Moral Responsibility in Culture

What can be done to make the entertainment industry more responsible for its impact on the youth?

This question has been raised throughout history. Censorship over the past few centuries has been well documented. Most of this occured through religious groups using moral standard to deem something unclean, unsafe, and even condemable. I would venture to guess that this type of filtering for moral quality has gone on long before that, but with different standards. Now that access to questionable material is easier than it ever has been, how much of a responsibity do artists have for keeping their work 'safe' for potential innocent viewers?

My opinion, and it will no doubt raise criticism, is that the responsibility does not lie with the artist, but the people directly responsible for a child's outlook on life. The main areas of complaint: violence, sexual content, and language, are each aspects of life that should be by no means off limits to artists anywhere.

Allow me to confront each of these on its own:

• Violence - Brutal, blood thirsty portrayals of violence are abundant in our culture. Whether it be depicting the brutality of war (300, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan) or the sadistic actions of criminal murderers (Seven, Saw, Scarface), film makers have used special effects to create ultra realistic depictions of violence. Does this make them criminal? Violent behavior is a part of culture, part of being alive. It is the reason that real fights to the death and public tortures were a part of everyday society in ancient Rome and in 16th century England. Real violence is much, much scarier than anything Hollywood puts out because it is real. A child could be just as negatively affected by watching the evening news than by playing Grand Theft Auto IV.


• Sexual Content - It is a dark thought to parents everywhere to consider how much pornographic material is available through the internet and television today. So much more is out there than when our own generations were still blissfully (yet agonizingly) unaware of the nature and possibities of sex. And what about in popular culture? Sex appears in songs about strippers, television shows about prostitutes and films about porn stars, but as I have said before, this is again an example of art imitating life. I think that if compared to violent acts, sexual content is much less harmful for a kid to see. Yet, the vast majority of broadcast media will show a bloody gunshot wound and censor a woman's breasts. There is something fundamentally wrong with that.


• Language - I mentioned him already in my previous blog, but George Carlin made complete sense to me when he ran through his infamous "Seven Dirty Words," routine. After all, they're just words. Sounds and syllables put together to form meaning. Most of the "Dirty Words" have a sexual connotation, and that could explain the desire to censor them. And it really is a shame. Some of the best jokes, even from the plays of Shakespeare, used some kind of sexual inuendo and 'dirty' language to appeal to common audiences. As a writer, I am always astounded by the flexibility of these words as well. A number of them can be used as at least five different types of speech. To restrain use of such a tool seems like an insult to our language's power. And George, in the footsteps of Lenny Bruce, went to jail for using them.

Now, I do not wish to say that everything should be wide open all the time. Of course, limits on the content published for the public need to exist on some level. It is for that reason that I refrained from using any such "profanitiy" in this blog. If something is to be made to sit on an open arena to be viewed by all, it is in the artist's best interest to avoid offending the audience.

But why do some feel offended? Why do these restrictions exist to the point of criminalizing offenses? It is taught to us by parents, family, teachers, and other role models, and it is with them that the responsibility lies. If given the opportunity to explain to a kid the difference between film violence and real violence, portrayed sex or pornography, innuendo or flat out cussing, that person should by all means try to be as honest as possible. Do not simply attack an artist for creating art.

Censoring a bloody movie does not stop violence in the world. An FCC witchunt sparked by a nipple revealed on a Super Bowl show does not stop sexual behavior. And arresting a comedian for saying some forbidden syllables does not clean up our minds. We are human. We have darker sides within our nature. We just have to understand how to indulge them healthfully.

R.I.F'n.P. George