Devil's Night Fires Sweep the Nation

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 23, 2000 | by John Elvin, | Thomas Cipriano

In a report by two experts on youth fire-setting behavior and prevention published by the SOS Fires Youth Intervention Program based in Washington state, the authors note that "fire can be visually spectacular" and thus often is part of action movies and TV shows. "Music videos and concert presentations sometimes use elaborate pyrotechnics ... leaving the viewer-listener with another misleading representation of fire as a spectacular yet easily controlled force," they say.

Where to place blame is a matter of some contention. Robert R. Butterworth, a Los Angeles-based child psychologist, disagrees with Vitagliano. "For some teens," he tells Insight, "video games are an outlet for the anger they feel. So, in essence, video games have the potential to have a diffusing effect." Butterworth believes that rather than blaming "wild television, violent video or other media," the fault lies with parents who do not know how to discipline young children or are overly harsh in such discipline. Many of the teens he talks to, he says, are mad about "harassment at school." Butterworth also dismisses "religious groups that want to ban Halloween claiming [it] is Satan's holiday ... linked to devil worship."

At a hearing before a congressional committee this summer, a report from health professionals was released stating that "over 1,000 studies ... point overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children." Many in Congress have offered legislation aimed at restricting the exposure of children to words and images that might promote violent behavior. Most recently, the Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill by a 16-2 vote that would provide a "safe harbor" during evening viewing hours. Pressure from Congress also has resulted in some further self-regulation by the movie industry.

Are the critics on the right track? Do entertainers such as Rage Against the Machine's Morello have evil intent in calling for setting the suburbs on fire? Morello once told an interviewer that "part of what happens is that some people actually do get involved," so he's certainly aware of the consequences of his songs. He has quite a lot of company. A search for lyrics related to "fire" on the Internet turned up 168,000 entries -- many, of course, in a more passionate vein than those of the Rage group, though one entry mentioned another rock group known simply as "Arsonist." Fortunately, quite a few entries referred to old standards, such as, "I don't want to set the world on fire; I just want to start a flame in your heart." Ah, for the good old days.