Social Conditioning and Expression

A notable feature of modern society is the proliferation and various manifestations of art. It is not only a quintessential expression of human creativity and sense of the aesthetic. It is also a reflection the values and ideals of the time and the community as a whole. The problem lies when art or for that matter, any form of human expression, comes in conflict with the values system of the society. For the culture and norms of a community to find continuity and expression social conditioning is employed to instill them into every single individual.

Social conditioning by its nature seeks to enshrine what society believes in and stands for in almost every aspect of the lives of its members. All human undertakings, collective known as the Humanities are supposed to manifest what social conditioning transmits into the psyche and orientation of society. However, due to the dynamic aspect of human expression, most if not all times the arts convey meanings that are not prescribed by the society's ideals. Moreover, there are even cases wherein many forms of creativity are considered as affronts to social values.

Ideas of the ethical, moral, just, decent and acceptable make their way into the minds of the members of society. This in turn dictates perception and what people think. However, this is often misplaced and untrained in many cases. It fails to soundly distinguish between things that must be conditioned out and those that are singled out because they are culturally repulsive. Institutions and groups in American society often attack Pornography as the fundamental catalyst to the erosion of decency. However, these same groups do not find the subtle violence and promotion prejudicial atrocity in cartoons like Tom and Jerry or the adventures of the Looney Tunes. The former is exposed to, by and large, by adults who can sensibly discern what or what they cannot act on in the explicit material. The latter is freely imprinted into the minds of the American youth. These sows the seeds which could like bear fruit in the future in the form of gun violence, contempt for the rule of law and rejection of values.

Society can, in fact, be molded by shaping what and what is not allowed to permeate the consciousness of the people. This should be based in rooting out that which can be genuinely harmful and not just something deemed offensive to a particular point of view. Unfortunately, in the United States the basis for what and what should be conditioned into the people is often skewed and dictated by the moralist sectors of society. This must be wrested from them and be placed in neutral hands.

This is not to say that pornography and explicit content, be they in print or film be open to all. Most of these materials are treated as for adults only and rightly so. They are still valid tools human expression and products of creativity. This allows them a place in the social sphere. On the other hand, cartoons are treated as trivial, fun and good for children.

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