Violence Erupts!, page 1

So says the front page of CNN.com

In this insane-o world of ours, basic logical facts about human nature are ignored. Cognitive Science, psychoanalysis, social psychology, behavioral psychology....shall I go on? No. Not necessary.

For the past 2 weeks the media has been frothing at the possibility that violence would erupt if Officer Wilson didn't get indicted. What does this do - this fanning the flames of this issue?

Well, depends on the demographic, which is to say, depends on different types of people.

For simplicity sake, we can say there are 3 types of people. And we can put them into groups based upon their level of emotional self awareness. There are people who are not very self aware, but good natured. They're bubbly, interested in other people, and so 'being good' comes easy to them. Another group are the exact opposite. For whatever early life reason - socially disadvantaged, born into a poor family; exposed to traumatic relationships - lack of care, abuse, expression of affection or any serious moral incentive. Such people tend to be more self-focused and so are narcissistically defensive.

The last group would be people who are rational; well educated; and have a deep understanding of both human nature and their own particular self. So one group is good, not particularly 'well educated' but enculturated towards an inter-subjective perspective; the other group is defensive, easily offended, and so reacts in ways that benefit the self; the last group is an ideal group, and in a better world, more people would have that rare commodity we call 'self-awareness'.

CNN, MSNBC, etc time and again demonstrate their told dim-wittedness by ignoring how the vulnerable target population - the young black males of Ferguson and nearby areas - would liklely react to the constant "building up" of anticipation. In their minds - this becomes exciting; and the excitement sublimates their moral emotions, giving them the sense (irrational and delusional no doubt) that they have a right to go out into the streets and 'punish' America for it's racism.

Does the media care about this? I could imagine some possible rebuttals: perhaps, they imagine, that this is a necessary response. Even if officer Wilson is guilty, does this response in any help or hinder the situation? Again. If people who worked in these media outlets cared at all about the consequences of their slack-jawed, market-motivated policies, these types of situations could be avoided; needless fomentation could be avoided. The business that would be looted and the local economy - primarily them, since they're at the bottom stratum - will have been damaged.

This whole media extravaganza, as usual, has gone overboard. And they're building up of this issue, generating national interest and focusing the lens more and more on the possibility of chaos and disorder, is like throwing out of a frisby to a Labrador Retriever. It's an "object" which those youth will chase after; and they'll justify it to themselves because they don't have the moral action tendencies to keep them from engaging in violent, antisocial, and especially "counter-culture" behavior. They want to act out; to punish. But all that they will do will be for nothing, and will result in only a strong divide between white Americans, particularly evangelical Christian types, droning on about "blacks being complainers" (at best) and black Americans imagining that this system is far worse than it actually is.

Of course there is racism. And it's the results of historical conditions and circumstances that have not been made right. But to make it right and to fix something it entirely counterproductive to riot and cause senseless damage.

The Media should take the brunt of the blame for what is currently happening in Missouri and elsewhere.