We found a NYT article from 2007 by Sharon Lerner titled “The Motherhood Experiment.” Here is an excerpt:

To the dismay of pundits and politicians alike, women in industrialized countries and elsewhere have been bearing fewer and fewer children. More than 90 states have fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, and the trend, which began in the early 1960s, is already leading to fewer workers, graying populations and dire predictions about vanishing peoples. While scholars blame several phenomena, including greater access to birth control, later marriage and a drop in what one researcher calls “hopefulness about the future,” many researchers agree that at least part of the problem is due to the particular burdens women face in the work force. If becoming a mother requires a woman to take a huge financial and professional hit, the thinking goes, she will be far less likely do it.

Could it be, then, that easing a woman’s ability to hold a job and raise children simultaneously will nudge her toward having a bigger family? At least 45 countries in Europe and Asia are betting on it, having instituted government programs to maintain or raise their fertility rates. Contrary to the rhetoric of many family-values champions, their example suggests that the promotion of larger families and the promotion of women’s careers may go hand in hand.

(Read Sharon Lerner‘s book The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation.

Following up on our previous post “Cultural Symptoms: Drilling, Capping, Emoting, and Uncertainty” the Huffington Post put the video above together and a post titled “Obama’s Oil Spill Emotions: The Mediagasm.”

This pseudo rage coming from the chattering heads on cable news stations is becoming a larger problem. It’s designed to shape dramatic narratives that will generate buzz and pump up ratings, not illuminate deeper truths and highlight complexity. The myth-makers/storytelling machines are exploiting our emotions and invested in making us angrier, which they have analyzed causes us to literally buy into their programming. I believe that in many of these cases the pundits don’t believe what they are saying, which is the most cynical and destructive part of all.

Television shows and films where profilers track down criminals continues to capture the public’s attention, imagination, anxiety, and fear. We are fascinated by someone who has the ability to find who and what is hidden from us and causing indiscriminate and terrible harm. In affect, we want our monsters and demons to be found and destroyed for us. We also have the “criminal profilers” on cable news shows who are brought in to comment on current cases as they develop in real time. They make broad and often inaccurate statements about particular cases as way of making sense of the harm and destruction, but with little to no access to specific information from the investigation. Read more…

To follow up on the previous post about the heated health care debate and other posts on how the media alters our perceptions, exploits our bias and rage, and manipulates our fears for ratings gains Jay Rosen has a must read post titled “This is part of what’s so insidious about press savviness: it tries to hog realism to itself.” We focus on how media and political pundits don’t serve our understanding of complex issues because we spend so much time reexplaining and fighting against what people are told by pundits in an effort to locate truth when and where it exists and get things done for people in crisis and at-risk. Here is an excerpt where he defines the ‘savvy” of political pundits and journalism for us:

Savviness! Deep down, that’s what reporters want to believe in and actually do believe in— their own savviness and the savviness of certain others (including operators like Karl Rove.) In politics, they believe, it’s better to be savvy than it is to be honest or correct on the facts. It’s better to be savvy than it is to be just, good, fair, decent, strictly lawful, civilized, sincere or humane.

Savviness is what journalists admire in others. Savvy is what they themselves dearly wish to be. (And to be unsavvy is far worse than being wrong.) Savviness—that quality of being shrewd, practical, well-informed, perceptive, ironic, “with it,” and unsentimental in all things political—is, in a sense, their professional religion. They make a cult of it.

Amen.

(Find the image above here. Hat tip to the DailyKos.)

