[Leica] Desensitization

[lew1716 at gmail.com (Lew Schwartz)]

I respectfully disagree, Leon. I have been thinking about this for some
time. The idea of desensitization is central to Susan Sontag's criticism of
Arbus' work and others, including numerous war photographs and photos of
atrocities. In my opinion, it's just plain wrong. It is a nice sentiment we
share among ourselves and our friends that we are altruistic enough to
intervene in such situations, yet, most often, no one does. What seems to
happen is that standers by, who cannot tell whether the aggressor is
justified or just crazy, retire to a safe distance and watch.  The
photographer in this case did more than anyone else, and, other motives
aside, in so doing reminded us of how isolated and indifferent we can all
be to each other.

On Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 3:14 AM, Leon Pomeroy <drleonpomeroy at 
verizon.net>wrote:

>
>
>
>
> This desensitization is real. It is dangerous. It is evolving decade after
> decade and on a massive scale  in the absence of a "counterforce" of
> ________  Fill in the blank!
>
> Dr. Leon Pomeroy, Northern Virginia, USA
>
>
>
> Right.  Granted it's a trashy "paper", but for some years I have been
>
> following books and articles about how people are gradually desensitized to
>
> violence, through TV (e.g., "Breaking Bad"), video games (no cite, I don't
>
> have any and couldn't figure out how to play them anyway) or whatever.
>  When
>
> I saw this I wondered what the response to helping this man would have been
>
> in, say, 1950.
>
>
>
> Ken
>
>
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>



-- 
-Lew Schwartz