Week 9: Moral Panics

 This will be fun.

This king-size post is to discuss the threat of moral panics. I'm sure anyone reading this (there must be someone...) will be familiar with the London Riots of August 2011. They started when Mark Duggan was shot dead by police under shady circumstances on August 4. Two days later, a peaceful protest was held in Tottenham over the matter. That night, the area erupted in violence, which spread to several other cities over the following days.

I recall trying to learn about the causes and reasons behind the rioting at the time, which proved to be a difficult task, as everyone was suffering from mass hysteria. Both left and right wings were swamped with irrational scaremongering. The media's handling of the situation was anything but sensitive, with reports demanding the heads of everyone involved and mourning the end of Britain. Arguably, the media could have encouraged the violence to spread in a devious ploy to sell more papers. Newspaper sales go up when a significant event is happening, so when something big happens, the media naturally wants to milk it for all it's worth.

Another symptom of occurrences like this are the damning of those involved. The government dismissed the rioters' motives as petty crime on a massive scale.  Academics were brought in to concur, whether they're qualified to make an informed and appropriate judgement or not. The Economist pointed to David Starkey, a historian specialising in Tudor England, as a particularly bizarre example. People wanted reassurance, and to Hell with trying to learn from our mistakes. There is another incident I remember from a television opinion show. After several calls promising death for the rioters, one caller tried to engage the presenter in a discussion about why the riots happened and who was to blame. The presenter kept loudly interrupting them, insisting that it was the rioters' fault, before eventually going to an unplanned break, instead of sticking his fingers in his ears and saying "I can't hear you, lalalalala!"

When something like this happens, people look to the past. It is important to keep things in perspective, as the rose tinted glasses are working overtime.
London Riots- Britain has deteriorated in the last thirty years! Thirty years ago we had the Miners strike.
Miners strike- Britain has deteriorated in the last twenty years! Twenty years ago we had Hippies Vs The Man
It's possible to keep going backwards like this. The Economist took it all the way to 1751!

Moral panic is not restricted to events. Films and video games are common targets of calls to "Ban this sick filth!" The moral guardians who make such calls rarely understand what they're criticising, and have almost never partaken. Some savvy people have exploited this to divert attention away from their crimes, such as Anders Behring Breivik, who claimed to have practiced the Norway Massacre on Modern Warfare 2. Films went through the media witchhunt with the Video Nasties of the 80s and early 90s. Nowadays it's the turn of video games. Examples include the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004, where the media was fixated with the murderer's possession of the video game Manhunt, to the extent that the police had to issue a statement saying that the game belonged to the victim, not the killer. Another game, Bully, was savaged by the Daily Mail and anti-bullying organisations in 2005. They were left with egg on their faces when the game was released, and involved defending the weaker pupils at a school from bullies and corruption. The title, probably chosen for some free publicity, refers to the game's setting, the fictional Bulworth Academy. 

Bonus Content

Jack Thompson: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist)
A former lawyer and one of the most vocal anti-video game activists. Ironically, this made him one of the most entertaining and harmless. He was permanently disbarred over his conduct in July 2008.

Fox News: Accusations abound that Mass Effect is a rape simulator and has fully rendered sexual organs. The sex scenes are a minor and completely optional part of the 30+ hour game which prides itself on character interaction and altering how events take place based on your relationships. All the sex scenes are consensual and all but one are in a relationship, not to mention that you'll see far worse on Fox's own Family Guy for instance.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut: South Park brilliantly parodies the concept of moral guardians when the boys sneak into the Terence and Phillip movie and imitate the profanities they hear. Kyle's outraged mother, Sheila, leads a campaign to ban the film, which escalates in true South Park fashion into a three-way war between the USA, Canada and the Legions of Hell, led by Satan and his lover, Saddam Hussein. In the clip, Sheila leads the parents in blaming Canada for the corruption of their children.

 

Sources

The Economist, August 16, 2011. We Have Been Here Before
 http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/08/civil-disorder-and-looting-hits-britain-0

Krinsky, C. (2008) Moral Panics over Contemporary Children and Youth. Aldershot: Ashgate