Slight Case of Insanity

We see violent behaviour every day. In a myriad of forms, from news, television shows, movies, music. Everyday we are exposed to violence in some way. And, as we become less and less sensitive to the violent images we are constantly confronted with, movies and television shows have to elevate the levels of violence they depict in an attempt to shock us even more. But what effect is this having on us? How tolerant have we become to violence and have our definitions of what constitutes violent behaviour changed?

Recently, as I’m sure you have read/seen/heard, there was a man beaten to death at Sydney Airport (For those who haven‘t, see it here ). Two rival bikie gangs confronted each other in the  departures lounge, it turned into an all out brawl and a man was hit over the head with a metal pole and killed. Now, straight away when I heard this story I thought, “Okay, well, they were bikies. I mean really, what else do you expect from them?” But then I thought to myself, “Hang on, these people just  killed a man in front of a full departure lounge at the biggest airport in the country and I am not at all shocked by this. Okay, that is definitely not the correct reaction.” It’s that same as when you are watching the news and a story about yet another murder comes on. And you think to yourself, “Just another day in the news. Oh well.” And I’m sure I’m not the only one who didn’t find this incident as shocking as it actually was. That terminal was full of people, yet no one questioned the horrific display of violence. The first question on everyone’s lips, including the media, was, “Well, where were the police? Why weren‘t they there to stop it happening?” No public outrage at the actual event which took place.  Instead, the public just disowned the whole situation and putting it solely on the authorities to handle it and fix it.

Now, I do not claim to know what the answer is. I don’t pretend to have had some magical epiphany and know exactly what the correct action should be. All I am concerned with is the lack of rejection of this type of behaviour from the public. By not actively shaming this violence we are, in turn, showing we accept it. I don’t mean we approve it, just that we accept that it happens.

A good example of this is the way we ‘accept’ the appalling behaviour of high profile sportsmen. Straight away my mind goes to rugby players (please forgive my terminology here, I don’t understand the different types of league/union/AFL/whatever. I will refer to them all as ‘rugby players’!). Time after time we hear news reports about players going out after a game, boozing it up and getting into fights or sexually assaulting women. I could not keep count of the number of stories I’ve heard about this type of conduct. And what happens? They get charged, go to court (if charged with a criminal offence), get acquitted of the charges (or plea guilty and receive minimum penalty), go before some sort of sporting disciplinary tribunal, get suspended for a few games, then they are back out there after a few weeks as if nothing has happened.
And it’s the same scenario for schoolchildren getting into fights at schools. Two kids have a fight in the playground. Get taken to principal’s office. Within the lunch break the kids are back out in the school yard as if nothing happened. So what do the other students see? They see the kids being taken into the principal’s office, presumably for punishment…..only to reappear a short time later, neither child upset or crying, and continue on playing. What is this teaching children about the acceptance of violence in society? With even schools basically condoning this type of violent behaviour in the playground, how can we be surprised these same children grow up and go on to commit violent offences against other people later in life?

Again, I don’t have the answers. But I am sure there are answers. There are so many possible steps of intervention we could take in these peoples lives; school children, sports players, bikies, that may help to reduce the chance of them choosing a life which leads to violence. I suppose it really starts in the home with their parents. But I’m sure there are things we can all do ourselves. Even if it’s just little things, like speaking up and protesting against violent behaviour. Or something so seemingly insignificant as writing a letter to an authorities figure. Let it be known and let it be clear that we will not accept or condone this disgusting behaviour to take place. If you see or hear something you think is wrong, don’t just sit quietly and let it happen. It shouldn’t take a man being bludgeoned to death with a metal pole in the middle of Sydney Airport to get a response from the public. Can you imagine if that had happened even 20 years ago? How did we get to this level of desensitisation?