I have no idea what this TV program is, but I'll comment on the topic in general:
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Originally Posted by CM Now many may say this is hollywood and tv. So its obviously pro-human or what not. |
Hollywood and TV are the most influencial norm-setters in the Western world. TV and movies are "almost like reality", the strenght of the moving colour image is so close to reality so people perceive at almost real. Media provides model learning that is almost as powerful as real life model learning, and model learning is humankinds most powerful mode of learning, especially when we grow up. (Just as an example, don't you remember the discussion here at SYM about the American attacks in Mogadishu, when somebody brought up the movie "Black Hawk down"?)
Popular media are a means to preserve and reinforce cultural norms, be it unintentially created by the "free market" or a well thought-out propaganda machine - the effect is not as different as many people like to believe.
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But i don't see that as a TV flaw. Rather i see that innate to all humans.
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This depends on what you mean with "innate". Is it predetermined or not? For instance, the development of secondary sex characteristics that occur in puberty which leads to ovulation and menstruation in girls and beard and darker voice in boys, is predetermined and innate, ie it is set from birth that this will occur at a certain time regardless of cultural factors. On the other hand, response patterns like violent behaviour or "we and them"-polarisation is not predetermined, since it doesn't occur in all cultures - not even in all individuals in the same culture. If something is "innate" in the sense that it's "human nature", we should see it in all human cultures.
Now, "innate" in the sense "genetic predisposition that increases likelihood to react in a certain way in a certain type of situation" is a different thing. Demonising and polarisation, like all prejudice, is a sub-part of the learning system we humans have that is called generalisation. So we can say that all humans may have the possibility to become prejudiced, egocentric and narrow-minded, but it's not
necessary to develop that way. Some people are more vulnerable than others due to genetic individual differences, some people are more vulnerable due to influence from environmental factors like culture, education, upbringing, social factors, experience etc, but the important things is that not all humans develop this way, not even in cultures with strong norms to polarise. There is actually a fair amount of reseach done both about what causes polarisation and ego/cultural-centric views in societies, and in individuals. Some protective factors, ie factors that inhibit this development, is also known. Thus, I think it's incorrect to label it "innate to all humans". A more correct description IMO would be "most humans are vulnerable to develop polarisation/prejudice in the presence of certain environmental factors".