"The increase in violence"

So the other night at work I'm watching "Larry King Live" on the 24-hour news station CNN. Except Larry ain't live and CNN isn't a 24-hour station.

CNN broadcasts, I don't know, somewhere between 12 and 18 hours of news-ish programming a day. Then it repeats the same shows overnight. They sometimes show Larry King twice overnight, meaning that some days his bland interview with a B-list former newsmaker and/or celebrity (last night it was Donny Osmond) constitutes 1/8 of the network's programming.

Rebroadcast news is not "news" at all. Why is it, then, that CNN is so often referred to as a "24-hour news" station? It seems to just be one of those things that everybody repeats because everybody knows it's true. Except that it's not.

And but so anyway I'm watching Larry King and his guest is megachurch pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling self-help book, "The Purpose Driven Life" (here's the transcript).

As a Christian in America, I rarely consider it good news that a pastor/best-selling author is being interviewed on television. The kind of pastors who usually manage to elbow their way in front of the cameras are not usually the kind of pastors who are worth listening to, and such interviews are usually a horrifying embarrassment for the church and the gospel.

Yet Warren is an affable guy and much that he has to say is admirable. He's flush with newfound fame and wealth (he calls them "affluence and influence"), but he seems to take seriously his responsibility to use both wisely. The ratio of "amens" to cringe-inducing moments during Warren's interview is approximately the opposite of what it is with one of the usual suspects of camera-ready telepastors.

So my point here is not to pick on Rick Warren. But having said that, let me pick on Rick Warren for a moment, or at least on something he said the other night. While responding to a question about "spiritual hunger" in America, he said:

"There are really two stories going on in our culture right now. There is the story of things are getting more worse in some ways. We're seeing the increase in violence. We're seeing terrorism. We've seen these recent shootings ..."

This isn't really Warren talking. He's reciting, but not citing. This is all common knowledge, received wisdom, accepted truth. Larry listened to this litany of woes without batting an eye -- he found these claims to be self-evident, obvious, unremarkable.

"We're seeing the increase in violence," the pastor says, and the newsman nods knowingly. But is this true? Are we, in fact, seeing an "increase in violence"? Are we even looking?

Crime rates, violent-crime rates and murder rates fluctuate, but the trend in recent years has been going down. One could argue, based on such statistics, that we're actually seeing a decrease in violence. Such an argument could easily be bolstered by taking a longer look back in history: Is life in, say, Kansas City more or less violent than it was 100 years ago? How about life in Five Points?

But all that is beside the point. Those reciting and appealing to the narrative about ever-increasing violence and "things getting more worse" don't really care much whether or not this narrative is technically true. The point of the narrative is to sell you a solution to the supposed crisis -- and it matters little to them whether the crisis is actual or fictional, as long as you perceive the idea of the crisis you will be receptive to the solution they're selling.

Dr. Harry G. Frankfurt provides a technical term for this rhetorical device in which the speaker is unconcerned with the truth or falsity of the claims he or she is making. Frankfurt calls it "bullshitting."

There's an absurd, Douglas-Adams-ish quality to seeing pastors engage in this kind of crisis-mongering bullshit. The pastors preach, as the song says, that "Jesus is the answer for the world today," but they seem unsure as to what the question was. (What is 7 times 6? Jesus.) If Americans need Jesus because "the violence is increasing," would a decrease in violence mean that Jesus was no longer necessary?

I also happen to believe that "Jesus is the answer," but I don't believe that this precludes me from asking actual, reality-based questions about whether in fact, various kinds of violence are increasing or decreasing. Those questions are useful because they help us to answer further important questions, such as "What steps or policies might be useful to help decrease violence?" Or "What can governments, schools, families, neighborhoods, religious fellowships, civic associations and/or businesses do to help decrease violence?"

Asking such questions requires that one be interested in, and committed to, "things getting less worse." To ask such questions you must believe that some kind of progress is both possible and desirable. But the crisis-mongers are selling progress short. They have an investment, a stake, in the perception that violence is always increasing, schools are always getting worse, society is always slouching towards Gomorrah. The anxiety that such a perception creates is the basis for their marketing of whatever solution, religion, candidate, war or topical cream they happen to be peddling.

