Bowling for Columbine and the Culture of Fear

The premise behind Bowling for Columbine is that American society is immersed in a culture of fear; that is to say that there is a prevalence of anxiety and fear in society, which has a tremendous impact upon the behaviour and interaction of its members This fear could refer to anxieties surrounding such current issues as violence in society, our health, the environment and, yes ! terrorism "t is suggested that people who are in positions of power and privilege #ie those who have money, those who govern, etc $ promote this culture of fear as a means of social control "t is suggested that if people feel afraid and mistrustful of each other, they will want to feel safe and will therefore submit more readily to the norms and rules established by those in power #"ncidentally, the filmma%er further hints that that a culture of fear is also promoted because it ma%es for a lucrative economy $ After watching Bowling for Columbine, read the following readings and answer the following question in a 300-500 word res onse! o &o you agree with 'oore that an American culture of fear exists by which people are scared into submitting to those in power( )xplain &oes such a culture exist in Canada( &iscuss briefly whether you thin% Canada and the *nited +tates differ in this regard

"# loitation and "# lorations of Fear-$ongering in Film

(Source: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~russell/spring05/assignments/fearmongeringfilms.shtml)

,oger )bert, film critic for the Chicago +un-Times, states the following.
/0et me tell you a story The day after Columbine, " was interviewed for the Tom Bro%aw news program The reporter had been assigned a theory and was see%ing sound bites to support it /1ouldn2t you say,/ she as%ed, /that %illings li%e this are influenced by violent movies(/ 3o, " said, " wouldn2t say that /But what about 2Bas%etball &iaries2(/ she as%ed /&oesn2t that have a scene of a boy wal%ing into a school with a machine gun(/ The obscure 4556 0eonardo &i Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, " said, but the movie failed at the box office #it grossed only 78 6 million$, and it2s unli%ely the Columbine %illers saw it The reporter loo%ed disappointed, so " offered her my theory /)vents li%e this,/ " said, /if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs li%e your own 1hen an unbalanced %id wal%s into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a ma9or media event Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the cloc% with it The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two %ids were pac%aged as the Trench Coat 'afia The message is clear to other disturbed %ids around the country. "f " shoot up my school, " can be famous The T: will tal% about nothing else but me )xperts will try to figure out what " was thin%ing The %ids and teachers at school will see they shouldn2t have messed with me "2ll go out in a bla;e of glory / %n short, % said, e&ents li'e Columbine are influenced far less b( &iolent mo&ies than b( C)), the )BC )ightl( )ews and all the other news media, who glorif( the 'illers in the guise of *e# laining* them+ " commended the policy at the +un-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school %illings on <age 4 The reporter than%ed me and turned off the camera =f course the interview was never used They found plenty of tal%ing heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy /

)bert suggests that it is not violent films, but the representation of reality in the news media and the %ind of influence it has on its implied audience, that are responsible for real violence and real pre9udice )bert is suggesting that, similar to the 0abelling Theory that we have explored in this course, in a culture of fear we end up creating that which we fear #ie violence$ "n other words, as the media and other agents

of sociali;ation promote the ideas that violence pervades our society and that we have much to fear, such prophecies become self-fulfilling

,he Anatom( of -iolence

Pathological genes, a disturbed mind, social isolation and a gun culture are not enough. Mass murderers also need the individual will to pull the trigger.
By +haron Begley
(Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/ !"#!$"!/site/newswee%/page/0/)

April >?, 8??@ issue - Cho +eung-Aui turned his gun on himself before a neuroscientist could get him into a brain-imager and scan his cortex for aberrant activity 3o geneticist had analy;ed his &3A for genes associated with impulsivity, aggression or violence And although a physician at a psychiatric hospital concluded in late 8??6, after Cho had stal%ed two female students, that his /affect is flat and mood is depressed,/ no psychologist had the opportunity to as% him why he wrote such disturbing, demon-haunted plays and essays that his professor referred him for counseling last fall 3o sociologist had probed how American society had shaped this 8>-year-old +outh Borean immigrant during his 46 years in the *nited +tates 1hile the temptation is to dismiss Cho as cra;y and leave it at that, no one will ever %now for sure why Cho murdered two fellow students in a dormitory at :irginia Tech and then gunned down >? more people in a classroom building across campus 9ust over two hours later But the unas%ed, and perhaps unanswerable, Cuestions show the new sophistication of research on the etiology of violence 3ot long ago, scientists invo%ed genes or brain circuitry, hyper-activity or brutal parental discipline or America2s /gun culture/ to explain horrors ranging from Charles 1hitman2s rampage at the *niversity of Texas, Austin, cloc% tower in 45DD, to Eeorge Aennard2s 8> murders at a Billeen, Texas, diner in 4554, to the Columbine Aigh +chool shootings in 4555 But although some people with a particular gene variant do grow up to be sociopaths, others with the same variant do not And while some with overactivity in particular regions of the brain commit violent crimes, others do not And if every %id who became inured to violence through Erand Theft Auto or who witnessed chronic conflict between his parents during early childhoodFris% factors for violenceFwent on a murder spree, well, then crimes li%e Cho2s wouldn2t have networ%-news anchors rushing to the sites of the massacres to do their broadcasts +cientists who study criminal violenceFthat committed outside of wars and civil conflictsFnow believe that its roots are eCually planted in the biology of an individual, the psychology that reflects the interaction of innate traits and experiences, and the larger culture 3o single cause is sufficient, none is deterministic /"t2s li%e a %id piling up a tower of bloc%s,/ says 0oyola *niversity, Chicago, psychologist Games Earbarino, who has studied school shooters /)ventually, it falls over Hou could point to the final bloc% and say, that one2s the cause But it2s an accumulation of ris% factors / I 3o discussion of violence in American culture is complete without mentioning blood-soa%ed videogames ,ight after earning points for a graphic disemboweling, young players are more aggressive, but more in punch-little-sister mode than shooting up a mall +till, there is evidence that violent games have a numbing effect /1hen people stop feeling it2s terrible that someone is getting hurt, that2s dangerous,/ says <ollac% And so the bloc%s stac% up one by oneFthe biology that mass murderers carry from birth, the brain circuits laid down as they experience life, the messages they soa% up from the world around them 3o single experience or character trait is sufficient, no single one to blame But even as science identifies the forces that sculpt the mind of a mass %iller, explanation is neither excuse nor exculpation +omewhere in

all this is the will, the decision by the gunman to pull the trigger *nderstanding that is the greatest challenge of all