There is a cultural factor promoting violence which nowadays undoubtedly is highly effective is the mass media. And particularly everything that enters our minds through pictorial media.
Interpretation
The quote highlights how mass media influences and perpetuates violence in society.
Alva Myrdal's quote points out the significant role that mass media plays in shaping cultural attitudes towards violence. She suggests that the imagery and narratives presented in visual media are particularly potent in influencing public perception and behaviors, thereby serving as a powerful factor in promoting a culture of violence.
In practice
In discussions about media regulation, one could use this quote to highlight the responsibility of media creators.
Because war and preparations for war have acquired legitimacy, and because of the tremendous proliferation of arms through production and export, so that they are now available more or less to all and sundry, right down to handguns and stilettos, the cult of violence has by now so permeated relations between people that we are compelled to witness as well an increase in everyday violence.
War is murder. And the military preparations now being made for a potential major confrontation are aimed at collective murder. In a nuclear age the victims would be numbered by the millions. This naked truth must be faced.
The longing for peace is rooted in the hearts of all men. But the striving, which at present has become so insistent, cannot lay claim to such an ambition as leading the way to eternal peace, or solving all disputes among nations.
Moral responsibility is what is lacking in a man when he demands it of a woman.
Without the restraints of religion and social worship, men become savages much sooner than savages become civilized by means of religion and civil government.
But I deny that the Constitution recognizes property in man.
Those to whom worshiping is a window, to open but also to shut, have not yet visited the house of their souls whose windows are open from dawn to dawn.
I'll not hurt thee, says Uncle Toby, rising with the fly in his hand. Go, he says, opening the window to let it escape. Why should I hurt thee? This world is surely wide enough to hold both thee and me.
My rule is, if you want to build something that does all things for all people, it's not going to work real well.
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