Capitalism, TV and God

At an Anglican discussion group this week and the question <<is distrust endemic in our society?>> came up. Surely, I thought, everyone will pitch in with examples of distrust - bankers, lawyers, politicians on the make - you don't have to look far for excellent folk examples. But there was silence.

I give it a minute and ask everyone what they think about capitalism - specifically does competition, relentless competition, breed distrust? It isn't the kind of statement that would always be guaranteed much traction in this kind of environment, but no one demurred. One woman in her thirties agrees, giving an example of students competing for results. A priest goes further - is it possible to stop competition becoming reflected in a relationship with God? What happens when consumerism, individualism and competition become defining characteristics of our relationship with other human beings - it doesn't seem credible that the faithful of any religion could shake off these shackles when having a relationship with God.

There's a new television programme on the BBC by the Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker called 'How TV Ruined Your Life' (I don't think the irony is lost on him) which argues that the media has used fear to increase ratings. An obvious one I guess. But he pulls out research which argues that the more a particular image is repeated on TV the more ingrained it becomes in the brain; the more real it seems. Inevitably, therefore, other studies show that those who watch more TV believe they are in greater danger from crime and other threats than those who watch less. And, equally inevitably, this bares little to no relationship to reality as represented by falling crime statistics.

Competition and fear are natural bedfellows, and, of course, they undermine trust and then justify distrust by leading us to behave in untrustworthy ways. And TV, one of the most irresistible conduits for information about our world that there is, uses every tool in the disaster movie handbook to amplify competition in any way it knows how.