"Violence is increasing." It seems to just be one of those things that everybody repeats because everybody knows it's true.

Except that it's not.

Comments

[Gus]

Hi, Fred --

The key word is "seeing the increase in violence". Thanks to the fact that violence sells -- in "news," "reality shows," movies, and even some forms of music (if you call rap music) -- it gets much better covered than a lot of more socially-beneficial things. The way the media treats violence in effect promotes it.

While they (and indirectly we as citizens) censor certain "obscene" words and give X ratings to loving, consensual sex, graphic violence is promoted to teenagers (and younger) in both movies and videogames. There is something very wrong (and maybe insane) with that... I'd MUCH rather have my kids watch two people have passionate sex than two people blow each other away.

[Jim]

There is also a lot of willful amnesia. People that cna't or won't remember the violence of the whole last century in heartland America - lynchings, labor violence, bank robbery sprees - are going to fall for this. They would rather remember the past, however falsely, as a refuge from all the challenges of the present.

People love drama, and this crisis-mongering plays to that market.

[kodi]

My take on the "increase in violence" is 1 part "seeing the violence," like Gus says, and 2 parts a reaction to the fact that all the things we had to censor to prevent real world violence - violence on prime time television, violence in video games, death metal - didn't get censored, so necessarily we must be seeing an increase in violence. If we admit that we aren't, then we admit that these things are okay.

[eristick]

To add to what Jim said:
Most people (I suspect all of us, at times) turn their heads away and instead focus on seeing the violent imagery with which they've attained some level of comfort. News stories from the other side of the country, music that they'd otherwise never have heard of, movies that sound objectionable. Anything to fuel fascination and outrage and condemnation of Other People.

[Kal]

Thank GOD for intelligent writers, and intelligent Christians. It's rare enough to have either, much less combined.

Kudos!

[R. Mildred]

The thing about "seeing violence" is that that hasn't increased a whole load either, think back to how not so long ago public executions were committed, look at the ever unchanging face of boxing (besdies the padding of course, no legal bare knuckle fights anymore after all), public violence has definatly decreased (unless you consider hammer horror flicks, computerised violence and rap music more violent than civil war and public lynchings)

It also misses the teeny tiny fact that the media springs forth from society rather than visaversa, and that it's a teeny tiny step from "the world is more publicly violent and blood thristy nowadays" to "Remember the good old days..." falsehood that every generation has trotted out to tell their younger generations that it's sinful and messed up, why in their days...

Now the genocide in rwanda was exacerbated by the media, but not by letting kids play the latest GTA game...

[The Navigator]

Fred,
Haven't commented in a while, but I've been lurking. This post inspired me to pop up and reiterate that I'm in awe of your intelligence and insight. When we went to Sunday mass I used to think how tough it must be for the priest to have to come up with a new moral lesson drawn from the readings and current events each week. I've never been to a Baptist service, but, presuming the minister is charged with a similar task, you'd be amazing at it.
Don't have much of substance to add here - other than that Gus, Jim, and kodi are spot-on; it's similar to how every older generation from time immemorial has lamented that the younger generation is immoral and disrespectful and society is headed for a downfall due to the abandonment of social mores.
Kudos and keep up the good work.

P.S. Kris Benson? Victor Zambrano? Your boys are goin' down this year.

[DGibFen]

Part of the reason for the re-broadcasts of shows such as "Larry King Live" is for viewers on the West Coast. While King is on at 9PM EST, he's on at 6PM PST. Hense, CNN (and Fox News and MSNBC) can repeat shows for primetime West Coast viewers. Other than that, I enjoyed your commentary, which is quite refreshing.

[Barry]

Doesn't the claim "24 Hour News Channel" not necessarily mean they're reporting fresh news 24 hours a day, but that they are always available to cover breaking stories fresh at the time it happens, day or night?

That's how I always interpreted it.