescreen to divert attention from the domestic political crisis, scandal and poor electoral ratings. What this means is that what we think to be reality could be false and thus the saturation of the visual media has helped us to understand that we live far away from the truth on many occasions and hence the world is full of lies. Similarly, the saturation of the visual media in our lives has also changed our relation with death and violence that occur in the world in a number of ways. First, the saturation of the visual media vividly reveals the fact that violence and deaths are pre-meditated. As stated above the events of September 9/11 are reflected in the Illuminati: New World Order (INWO) which is an indication that the violence and the deaths that occur after a certain event happens in the world are pre-planned (Fazenda, 1997). What can be construed from this is that we are all prone to death and violence because we do not know whether we are the next targeted victims. For instance, terrorists groups such as Al-Qaeda could have planned various attacks on us twenty years ago by recycling the scripts of other attacks that happened previously. However, because we do not have the information about their targets we therefore qualify to be victims of violence and deaths at any given time. Second, the saturation of the visual media in our lives has changed our view about violence and deaths in that it has shaped our understanding of the fact that violence and deaths are used as instruments of achieving political milestones. For instance, it is clear that the attack of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 could have been pre-planned in order to ensure that the US engaged in war with Iraq as well as convincing the Congress that terrorism was real and that there was urgent need to fight against terrorism. By convincing the Congress to pass the defence budgetary allocation, the President managed to convince the voters that he is a serious individual concerned with the safety of the people. However, the motive could be to gain political milestone and sway away the public’s lack of confidence on the president. Additionally, violence and hence deaths could be also instruments of gaining political mileage. This shows that war which brings about violence and deaths is not a result of tactical ploy but it emerges from creative brainstorming carried out by an individual to protect his/her interests. Although, there are deaths that result from natural calamities such as earthquakes and storms that hit the world from time to time, the saturation of the visual media in our lives has helped us to understand that violence and deaths are also weapons used by the strong and mighty to gain and advance their individual interests. It is therefore true that death and violence is no longer something far away from us since we do not know what weapons certain individuals plan to use in our midst in order to advance and gain their interests. Question seven Discuss the idea that our exposure to images of suffering exhausts our capacity to empathize. Why does Carolyn Dean want to revisit this idea? Our lives are surrounded from every side by the sadness and pain that come as a result of death. In the media, death is represented as the closest friend of humankind because it does not miss in the digital media as well as the print media (Waal, 2008). Local and international news are full of news that show massive numbers of people dying and others are suffering. Images are shown of people dying from hunger and others dying from different kind of diseases. Terrorists’ attacks in different parts of the world also result into massive deaths and extensive suffering of the affected people. Accidents from different modes of transport such as aircrafts, electric rail, road and sea also cause extensive suffering the lives of the people. What this means is that we are entirely exposed to suffering in our daily lives which brings immeasurable pain whether the cause of suffering affects us directly or indirectly. As a result, our level or measure of empathy goes down due to the suffering we are exposed to on a daily basis. Empathy is defined as the ability or the capacity to share the feelings of other people by taking the place and position of the other person (Hoffman, 2000). Such feelings may include happiness and sadness as well as feeling of pain. Empathy is directly related to compassion because a person must have empathy in order to show some level of compassion. Empathy arises as result of the many adversaries that befall human beings. The victims encounter suffering while the spectators must empathize with the victims in order to show some level of compassion by helping the victims. For example, the spectators in a scene of accident must have empathy in order to help those involved in the accident by taking them to hospital or banding the bleeding people (Hodges & Klein, 2001). All these are demonstrations of empathy which involves showing compassion to other people for their suffering. Although, every human being is born with some level of empathy in him whether he is evil or good, it is imperative to note that our everyday exposure with suffering exhausts our capacity to empathize due to the following reasons. First, the continued exposure to images of suffering makes suffering to appear as a normal and routine occurrence in the life of human beings. This paints in our minds the picture that suffering is a must and thus there is no need to get concerned with those that suffer. In other words, continued exposure to images of suffering alienates our conscience which is the part of the mind that raises our level of empathy (Eisenberg & Strayer, 1987). When the conscience is alienated then we no longer get concerned about other people’s suffering and hence our level of empathy is exhausted. Second, the exposure to images of suffering exhausts our capacity to emphasize because it drives ourselves to become self-centred with each one of us fighting and striving to avoid suffering (Slote, 2007). Instead of focussing on the ways we can use to help the suffering people we concentrate our energies on devising ways of avoiding the suffering. The self-centred attitude in our lives causes us to lose interests in others and whether other people are suffering is no longer important in our lives. For example, when images of people suffering from hunger and famine are shown to us, we strive to gather enough resources on our side so that we do not encounter the same kind of suffering. Instead of making sure that we gather enough