Novocain

On my my way to work today, I was listening to a song by one of my favorite bands, Olivia, called Novocain:

2 hours later and the movie it's over
Painted pictures of murder and slaughter
But no tear falls from my eye
No pain deep down inside
Feels like novocain is running through my veins
Why do I feel nothing?
Why can't I cry?
Bleeding victims I watch die
Filtered through my eyes
Blood turns white.

Desensitization. That's what happens when we see enough of something that it doesn't bother us anymore. Here's a statistic that really got my attention: The average child has seen 8,000 murders on TV by the time he/she has finished elementary school. What's even more discouraging is that these acts of violence are dramatized and glamorized in Hollywood. We have become so used to seeing people being shot, stabbed, blown up...guts and blood everywhere...that it doesn't trouble us anymore.

So where does that take us? To the point that whenever we hear a traffic report on the radio about a deadly accident on the highway, our first thought is: I need to take a different route to avoid the traffic. To the point where a soldier's death is just another passing news. To the point where stories of war are romanticized into made-for-TV movies.

Well, at this point, I really can't suggest anything that we can do to fix it. We've gone so far into this entertainment blunder that there is no turning back. How hopeless did that just sound? This is so depressing.