Christos, thanks for a balanced and sober overview.
ScottGee1
On 7/24/06, Christos Stavrou <christos.stavrou@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Interesting subject here and I totally understand your frustration.
> The issue of the high risk posed to children by strangers is simply a myth.
> The simple factual reality, for all of us, is that any risk of harm or
> violence is predominantly linked to the family and the close circle of
> a person, not strangers!
>
> Furthermore, the associated issue of sexual risk against children by
> strangers is another moral panic or propagandistic myth, which not
> surprisingly is amplified by most of the media and most of the
> politicians (both working in what they perceive as their own
> interests: selling papers, winning votes etc). Again, it's the family
> members, friends and close environment that pose a proportionately
> much higher risk.
>
> One of the serious problems of course is that social policies are
> often based on such myths and moral panics. (Other areas which
> historically show this include the socially and very particula images
> of dangerous youth, dangerous 'races', dangerous immigrants, dangerous
> religions etc etc.). All those share in common their weak biased ideas
> and awfully captivating effect on the public, the way they target,
> stigmatise and attempt to exclude specific groups of people upon
> projections and fears of stronger established social groups, and
> mostly for me, how they hide where the real danger lies (for example:
> domestic violence, corporate crime and state violence against its
> citizens or other states -most of these crimes -commited every day
> just see the news- go unpunished and often not even seen as crimes!)
>
> The vicious circle we live in is that policies, such as the one you
> describe, reinforce a myth who seems to need more of those policies
> etc... and we all live in a 'nice' seemingly coherent, but confused
> world of mixed realities, irrationaliry and vested interests.. A
> photographer who has been affected most from such nonsense lately is
> Sally Mann.Yet, all of us we might be affected sooner or later,
> because either of our colour of skin, or the place we take photographs
> of, or the subject we choose and other sad things..
>
> This all is not an issue of Political Correctness, but, as we see, a
> social much deeper one...
>
> C.
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