Redefining Culture – Part I
I can go on talking about the extraordinary features of the remarkable culture, we have in The United States, but the purpose of this blog is to make an inner contemplation at what is not working that needs to change.
The map shows the scary picture of an amazing country that is gradually looking like Colombia, a beautiful country that had suffered over 50 years of violence caused by poverty and political conflicts. The United States a country of peace and abundance is now seeing a self- inflicted violence.
How the unnecessary violence we have experienced lately is becoming the norm of our country? The current unprecedented cases of violence are urging us to do something, to understand what and why is happening?
Driving the entire country to take the problem seriously and hold ourselves accountable, before it is ingrained in our collective behavior, preventing that something so horrible becomes part of our culture.
It is not easy to pinpoint and diagnose the complexity created for years. It is essential to look back and figure it out how one thing took to another; but, what was there in our culture that initiated this behavior?
HOW DID ALL START?
In those years, the picture was not clear as to what created the problem, and if the problem would one day become something out of our control as it is today.
The entire country got divided and distracted blaming it solely to the gun’s control issue, not realizing, that it was just another piece of a very complex problem, in which the best solution was more observing inside ourselves
Today, looking 20 years back, we saw the raising of violent video games, the rise in quick prescription drugs in teens, the lack of gun control regulations, and the lack of knowledge on how mind/brain works among people.
UNDERSTANDING WHAT WAS HAPPENING
To understand the complexity of the problem we need to examine inside the human’s brain, but before we are going to bring the research published by pediatrics.org on “Longitudinal Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression in Japan and the United States”
Youth worldwide play violent video games for many hours per week. We tested whether high exposure to violent video games increases physical aggression over time in both high- (United States) and low- (Japan) violence cultures.
EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES ON AGGRESSION IN JAPAN & THE USA
RESULTS: Habitual violent video game play early in the school year predicted later aggression, even after controlling for gender and previous aggressiveness in each sample. Those who played a lot of violent video games became relatively more physically aggressive.
Multisample structure equation modeling revealed that this longitudinal effect was of a similar magnitude in the United States and Japan for similar-aged youth and was smaller (but still significant) in the sample that included older youth.
These longitudinal results confirm earlier experimental and cross-sectional studies that had suggested that playing violent video games is a significant risk factor for later physically aggressive behavior and that this violent video game effect on youth generalizes across very different cultures. As a whole, the research strongly suggests reducing the exposure of youth to this risk factor.
Let’s understand the brain ourselves
If you google Neuroplasticity for kids, you will get the following info: “Plasticity, or neuroplasticity, describes how experiences reorganize neural pathways in the brain. Long-lasting functional changes in the brain occur when we learn new things or memorize new information. These changes in neural connections are what we call neuroplasticity. So is the brain’s ability to change and adapt as a result of experience.
While plasticity occurs throughout the lifetime, certain types of changes are more predominant during specific life ages. Generally, young brains tend to be more sensitive and responsive to experiences than much older brains. Environment plays an essential role in the process. Structural plasticity is the brain’s ability to change its physical structure as a result of learning.”
THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
Think about a child playing violent video games; they usually stay for hours shooting and beating someone up. Please think of the brain of this child every time they strike or hit somebody up.
This experience is reorganizing the child’s neural pathways in the brain, creating long-lasting changes not only memorizing this new information but physically rewiring their brain, creating a new mind, a new person.
The human brain works, making our routines, routes in our brain. The repetition of an action, though, or feeling wire the neurons together to make more lasting circuits and that is how habits are formed, explaining the research results that conclude that playing violent video games is a significant risk factor for later physically aggressive behavior.
THE IMPACT OF THE CIRCULATION OF VIOLENT IMAGES IN THE BRAIN
Fast forward that 10 -15 years later, when this child is an adult. Add, all the experiences of overuse social media. If through the years, he saw violent images of violence and massacres, those thoughts have been wiring the neurons together, making more lasting circuits.
Furthermore, strengthening the aggression paths of his brain that now, are already part of his subconscious programs. Later, when this adult is experiencing life problems, he goes in search of the fast relief ending up in the dopamine/addition cycle to resolve issues.
If there is underline dopamine dysfunction or anger management, he may want to solve his problems the same violent way he has seen in on the media.
Why we don’t just follow the best examples?
Through the years, we have seen the images of mass shooting massacres, after massacres, becoming part of our culture, without government action not only for gun control but regulations to social media to avoid the circulation of the images, like the New Zealand Government intelligently did immediately after the Christchurch mosque shootings on March 2019.
Within 24 hours, they made illegal for anyone in New Zealand to view, possess or distribute the video of the attacks to prevent the formation of aggressive neural structure in their citizen’s brain and created a sweeping new ban on a range of semi-automatic rifles and large ammunition magazines six days after.
It is regarded as the fastest response ever done by the Government after a tragedy, therefore preventing the birth and spread of a violent culture. That is an inspiration for other countries with violent cultures to follow.
In the absence of the Government action, but well aware that a very complex problem requires a complex solution, we collectively, united focus on the goal, we can contribute the best we can to reverse this terror.
Here at the headquarters of the “Becoming Excellence” team, we want to start by sharing the knowledge and passing the light on creating awareness, because that is the sun that melts the flaws.
In our series of REDEFINING CULTURE – PART II, we will bring light to another critical aspect of the problem: Addiction
