Last night we got Josie down at 10 pm, though she wasn’t exactly down. She was over in her bassinet gritching away. Erin & I slipped The Wire into her computer. We’ve become mildly addicted to the show, as a means of unwinding at night.
Long story short, Josie started fussing. I picked her up and stood her next to me (the kid insists on standing) and she was immediately riveted by the show. No surprise. The screen was all shiny and people were moving around and making noises. So we all sat there watching for about ten minutes when suddenly a gun battle broke out. The sounds of the bullets startled Josie. I could see her eyes blink, her little body sort of buckling with each shot. She promptly burst into tears.
As I’m writing, I can hardly believe that we were so stupid and callous as to subject her to this. I mean, we didn’t know a gunfight was going to break out. But then again, this is The Wire we’re talking about – it’s stock and trade is sudden violence. We had no business letting her anywhere near the screen. Should have turned the damn thing off. Honestly, we’ve got no defense, particularly because Erin and I produce so much well-meaning blather about the evils of television. (It’s the reason we refuse to have one in the house.)
But it took watching my daughter’s reaction to one show to recognize how completely horrible and anti-human the images are. I keep seeing her eyes blinking, her head snapping back, the twisting of her mouth into a terrified frown.
What was even scarier than her reaction, though, was our reaction. I mean, we tell ourselves we’re these gentle citizens. But we didn’t bat an eye watching people shoot each other. It’s like our natural human reaction – to blink, to be fearful and upset – had been eroded. We’ve become so habituated to manufactured violence that we’ve forgotten what it’s supposed to portray.
I know people get all hacked off when I talk politics on this blog, so I’ll step away from the bullhorn. I realize, after all, that we can’t shelter Josie from this country’s popular culture forever. Eventually, she’ll see lots and lots of fake murders.
But here’s what I’m getting at: shouldn’t we try?
