The Death of Empathy

[annacarter]

I think part of America's obsession with the true crime genre comes from the need to be comforted. It's frightening to hear about the brutality of other humans, the immensity of their violence toward others. By changing it into entertainment, the crime becomes less real, less visceral, less frightening. Instead of real people being murdered and tortured, it's a book character, or a stranger from Dateline. It's not your neighbor, or your best friend, or your family member. By fictionalizing violent crimes, we diminish them. We make them consumable and easier to handle. It's similar to when people joke about a tragedy - it's not actually funny, it's just another way to cope. In Cold Blood reflects this, too. The townspeople are scared, those who knew the Clutters no longer feel comfortable or safe in their own homes. They are frightened. But those who didn't know them well are gossiping and theorizing and turning the Clutters' murders into entertainment. It's not real because it did not directly affect them. Their reality is not much different, just more exciting.

I think the way people distance themselves from these crimes and turn them into a form of entertainment also says a lot about our empathy levels. As human beings, what sets us apart from other animals and creatures is our ability to empathize with one another. By diminishing the murder of other people, we diminish our ability to empathize. And that's really scary. An example of this loss of empathy is the recent trend of making ebola jokes. Ebola isn't funny, at all, in any way. It's a very fast acting and contagious disease. But because it is not currently directly affecting the majority of the American population, people think it's acceptable to joke about it. We are unable to empathize with the people in Liberia, Sierra Lone, and Guinea because they are strangers. This isn't a good sign. We should be able to empathize with these people, we should be able to understand loss and feel mournful, even if it's an ocean away.

In Cold Blood is a very good book. But I don't enjoy reading about the dead bodies, about the violence that struck the Clutter family. It's upsetting, and I can't find myself able to distance myself from it. The knowledge that the Clutter murder really happened, that you can look up pictures of their corpses, makes the book much darker than I would otherwise find it. Despite claims that our generation has become desensitized to violence, I don't believe we are unaffected by the pain and suffering of others. I believe that we are no longer shocked to see it, that we almost expect pictures of bloody, broken people from the foreign countries America is 'protecting'. But I don't believe that we are apathetic toward those people. I refuse to believe that our empathy is dead.

[Kaitlyn Root]

I completely agree with this. I believe that the desensitization to crime and violence in young children is scary though. I babysit three little boys, and they have a Disney game that plays in almost the same fashion as Grand Theft Auto. Really! The premise of the game is to complete a mission, but the game is programed in such a way that the payer can make the avatar destroy property (like smashing mailboxes) and running over people. The fact that 5 year old children are exposed to this is unacceptable. They grow up not only seeing these violent acts on T.V., but also doing it themselves (even if it is in a virtual world).

[jaback1]

I agree with Anna as to why we watch crime on TV as a way to separate us from the reality of life. By placing a screen between the violence and us, it softens the blow. But with all of the true crime shows, depicting actual acts of violence isn't easily softened. When I watch Castle, CSI, Major Crimes, or any other crime television show that uses drama over reality, It doesn't affect me. But as soon as you add the true into the crime, I start to think that this person had family, friends, a life, unlike drama where the only life the characters had was inside a writers head. Our recent obsession of crime is a quest for reality and what is true in life.

By the way Kaitlyn, there's a big difference between cartoon violence and violence. In GTA, I am able to slice heads of people off with a katana, and in Disney Infinity (I'm guessing that's the game) I can hit cartoon characters with frying pans and boxing glove cannons. This is why cartoon violence belongs with E rated games, whereas violence belongs to M rated.

[matthewgray]

I also agree with the statement on the need for empathy in order to maintain peace and understanding with others, but I disagree on the idea that the media is destroying our empathy for others. While it may be true that the continual exposure to horrific events may lessen the amount of shock we feel, and many may find etertainment in this, but at the same time we are continually reminded of the knowledge that our world is not a perfect place. We are informed of these events in a way that hopefully does not make us apathetic, but instead motivates us to end these kinds of horror. The understanding that unspeakable suffering occurs to our fellow humans should inspire action to do good in the world, and I do believe that for many, mainstream media is the source for this reminder. Undoubtedly there are many people out there who do not understand the idea of empathy or simply do not care about others, but I do not believe that media alone has incited this, but that they either did not have a capacity for empathy to begin with, or they are too young to understand it, which is exactly the reason why most kids should not be unnecessarily exposed to content that they do not yet have a capacity to understand fully.

[etana]

Our loss of empathy also connects with the rise in popularity of violent video games. I'm not saying video games cause violence, but the preference for violent video games over, say, puzzles, shows that we have become desensitized to other's pain, even to the point of wanting to cause it. For many, these games are calming, which is kind of disturbing to think about: causing imaginary violence brings calm to the modern human. With Ebola, there are fake new stories and websites mocking the seriousness of the illness, even bringing it into the realm of fantasy (like with the patients coming back as zombies), and many people take it seriously. There are also people who see real updates about it and see it all as a joke, as people thinking they have an illness the viewer sees as no real threat.