Wednesday 9 April 2008

Where Are We Heading

Where are we going wrong as a society when 8 year olds plan to stab their teacher without realizing the effects or the enormity of their plan?

In another case,
16 year olds, in a pre meditated plan, attack a fellow school student so that they can upload a video of it on a popular video sharing site. (Video Here)

Instead of bully-like behaviour, these are cases of
mob mentality. Earlier, we saw this behaviour during wars, riots, unrest or a similar situation but not where children or youngsters were involved.

Now in a changing world, we are seeing cases, unusual scenarios where slightest of provocation are triggering off events. These are alarming cases of herd mentality, cases of assumed power over the victim and with no signs of remorse.

It’s a very scary place to be right now. As we become developed, are these indicators of eroding human values? Or are these societal issues of the developed world? Or there are deeper reflections of images influenced by the media? Whatever the answer may be, as a society, we need to check such behavioral indicators.

Because, I think, it won’t take long for others to replicate it. Like school shootings in US, incidents like
Gurgaon school shoot out have started to haunt India. Is this the future staring at us?

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Cross posted at C-Splash (a citizen journalism initiative)

9 comments:

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Its sad but true.. such things are now happening closer home and quite frequently. I suggest u buy a copy of the mag Crime & Detective to read about what lengths ppl go to commit a crime.

n.aka.zephyr said...

Vrij,

reading crime stories in newspapers everyday makes me feel depressed.. ab yeh mag nahi padh sakti mai :|

Prasad said...

yes it is kinda sad to think such things hapen in india (not to be biased) but whn we think these things happen only in the 'western' world!!!!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Arre.. u shud read the mag. Its awesome time pass also. Gives u 101 ideas to do extra marital affairs!!

Prasad said...

ooooo! vrij intreastin mag there :DDDD will use it after 5 yeeas :DDDDDDDDDDD

Sumit said...

Hi NG,

I do not want to think of the answer to your question as its very scary.

mob mentality as you have rightly pointed out is the reason for such happenings, and today media is fueling this negative drive which is being followed by young minds.

we would not have known of the shooting that took place in US, had it not been flooded into homes via stupid news channels which in a way glorify such negative news.

a censor board for news channels... i don't know

Keep Smiling
Sumit

n.aka.zephyr said...

Pras,
Hmm... aisa hota hai...
why do you want to use vrij's mag... don't get married... :P :P

n.aka.zephyr said...

Hey Vrij,
aisa kya? when i get married and in case i ever catch my husband reading it.. he's dead :D

n.aka.zephyr said...

Hi Sumit,
Hibernation sey nikal kar aa gaye??? kya haal chaal?? long time, no see...

I thik media has a certain moral responsibilty and its nt doing its job properly...

esp. those crime shows in hindi news channels... uff! u know. they get the highest TRPs!!

there is a talk for creating a board which will analyze broadcast news but then mediawallahs have a counter arguments saying how can you gag us in a democracry... and the cycle goes on....