When observing the American political scene or listening to pundits on cable news it becomes clear that we are a nation of adult children who love to complain. We don’t want government intruding in our lives, taking our money, or telling us what to do. The term “socialist” is used without having any real understanding of what it in fact it means to live in a socialist country. In working with individuals, children and families who find themselves at-risk and in need of help what bothers us most is how people railing against government look to it for assistance when they find themselves in need. Our safety, ability to move, be taught, rise up, healed and comforted are all linked to some type of intervention from local, state and federal government agencies. Police officers, firefighters, nurses, doctors, teachers, mental health professionals, social workers, public transportation employees and public health officials are just some of the examples of our government in action for us. Read more…

A camera placed on you and the heady privilege of spouting your opinion to a mass audience gives off an impression of projected authority. Add a title to the commentator, we are a title obsessed culture, and the viewer becomes oriented in and affiliated with this person’s particular point of view. If you can be louder, activating rage in those you are speaking to this authority translates into a committed audience and ratings gains. It doesn’t matter if what he or she is saying is wrong or biased. The important thing is that they are on camera, have a strong point of view and speak out with projected authority. In affect, having these television shows on is like allowing an abusive parent into our homes. We shut down and let the abuser/bully take over. A recent and somewhat deceiving poll by Public Policy Polling (PPP) showing Fox News as being the most trusted news source in America illustrates this point. You can read about the poll in a Time post “Fox News: The Most Trusted Name in TV News” and a DailyKos post on the poll as well

In an era of projected authority through 24/7 cable news we become passive viewers and receivers of news and information. The result of this process of turning on and tuning out is what we see and feel with all this tension, division and confusion around and within us. If the organizing cognitive principle of cable news becomes telling us what to think instead of challenging us to think for ourselves then we can no longer know how to take the necessary actions in our own lives to create real and lasting change. We just passively submit to the voices shouting at us, manipulating our thoughts, feelings and perception for ratings and their own gain. The hard work of forming an objective opinion for ourselves and finding some form of truth is lost in all of the shouting and false outrage. Read more…

Job numbers continue to be tough for the working people and the term “discouraged workers” can best describe the employment climate we are in. This population of people who have not found work yet or fallen out of sight and off the map because they have not worked for so long has always been with us. It should be noted that people who are placed in this category of “discouraged workers” are rarely discussed openly or as a part of the unemployment numbers for a general audience unless it is an extremely difficult economic time like the one we are in. In fact, I can’t recall since I have been tracking the discussion of unemployment numbers for the past twenty plus years where we have looked so deeply and openly into who is in fact unemployed for a broader audience.

The unemployment number of ten percent does not fully illustrate the real numbers of people who are underemployed or don’t show up on any index as if they have disappeared. I have wondered this last year if the idea of ten percent unemployment itself as we dial in on it and use it as a barometer for our economic health won’t be around with us for some time. These numbers and percentages are more symbolic then detailed for most Americans that hear them. Ten percent is the new indicator that we are not doing well enough. You hear pundits talk about getting back to seven percent or lower unemployment as if this dictates that we are in a fuller recovery. But, what about all of the people who are and will always remain in the shadows of our economy. They don’t go away just because a group of pundits and economists with their own agendas say we have reached a certain threshold of recovery. Read more…

A constant theme running through this blog is the importance of scope of practice and how people on cable news shows who have no training or professional backgrounds in specific areas are allowed to form opinions which have an impact on how others’ think, feel and act. From climate change, economic and healthcare policy, to psychiatric disorders an array of pundits spout off misinformation and speculation on camera about these incredibly complex issues. What is a “Democratic or Republican Strategist” by the way? And, since when do cable television hosts have anything of value to add to such important topics and debates? There job is to create controversy, conflict and generate ratings. I think we should have access to what their producers are telling them through their ear pieces while they are on the air. These self, political, and corporate appointed “experts” shape and drive the narratives of our time and cause so much harm in the process. To add more depth to this topic Jonah Lehrer has a post titled “Expertise” that critiques the flaws of “experts vastly overselling their predictive powers.”

We seem to need the dark fantasies of monsters in our lives. They are born out of our real life experiences. As demonic beings who lurk in the shadows or roam the world seeking victims they are a projection of our deepest fears and anxieties. But, the monsters of my youth seem tame in comparison to the ones we are confronting today. The ones that appear today are too real, too horrible and unredeemable. Are the monsters we create in our time and place saying something about us? Perhaps ours are saying that we no longer recognize the difference between monsters and the wounded people creating real and lasting harm around us.