resources and food to deliver to the hungry people, we instead gather and store it for ourselves (Decety & Jackson, 2004). This is a depiction that our level of empathy is exhausted because we fear that the same calamity or problem might befall us we do not take care of ourselves. Instead of directing our compassion to the suffering people, we direct the compassion to ourselves resulting into a self-centred attitude. Third, the exposure to images of suffering also exhausts our capacity to emphasize particularly when we are reminded of the same kind of suffering we encountered at a given point in life. For instance, when images of political frustration due to dictatorship leadership are shown to us, we tend to perceive such images as demonstrations of fear and cowardice behaviour on the part of the oppressed people especially when we encountered the same kind of suffering and fought to liberate ourselves from the chains of dictatorship (Hodges & Klein, 2001). Specifically, if we the people in Libya see people in another country living under the yoke of dictatorship and suffering from the effects of dictatorial leadership in their country, the people in Libya may not be compassionate or they might not empathize with such people because they also have gone through the same kind of suffering but fought to liberate themselves. This means that when we are exposed to images of suffering our level of empathy gets exhausted particularly when we had encountered the same kind of suffering but we managed to overcome the suffering. Acts of ignorance committed by human beings are some of the major causes of suffering in the lives of human beings. As the saying goes “ignorance is no defence” it means that when we act ignorantly we are bound to suffer from the repercussions of our ignorant actions. Sometimes we are exposed to images of people suffering from floods and other natural disasters that could have been prevented through simple actions such as environmental conversation. People cut down trees and marshy land for their habitation while these areas are supposed to be preserved. When the floods come, they sweep people as well as their properties causing immense suffering to the affected people (Schafer, 1959). However, such images of the suffering people remind us that some forms of suffering are caused by our own ignorant actions and at this point we stop from empathising with the suffering people and begin to apportion blame on others. The fact that people contribute to their own suffering exhausts our capacity to empathise with them. Similarly, we also cause suffering to the other people and as a consequence the same kind of suffering comes back to us. For instance, America has been involved in major ways in the Middle East where numerous lives have been lost and immense number of people left suffering. The terrorism attack of the Twin Towers in America on September 11, 2001 can be classified as a revenge attack in which numerous Americans suffered and others lost their lives. When we compare the images of the people in the Middle East who have suffered due to the wars instigated and carried out by America with the Americans that suffered during the terrorist attack of the World Trading Centre (WTC) it begins to dawn on us that there are no special people than others (Preston & de Waal, 2002). We also stop empathising on the Americans and we begin to regard their suffering as a show of anger from the people they have caused to suffer in the Middle East. At this point, the images the suffering people do not affect us anymore but it reminds us of our responsibility to mind the interests of the other people as we mind our own interests. Hence, the capacity to empathise drops and thus we become immune to other people’s suffering. Fifth, there is always hope after suffering. This is the perception that we develop when we get exposed to images of suffering. For example, it is after suffering that people get their freedom just as it has been demonstrated in the political arena. Our exposure to images of suffering has revealed that suffering is a pathway to better things. For instance, it was through suffering that the black race in America gained freedom from slavery which means that suffering was necessary in the first place. Similarly, it was through suffering that many countries of the world got their freedom from the yokes of colonialism. Such images of suffering people fighting for their freedom reveals to us that suffering brings better things and hence we no longer consider suffering as a negative phenomenon but something that helps mankind to achieve their desired goals. In her book titled “Fragility of Empathy after the Holocaust” Carolyn Dean wants to revisit this because she perceives the “weakness of empathy” or the failure of the people to empathize as the major factor contributing to human suffering in the modern world (Dean, 2004). As a professional doctor, Dean perceives empathy as one of the contributing factors that lead to the healing of the numerous diseases, illnesses and forms of suffering that human beings encounter in their lives. However, Dean views lack of empathy as detrimental because it is also an alternative source of medicine which people need in their lives in order to reduce the amount of suffering they encounter. References Berger, D. (1987). Clinical empathy. Northvale: Jason Aronson, Inc. Dean, C. (2004). The Fragility of Empathy after the Holocaust, Cornell University Press. Decety, J., & Jackson, P. (2004). The functional architecture of human empathy. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 3, 71-100 Eisenberg, N., & Strayer, J. (1987). Empathy and its Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fazenda, M. (1997). Between the pictorial and the expression of ideas: the plastic arts and literature in the dance of Paula Massano. N.p. Hodges, S. & Klein, K. (2001). Regulating the costs of empathy: the price of being human. Journal of Socio-Economics Hoffman, M. (2000). Empathy and Moral Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Preston, S., & de Waal, F. (2002). Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25, 1-72. Zizeck, R. The End of the World as We Know It, 9/11 and the Spectacle of Terror. Schafer, R. (1959). Generative empathy in the treatment situation. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 28, 342-373. Slote, M. 2007. The Ethics of Care and Empathy, Michael Slote, Oxford University Press. Waal, F. (2008). Putting the altruism back into altruism: The evolution of empathy. Annual Review of Psychology 59: 279-300. Read More