media, marketing fear and fault

Our last class we were discussing points in the reading that caught our interest for good and bad reasons. A few things that caught my attention were marketing fear and fault and ramping up laws and oversights. In society today, the media has a huge impact in the way our communities act, feel and think. Unfortunately, the media has no conscience and prides themselves on delivering the drama despite of what the impact could be on a community. Thus, a vicious circle of life. I do not entirely blame the media for the communities behavior towards violence, terrorism, immigrants, people from other cultures or religions, and the poor and uneducated. The fear is a bi-product of the community believing everything they hear on the tele or in the newspaper. In order for the community to have fear, they have to believe that things are fearful.

Fear in the community also brings about the need for safety and the rules and regulations created to acheive that. Fear is so deep in the hearts of people these days that rules have been established on a national level. These rules are setup in the interest of communities nationwide. The reality is that the rules that have been established have been bent and/or broken to keep the people in fear. Keeping the people in fear keeps the leaders in power which is the opposite of what a community is and needs to be. Leaders in a community are not what they should be.

A community does not always need a leader but if there is a group of people leading the direction of transformation in the group, then I think a so called leader is a key aspect to the community. Keep in mind that a community should have everyone contributing to the whole, and not let the group of leaders take control of everything.

Along with fear comes fault. Everyones favorite thing is the blame game. Who is to blame for things happening. I agree with Peter Block when he says " if we can assign blame and find cause, then it is useful to society and reassures us that it will not happen again. This is irrational thinking."(Block 38-39) I completely agree. He mentions that after the person at fault is found a change in policy or legislature will make sure that it will not occur again. This is not usually the case, because like Ryan said, "what works in one community may not work for another"(LaBoy).

The changes in legislature have resulted in some of the most absurd laws I have ever heard. Allow me to explain, poor people being issued liscenses to say they are poor. That is equally as bad as racial profiling only its income profiling. An assumption that if a person is governmentally issued to be poor and ask for money makes the streets safer is rediculous. Putting a lable on someone before you know the situation at hand is a huge problem. It seems that people would rather work to solve a problem than find the answer to the problem and then change to accomodate the needs of the answer. The communities then have a reason to shut out individuals rather than help the individuals get back on their feet. This is not how a community should work in order to feel 'safe'.