Frankenstein, Dracula, the Werewolf, were scary but somewhat unreal. We could hold the tension of these kinds of monsters in our movie theaters and living rooms because they only partially resembled us. Their stories were fantastical, but also a reflection of our own wounds and dark desires. What they showed us is some aspect of what may have happened to us, how we feel about ourselves, what we want, need, and fear. The central revelation of these characters is they are wounded, wanting to be human and connect, while at the same time they are being forced to confront an urge to harm others. Perhaps we could relate to them because of this struggle to be human, have wounds, feel trapped and want a way out of the alienation and pain. Again, it feels like such an innocent time where we were confronting a milder form of our darkest selves in these monsters.

Iconic monsters of another kind began to show up in the forms of fantastical serial killers, stalkers and torturers like Michael Myers, in “Halloween,” Jason Voorhees in “Friday the 13th,” and Freddy Krueger in “Nightmare on Elm Street” film series of my late adolescence. Michael, Jason and Freddy are transitional characters in the evolution of monsters to their current form. They represent male characters with traumatic childhoods, which leads them to inflict indiscriminate harm on their victims in an unending pursuit for revenge.

The most recent spate of these stalkers, torturers and killers are from films like “SAW” AND “HOSTEL.” But the monsters who inflict harm here are real men with no discernible motive we can relate to like the tortured logic that causes the previously mentioned monsters to seek and kill. This genre of films is known as “torture porn.” It is at this apex of horror, gore and violence, which these films represent, that we find ourselves.

Our monsters have become real men stalking, torturing and killing. They inhabit and infect our national psyche and exist for some disturbing purpose. Is the creation of these monsters a way of psychologically confronting our fears and anxieties about who and what we think and feel in reality is out there waiting for us on our streets, in our work places, schools, neighborhoods and most intimately our homes? If so what does this say about us. And, are our monsters now manifesting in distorted perceptions of reality, pervasive fear, and overwhelming anxiety, making us believe that there are so many monsters out there we and our children are not safe?

Crime statistics and 24/7 cable news shows stoke our fears and anxieties as we witness another adult or child being abducted, raped and/or murdered and makes us realize that these horrible acts can happen to any of us. A seemingly random mass shooting at a home, school, or work place takes on the spectre of a growing trend of violent acts occurring in our communities. These types of incidents feel like they are always getting closer to us, converging on our need for security and control. We build higher walls and incarcerate more people but violent crimes keep happening.

Many of the people who commit these crimes at first glance appear to have come from nowhere or out from the shadows and in some cases they do. But, in a number of incidents it is someone close to the victim(s) or someone who is known that causes this kind of harm. Surveying the statistics and research that is out there regarding who commits these crimes you find out how difficult it is to know where the violent criminals are, who they will victimize and when they will strike. Family, friends, neighbors, school staff and coworkers say they are shocked that a person they knew could do something so horrible. Some will comment that he or she was withdrawn, kept to themselves, in retrospect appeared strange.

A closer examination of why a violent crime occurrs can show that there are signs along the way. Yet, many of these signs can be gleaned from any of our lives. And, sometimes an abuser and/or murderer is created over time and in a variety of settings. However, these incidents appear as an explosive, unexpected, act of random aggression. What may be most troubling to know is that we cannot stop so many of these acts from taking place.

David Cullen’s powerful book Columbine about the tragic mass school shooting ten years ago is a case in point. The killers were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two teenage boys who plotted and then followed through with the murder of twelve students and a teacher. What makes these boys so frightening and their horrific act so tragic is not that they are monsters, but that they are so real. Cullen dispels the myths surrounding these boys and brings them and what they did down to earth. He writes, “Outwardly, Eric and Dylan looked like normal young boys about to graduate. They were testing authority, testing their sexual prowess–a little frustrated with the dumbasses they had to deal with, a little full of themselves. Nothing unusual for high school.” You can hardly bare turning another page as the story unfolds in front of you with an ending that cannot be rewritten and two boys who cannot be stopped from inflicted so much damage. Just knowing who they are and how they came to be known by all of us shakes us to our core and leaves us feeling vulnerable and helpless to the fact that this happens and will happen again.

