America: Freedom and Violence

America: Freedom and Violence

Imagine the emotionless testimony of a violent youngster, who may not realize he is fingering an accomplice as he quickly excuses his violent act, Ð'ÐŽÐ'§Oh I donÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦t know. I just saw it on TV.Ð'ÐŽÐ'Ё Countless acts of senseless violence in the past few decades have led our society to believe that although freedom of speech is a trait that separates America from many other countries, it has also made us more brutal. Media outlets such as television, movies, and music have had a major impact on our nation. The outlets can allow us to be creative, make money, and have fun. The downside is when it leads to homicide, suicide, and other serious crimes. The best example of seeing the influence of violence is the exact copy cat crimes that are played out day after day. Media also tends to guide children that may seem insecure, confounded, or simply daunted by what they see on the television. This cause creates a variety of effects, mostly leading to violence or desensitization to the events that occur around them. To understand how violence can be seen through media look to a common feeling when people listen to a new song that they start liking. It

can be described as an almost euphoric high. People that share this common feeling go to concerts where it seems like anything is fun and exciting. Often with so much intense hysteria people can feel pushy and violent as they try to get into the music. As a result concerts such as the 1999 Woodstock can end in violence. Events like this and other media extensions are uncontrollable because people have the right to be able to say what they want to say and express what they feel with little to no intervention. It is the first amendment that allows us to have the rights of freedom in our country. Freedom of speech has allowed media to be one link to the chain of violence in our nation.

The United States was founded on the principle that the people and the government had the right to freedom of speech. The words Ð'ÐŽÐ'§ItÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s a free country!Ð'ÐŽÐ'Ё are four of the most important words to America. The term is used generally because we can not get away with everything in the United States. The rights we do have are our most cherished personal freedoms. The formation of our country began with the idea that freedom above all was the most important aspect of a country.

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." (Thomas Jefferson)

Thomas Jefferson emphasizes how important personal freedom was to him. The first amendment was produced because it was important to the people and our founding Fathers. Freedom of speech is the right to express ourselves, our thoughts, and our hopes without the need to receive permission from the government or another higher power. We have learned as a country to utilize the rights in as many ways as we can by stretching and wandering around the unclear boundaries this right has given us. The fact that these manipulations have led us to strength is inevitable, but what comes with this strength is the realization that we also can be affected negatively.

"Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes." (Robert Francis Kennedy)

To be a country where freedom dominates our lives is accepting that the law will have less power. Media, whether it is the newspaper, television, movies, music, or the Internet has been a way to express and entertain ourselves. Our freedom of speech is regulated in some means because of profanity, pornography, and other extreme cases. We can still display a variety of violence through media. Studies show that in the past few decades the interest in media violence has increased dramatically in our nation. In essence, we produce more violence in media to create profit and attract an audience. It is hard for government to control violence in the media because of what freedom of speech has allowed us to do. Regulation by parents or other authorial figures have made it harder to be able to have contact with violence in the media. Even with the large amount of people not viewing violence, it has still been able to contribute to real-life homicide, suicide, and over all crime. What people have begun to see is that freedom of speech has been a great characteristic that we are proud to have, but it will display the negative effects through increasing amount of crime.

It is important to know the extent of the damage from the media. Real-life episodes have allowed people to recognize the link between violence and freedom. An example is a story of a mother in San Antonio, Texas. She describes a tragedy that she attributed to the hypnotic influence of rock music. One night during the summer of 1980, her sixteen-year-old son was unable to sleep because of his allergies and a severe headache. In her testimony, the boy decided to listen to Pink FloydÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s album The Wall. He then got up and moved toward his aunt, who was asleep on a couch nearby. He attacked and killed her. (Biskup, 1992) Another tragic example is of nineteen-year-old John McCollum. On October 27, 1984 he shot himself in the head at his home in Indio, California. Apparently he had been listening to an Ozzy Osbourne song titled Ð'ÐŽÐ'§Suicide SolutionÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё. (Biskup, 1992) More directly related cases have also occurred in extremity. Steve Boucher became strongly obsessed with a song by AC/DC named Ð'ÐŽÐ'§Shoot to ThrillÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё. The sixteen-year-old shot himself under the bandÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s poster-calendar, which hung on the wall in his room. (Biskup, 1992) In addition to this incident is a tragic case that occurred in Sparks, Nevada. Raymond Belknap, eighteen-years-old, shot himself to death in a double suicide pact. His friend survived and said the music of the heavy-metal rock group Judas Priest persuaded them into thinking that Ð'ÐŽÐ'§the answer to life is death.Ð'ÐŽÐ'Ё Eventually the Supreme Court allowed the parents to sue the band because of the effect it had given their child. (Biskup, 1992) Again and again copycat crimes filter into our society through media. It is a way in which vulnerable people can find the meaning of their life when they have reached a state of confusion or reluctance. Media is like promotions to people that are on the verge of hysteria. Many have been able to look up to characters in the media as a role model.