Taming the Small Screen Won’t Change the Big Picture

The earliest TV I can remember were Saturday morning cartoons.

Wile E. Coyote being dynamited. Mighty Mouse pulverizing a villain. Sylvester being flattened by a mallet. Popeye clubbing Bluto with an anchor.

I also loved Westerns and cop shows. When it came to men who ate lead, I saw my share, ma.

As a kid, I had a full arsenal of firepower (dart guns, cap guns, water pistols, pop guns, rifles, six-shooters with plastic bullets and even a bow and arrow). Most of the pretend games we played involved killing or being killed. Our favorite sound was to imitate gunfire or some other ballistics explosion.

With that background, you’d think I’d have become a thesis subject. Instead, I’m a cupcake.

I’ve never committed a crime of violence, never struck anyone in anger with any dangerous object, or used my fists to hit anyone in the face or head. I’ve never owned a gun or wanted to. I love boxing on TV but hate the thought of two guys in a parking lot hitting each other with bare knuckles.

Bottom line: What effect did all those hours of TV violence, cartoon and otherwise, have on me? In practical day-to-day terms, zilch. It’s provable that TV didn’t make me violent.

Most likely, everyone following the conference this week on TV violence did as I did: applied their life’s experience to their TV-watching experience.

I’d wager that most people concluded the same thing I did: TV violence didn’t affect them, but there’s too much of it and it screws up other people.

We come to that conclusion because we have to come to some conclusion. We can’t just acknowledge the upsurge in violence over the last generation without blaming it on something. And blaming it on TV is reassuring in the sense that, yeah, we can fix that. We’ll just change TV programming. We’ll make everyone watch Comedy Central all day long.

You just know that’s too easy, don’t you?

The TV repair envisioned by the U.S. Senate is just the latest in a pattern of other remedies--some becoming popular in Orange County--designed to solve our social problems. What they represent, more often than not, is a frustrated public throwing darts and hitting only the outer circles because the bulls-eye is too difficult.

* Schools fearful of gang presence respond with clothing bans.

* Parents distressed by their teen-ager’s suicide blame it on heavy-metal lyrics.

* City officials outraged over gang activity respond with prohibitions on free association in certain public places.

* Minority groups offended at the way they’re sometimes treated react by overdosing on politically correct speech.

* Police leery of some people’s evil intentions react by going after rappers and record companies.

* Our local supervisors loathe taggers, so they lash out at an advertiser of youth apparel.

When any of the above eliminate any of the core problems they’re addressing, let me know.

To me, the trail leading to societal violence is relatively clear.

It is as follows:

The culprits were never taught as children to respect other people or to take responsibility for themselves. When they’re older, they get frustrated because they hate the present and can’t see a future. They feel trapped, cut off from society, and with no way to effect change.

Add to that that they can buy a gun with chump change and, presto, you’ve got a troubled soul with the means to make something bad happen.

If it will make the Senate feel better, I’ll throw into the equation that the bad guys also watched the Three Stooges for hours on end.

So, sure, count me in for less violence on TV. Why not? Who wants to see more? Who’s going to say there’s just about the right amount? Even asking the questions seems silly.

But will reducing TV violence sufficiently soften up a country of 250 million people, many of whom are frustrated and angry and have easy access to the means to act out that violence?

Please, don’t make me laugh. Let’s take care of the basics first--family, education, jobs, security.

If we did that, I doubt anyone would be giving much thought to who shot whom on TV.