A more recent case to note is the murder and sexual assault of eight year old Sandra Cantu in Tracy California. Melissa Huckaby is the woman accused of the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of her daughter’s playmate. There is no history reported to date of her abusing or molesting other children. Her grandfather is a Pastor and she was a Sunday school teacher. Huckaby has a troubled past of emotional behavioral problems and a rap sheet of arson and petty theft according to the reporting on this case. More details of her story should emerge over the coming weeks and months possibly revealing why she committed such a terrible act. For now Melissa Huckaby represents another shock to our system.

I heard a prosecutor for child sex crime cases on a cable news panel discussing this case say that the fastest growing unit in her department was the one focused on prosecuting pedophiles. She said “there are thousands, millions of pedophiles out there.” We are well over a hundred years from Freud’s theories on sexuality and aggression, many of them now revised and/or disclaimed, and in our time we are no closer to understanding the complexity of human sexuality and the violent dark forces it unleashes in our lives.

The fear and anxiety associated with these violent and/or sexual impulses swirling around adults and children is embedded in our current myths leading to these broader claims that there are “millions” of pedophiles and murderers roaming the land abducting and killing our children. A even greater harm is that we are now afraid to leave our children with a male teacher, priest or any man who shows an interest in being around children who are not his own. With the emergence of Melissa Huckaby, barring some evidence that explains the nature of the crime as not sexual, are we now going to extend this fear to women as well.

I am in no way suggesting that pedophiles and murderers are not living and acting out among us, that men are not stalking children in alarming numbers, or that women do not create real and lasting harm. The more hidden form of abuse and neglect that goes undetected or unreported in our homes, schools, neighborhoods and work places breed abusers and victims. It also generates these fears of what is out there waiting for us. For many the monsters are real and living in our present circumstances and our memories of the past. An abusive father or mother is a devastating reality for many children. The indiscriminate harm of an abusive parent or adult destroys trust and amplifies our fears because if we can be hurt and abused in our homes then what does the world outside have in store for us. An abusive home becomes a fear factory. Our monsters can come from there.

The real monsters are the ones who destroy our capacity to trust, connect, form lasting relationships, see the world as bigger than ourselves and love. You can watch cable news legal pundits linking Huckaby’s priors for arson and petty theft to the act of murder and sexual assault of a female child. This leap over amplifies who and what is out there, stoking our fears and clouding our reason. They project our collective demons on to the person who has committed the crime.

The job of the psychologist/therapist, prosecutor, law enforcement officer and social worker is to reduce the facts associated with each case to a specific act or set of behaviors that are causing harm and how to contain it and if possible rehabilitate the victim and the perpetrator. The bigger we make these acts and sets of behaviors in terms of the total population the larger our monsters become. It generates a self and communal fulfilling prophecy, a story that is repeated over and over until it becomes real.

What is more frightening the monsters we create or the human beings who can cause this kind of harm? Our job is to reduce the power of the monsters back to us and the harm we inflict on one another. In doing so we focus more intently on healing when and where we can and containing the wounds (our monsters) that never go away.

An even greater fear is that random horrible things will happen to us. The truth is that they may. The opposite reaction to this fear is to think that bad things only happen to other people, thus the shock when these incidents visit our lives. So we swing back and forth between these states of overwhelming fear and the defense mechanisms of denial. The courageous life is one dedicated to facing our fears by acting right, treating others with respect, forming lasting relationships and reasonably protecting our children despite the fears and literal acts of violence that invade our lives. The monsters and the victims on the screen are a projection of us, knowing this will go along way toward understanding who we are and what in reality is out there waiting for you and I.

Cullen, David. Columbine. (New York: Twelve, 2009) 10.