Week 7: Nonviolence and the Media

Hi all,

I am extending this analysis a little bit further than a week as I realized the effects of this new awareness starting a few weeks ago. I do not watch much TV and when I do, they are a few select shows that don’t showcase any violence but there are a few sub-tones of violence and stories of violence incorporated into the plot. I did notice recently that I started having strong reaction to anything violent on TV, so much so that I had to remove myself from the room. Usually, I could sit and watch a PG-13 movie with violence in it but I couldn’t stand it. I have always had a strong reaction to violence but its definitely stronger nowadays. Not only is it the reaction to seeing violence but now its the understanding of how incredibly harmful and destructive this images are.

As far as watching the news, I never have been able to watch the local or Boston area news because it is so incredibly depressing and negative. It leaves me feeling low, depressed, anxious, worried, and scared. My body tenses, my mind races, and my heart feels unsettled. The only form of news that I tend to read other than the bits and pieces I see as I log into accounts online is on my Al Jazeera app— I like to follow the global international news but again, this is often filled with negative stories. It tends to have less of an effect on my mood and body but still it does bring up negative feelings. For me its a balance of staying educated on the news and staying grounded and peaceful.

Furthermore, after reading about language in one of the search chapters, I have been more aware of my language use, such as rewording ‘shoot an email’ to ‘send an email’ and so on.

All and all, I have seen significant paradigm shifts in my mind from this course and cannot wait to see all of them 6 months, a year from now!

PS Another alternative news website you may like is New Internationalist Magazine.

http://newint.org

I choose the options of keeping my normal media patterns and trying to pay attention to the effect that they had on me. I watch a couple of shows consistently currently, some I know that can be quite violent. One of the most violent that I watched this week is a show called “True Blood” on HBO. On the surface the premise is kind of interesting; a new product called True Blood becomes available that vampires can drink instead of drinking human blood. This leads to the possibility of vampires living among humans. They are another class of people and are a persecuted minority in some respects and are at times discriminated against. This element can make it a learning experience in understanding persecution, discrimination etc…However not all vampires, just like not all people, are the same and some are quite violent and enjoy feeding on people etc… The result is a sometimes interesting but at almost all times violent show. Not one that makes you see people in the best light sometime and one in which life can be held at a low value at times.

Another show I watched last week that I am currently consistently watching, also on HBO, is called “Newsroom”. This show is basically about a news show that is trying to be different than the mainstream press and actually report the news in a meaningful way. As a result this show runs into challenges from numerous angles, sometimes from above because what they are doing is not good for the corporation that owns them. The show focuses almost entirely on real news stories, this season for example there is Occupy Wall Street. I think there are some positives but I think where it falls short is that it is like other liberal news programs which still glorify violence. Still a very pro-soldier, pro-violence show (as long it is the right violence in their minds) in some regards.

Another show I watch consistently that I saw this week is “The Soup” on the E network. For those who don’t know it is a show which basically makes fun of other tv shows, a lot of reality shows particularly. It can be funny but the humor is at the expense of others most often so this is not a particularly positive show to watch as well.

An anomaly this week, is that I watched numerous episodes from a television series called Firefly and the associated movie “Serenity”. My sister was coming in this weekend for Comic-com Chicago. This is something I have been going to for a couple of years and sometimes she will come out for it. This show is one her favorites and she has asked me to watch it a couple of times. There was going to be people from the show at this convention so I decided to go through and watch the series in preparation which wasn’t too difficult since there was only one season. The premise of the show is that the earth gets used up and people move into space where America and China combine to create a super power alliance that attempts to rule the galaxy. The show follows a crew led by a captain from the defeated rebels as they try to just make it in the galaxy doing some legal but often illegal jobs. I actually did thoroughly enjoy the show but while there was humor and some positives there was also a lot of violence, often portrayed as good, just or necessary when done by the “good guys”. The comic convention itself that we went to could probably be considered media in itself. While there are definitely some negative images and content at parts of this convention I think that it has overall a positive effect and experience.

I mediate in the mornings using the passage meditation methods described by Easwaran and Nagler. I can notice how what I watch has an effect. Often when I am trying to meditate after watching some of these shows the night before some of these images, some of them violent, come across my mind. While trying to meditate images from what I have seen will come and flash in my mind. This can be discouraging when they are scenes of violence, I would say that True Blood in particular is one that I notice violent images intruding when trying to meditate. Understanding the mind a little I shouldn’t expect anything different though. If i put these images into my mind then I should expect them to show up uninvited at other times.

-John