I was just posting on the power of stories versus boring statistics. Stories have, I think we all realize, a more powerful impact. But there’s a problem with stories. They can obfuscate the truth. For instance, with the advent of the Newtown Connecticut massacre, one could hardly be blamed for thinking we’re living in an era of increased murder and violent crime. (In fact, the very reason I’m writing this post is because I’ve had conversations with a few people who have voiced this opinion.) But, in fact, the opposite is true. The statistics show that violent crime has declined quite a bit in the past 20 years, and gun ownership has also dropped.
If there is an interesting question here that no one seems to be asking, it is why has violent crime dropped so dramatically? if we could identify the cause, maybe we could augment its powers.
I’ll throw out an entertaining hypothesis I’ve seen presented elsewhere. This decline in crime corresponds almost exactly to the rise of the Internet. Has the Internet and its children (such as group video games, online dating, social media and online pornography) resulted in a generation so addicted to the computer screen they can’t run out into the streets and kill each other?
Crime has declined because everybody is too busy writing Sit Com Spec scripts.
I just watched a good 1971 Spaghetti Western called “Blind Man”. Ringo Starr plays one of the Bad Guys. Really cool!
I’m going to bed! I have been reading “Heart Of Darkness” and “The Picture Of Dorian Grey” at the same time and I am freaking exhausted.
Don’t email me unless you have seen “Blind Man” and would like to Thank me. Better yet, email Ringo Starr and Thank him. Although it is hardly necessary to see “Blind Man” to feel gratitude toward Ringo Starr (I take for granted that you have seen “Caveman”).
Actually, I’ve never had the pleasure. It’s sort of been on my list.
“Caveman”? It’s really nice! Shelley Long is adorable in it and it has funny Stop Motion Animation Dinosaurs. Ringo is good as usual.
Sure – Ringo’s always tops. And “Ringo” sounds like a caveman name.
“Ringo find fire!”