Desensitisation.

Okay so this week’s topic is desensitisation. Let me elaborate. I am referring to us being less mentally and emotionally affected by the happenings around us. In a sense we are more and more detached from other human beings to the point where we are not concerned about others’ and their distress. 

Take for example, knife crime: here in the UK it is at a stupendously high rate. I think in London at one stage it was practically one death per week, bearing in mind that not many who are stabbed actually die and also that many people who are stabbed don’t actually seek any form of healthcare, figures are higher than those in the reports. Now, it seems that we hear of people getting stabbed so darn often that we just shrug and shake our heads, it no longer has a profound shocking impact on our state of mind. I remember when Damilola Taylor was stabbed and it blew up in the press. It was such a horrific story. But now, they’ve stopped reporting it on the news on TV because it’ simply happens too often, people are almost, bored of it all. Even in the papers and online there are only ever a few brief articles. I remember at one stage being astonished at the way in which I would see short piece in the Metro about the latest stabbing and simply skim reading it to see where the stabbing took place and what age the victim was, simply to identify whether or not I knew the person; I should have felt some kind of remorse, but in fact I was just filtering out articles because it was all too familiar a story. Sad, very sad. Sometimes, it only hits home how big the problem is when someone you know is a victim. One of my friends from college who lived round the block from me lost his life over a mobile phone. A PHONE FFS. Pardon my French. Lives have been lost over petty things, money (often over a trivial amount I spend on actual rubbish a day or less), phones, reputation and even just looking at someone the wrong way. What’s wrong with the youth of today, eh?

I feel like I’m a little out of touch with that whole life now in Southampton and even when I’m in London since I’m grown up, I’m not surrounded by rowdy youngsters (God, I sound like a moany pensioner!). I don’t go looking for trouble. In fact, I feel like I’m far more precautious than most, particularly in Southampton simply because I’ve had a somewhat tainted upbringing, hearing and seeing things that children/teenagers should not have to endure. Things that I didn’t even think twice about at the time assuming it was normal around the country: recognising the smell of weed in year 7, witnessing HUGE fights with bricks and bats (I remember not even being allowed out of school on one occasion simply because there were crowds of people from a neighbouring school waiting outside for a fight,) taking my tie and jumper off on the way home on days of fights simply so I wouldn’t incur trouble on my way home, seeing people getting their phones nicked (or jacked for all you ghetto kids =P), hearing the sound of a gun fired, all sorts of crap… Crap that none of us deserve to be around. I don’t want my kids to be around that kind of atmosphere growing up. But then, at the same time, I don’t want them to be out of touch with the brutal reality that exists and leave them naive to it all. I guess a balance needs to be struck. Sometimes I think my upbringing led me to be street wise. But then I think maybe I’m simply excessively paranoid. Hmm… Some people of course take the opposite approach when they come to a new place which is ‘safer,’ choosing to take more risk because they don’t deem their new surrounding to be ‘dangerous.’ 

Quite often though I think to myself, things aren’t actually as bad as people make them out to be. It’s not like we don’t have shelter and food, apparently a lot of us even have money for designer clothes and shoes! Many teenagers I think even emulate the concept of a ghetto often and use it almost as an excuse. Because really and truly most of us don’t even have it that bad. Many will choose to adopt the rude boy/girl persona, not caring, speaking slang, dressing with your jeans so low you find it hard to walk/in enough bling to run a jewellery shop and simply making out that life is so hard for you. Banging on about where you’re from, reppin’ your post code (or ends), using it as an identity and looking down on others from a different area. It’s not cool. Face the facts, opportunities are there for you to rise above such things and grow up, you just have to be big enough to stand out from the crowd and take them. Yeah it might not be cool to be a ‘boffin’ but in the long run, it will be. Stop aspiring to be like the people you see on telly. They sure ain’t ghetto. Let me quote one of the lines from one of my favourite artists, Akala which sums up my point: “its just a bunch of lies that we perpetuate ourself, being from the hood is not a definition of self, circumstances don’t define you, you define you… Forget reppin’ the ends, what the ends do for you, you’re worth so much more, if only you knew… All these rappers on the TV, talking shit about how much they bust their strap and yah yah yah, yout dem don’t listen to them, their talking nonsense, they live in big nice houses, they got security and body guards to take care of them, its an illusion you understan’? All the bitches and the chains and the necklaces in the video, its just bollocks man, that’s nobody’s reality, when did the hood become so sweet, that’s not any hood I ever been in, you understan’? The hood I know is miserable, the hood I know everybody’s trying to get out of, so why, why all these rappers dying to get back in it? Dying to be rude boys, when all the rude boys are dying to be legitimate, so, it’s just nonsense man, be honest, just be yourself.” A very talented individual with a brain and a half, check it out for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmULI8_hcG4

 

Another thing that adds to the problem is the media. Video games, the boys will hate me for saying it but call of duty, what on EARTH?! Just mindless killing other soldiers or whatever, I can’t say I know a lot about it but I’ve watched my brother play it. From my perspective all I see is your character strolling around various settings killing others and being killed. WHY?! What is the actual point?! Doesn’t it desensitise you to death and shooting?! I can’t relate at all. I play old school games, like Tetris and random car racing, next to that I simply don’t understand things like Grand Theft Auto where you randomly nick other people’s cars after you kill them and basically run around town committing crime after crime after crime. It bewilders me, what do you actually gain from this?! Surely exposing yourself to such circumstances can’t be good for your mind. I’m not saying that you’ll go round killing people and you’re all stupid or anything at all (although some individuals have done so in the past) but it simply makes you more tolerant to such happenings when they do occur in reality. And what about films? They have some blame to take. Like saw for example, essentially is all about a dude playing torturing mind games thriving in people’s painful and bloody ends. Things like Rambo, which simply exaggerate reality and portray stunts where an individual takes on an army (maybe I’m exaggerating now). I’m not in any way claiming I’m above watching such films although I can’t help but get bored. I watched Kick Ass recently, and I loved the film but it was a tad overboard. Especially at the end where the little girl basically took on a dozen or so grown men.  All these films and games though have ratings. Interestingly the ratings have changed throughout the years, what was once a 15, is now a 12; and what was once an 18 is now a 15… We’re exposed to such things at a younger age. Kids are growing up too quickly for their own good. But that is another discussion completely. Also kids are able to watch/play things that are above their ratings with the introduction of the internet. What is stopping children from pressing the ‘I agree,’ button on 4oD to a show aimed at 18+ year olds? What’s stopping them from going to a friend’s house and playing an older siblings game? What’s stopping them from streaming shows and downloading things that they simply shouldn’t have access to? Parental controls online? How many people actually use these though and you can’t enforce these restrictions everywhere the child uses a computer can you? I don’t mean to be treading on toes, and I apologise if I’m making out that kids are stupid but what my aim here is to remind you how impressionable they are. All I’m attempting to say is that all these little things add up and do affect your mentality over time. 

Lastly, let’s talk about the world. Why do we no longer care (much) about happenings and disasters occurring to fellow mankind? Wars, floods, lack of food and water; all these things and many, many more things are happening which are detrimental to someone/people’s existence… And we’re worried about some random trivial aspect of our life. We just overlook other people, so long as we are okay. Ultimately the suffering and death of other people is just numbers on a page, right? WRONG. We really need to care more. Innocent people are dying every where and we seem not to care. Check out this blog post: http://dubble-you-tee-ef.blogspot.com/2011/02/price-of-freedom-graphic-content.html, it really opens your eyes to some serious issues. I think it’s time we started being grateful for what we have. 

I think that’s all for now, feel like I've been ranting throughout, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts and views about this topic.