Cultural Transformation

“Whether our cultural system (value structure, theological beliefs, families and education system) have an adequate force to protect us, to defense ourselves in the middle of massive acceleration from global civilization?”

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On certain matters, we have to admitted, that we ought to appreciate what mass media have done. With their persuasive capacity which reaches every home, mass media have a role as a cultural guard, a democratization watchdog, an arouser of social awareness, and even as a moral officer.

The disgraceful demoralization affair (which discussed until now) was a sex scandal of our national legislative assembly member. With media provocation, this sex scandal became widespread issue, and able to clarify various symptoms which are distinctive feature of our present Ages.

Apart from this scandal politicization (it’s seems that we already have a long-standing question about moral integrity of our public official), there’s a lot of message which emerge to the public. This scandal is only a surface of free life style as ‘the unseen ice-floe phenomenon’. Free life style, and free sex as its principle substance, already involved many people: student, also university student, young executives, former activist of religious organization, public official and included society figures.

Sex scandal also exhibit in what Akbar S. Ahmed convinced about. Professor Akbar (as a Moslem’s professor on International Studies at American University-Washington DC) believed that present Ages was a ‘post-honor Ages’. The Ages wherein honor (or dignities) metamorphoses to the unessential conception. Human honor failed into nothingness.

However, member of DPR-RI’s sex scandal is only a small part of zeitgeist (a prime marker), from freedom revolution which occurs in our society.

We’re all knows, since social repression started decreased, liberalization doctrines also started to find a relevant form at our life system and public space. Free life style, ATM condoms, free sex, an absolute of information freedom with vulgar news and magazines, or subtle youth prostitution is manifestation of tangible permissive philosophy.

Society Anomaly

On larger frame, it’s more complicated for us to decide our attitude. Our eastern identity, morality system, and theological values have to face rapid changes.

When cultural observer and intellectuals still debates about liberalization impact which damage and substitute pervasively to our nation identity’s system, apparently, some of our society consider these realities as usual inclination. It’s a part of modernization.

Thought tradition which emphasizes truth as a relative and subjective fact is started expands on our society. This tradition exalts a hypothesis that morality isn’t term of right or wrong, but more based on personal desire and subjectively contentment.

Is it a result of ‘education without character’, as one representation of the seven social sin which introduced by Mohandas Gandhi? Or, is it a multiplier effect of clash civilization from Samuel Huntington? Is it a kind of global tendencies that parallel with Hegel discourse about history’s meta-narrations, which brought us to a wider rationality and freedom?

With these preconditions, it’s possibly too premature to conclude that already happen a large-scale substituted at our cultural system. Too early to judge about our beliefs system shifted, which also influenced on how we comprehend-fully, think about, feels and to do something.

We seemingly just entered an anomie stage. The systematic stages which introduces by Emile Durkheim, and talked about an erasure process to indigenous traditions and deregulation at some society. The stage where we’re difficult to differentiate whether a certain social behavior is deviant behavior, or it’s an advanced eugenic activity (and also indicates our advancement civilization).

This anomie stage and inter-civilization contact are significant initial symptom for cultural transformation process. Wherein informational media, as civilization agent, join in clarify of crystallization from our cultural idea, activity and artifact’s changes. On anthropological term that interrelated, we known about baseline acculturation term. This term has meaning that entering process of external values was an initial moment for cultural diffusion.

An Existential Discourse

Finally, we’re demands for prepare ourselves to confront a freedom revolution at larger-scale. And preferable we’re not necessary to use up our energy for debate on freedom legality and its trickle down effect to our society. Because, according to Foucault, each society periods will have rightness regime of themselves.

For that reasons, significant knot which surely debate is our social-cultural force itself. Whether our cultural system (value structure, theological beliefs, families and education system) have an adequate force to protect us, to defense ourselves in the middle of massive acceleration from global civilization?

An apocalypse challenges for us is how an education system capable to maintain our value structure. Also, how parents (and family) run their traditional role effectively to re-define an environment which potentially produced the valueless world-design.

This discourse which questioning our cultural existence isn’t provocation. It’s also not a stimulus toward binary logic (thinking based on black or white, right or wrong), especially discourse with esoteric messages.

This existential discourse is only a minor part of wider dialectics effort. An effort to stimulate antithesis toward a dim thought of ‘positivistic’ philosophy, which convinced that the permanent moral-theology values and eastern identity was an utopia state. It’s also claims certainty about narcissistic changes, sooner or later, on our indigenous value and cultural system.

Kuis & Orang Miskin

Seperti yang kerap kita lihat, di beberapa media elektronik, beragam kuis hadir sebagai salah satu wahana hiburan. Apalagi, menjelang momen-momen khusus tertentu yang memerlukan banyak kemewahan sebagai tanda bahwa media elektronik memang ‘memanjakan’ kita semua.

Sebagian besar kuis bertujuan untuk merangsang senyum kita, ketika kita melihat orang-orang mendapatkan berbagai hadiah. Dari tontonan ini pula, perasaan bahagia, keceriaan dan kejutan dapat menghibur kita. Mengajak kita bersenang-senang sejenak, melepaskan penat dan melupakan tekanan dalam kehidupan. Meski, kita bukanlah pemenangnya.

Buat sebagian dari kita, sepertinya tidak ada yang salah dengan meluasnya berbagai kuis tersebut. Namun, ada satu hal yang mengkhawatirkan saya, yang berkaitan dengan relasi antara kuis dan orang miskin.

Untuk kita, menonton kuis yang berhadiah jutaan, bahkan miliaran, tentu menjadi pengalaman menyenangkan, sekaligus mendebarkan.

Tapi, sensasi itu mungkin akan terasa berbeda pada orang miskin. Pada para tukang becak, nelayan, atau pedagang kaki lima, yang mesti menghabiskan seharian hidupnya mengumpulkan uang, yang sekedar cukup untuk bertahan hidup.

Sedangkan, dari tontonan kuis itu, seseorang bukan hanya dengan mudah mendapatkan uang (pada salah satu kuis, anda cukup berpenampilan aneh, pemandu kuispun memilih anda, dan dipastikan anda akan membawa pulang hadiah), tapi juga seringkali sekedar bermodalkan keberuntungan.

Orang miskin lalu mulai membandingkan, antara dirinya yang bekerja keras namun selalu dalam keprihatinan, dengan orang-orang (dalam kuis di televisi) yang dengan mudah mendapatkan uang. Makna kerja keras seperti disepelekan.

Yang lebih menyedihkan, akses-akses untuk kuis seringkali tidak mungkin dijangkau oleh orang miskin, orang yang lebih membutuhkan hadiah-hadiah tersebut.

Apakah kita tidak menangkap bentuk ketidak-adilan disini? Orang miskin di Indonesia bukan sekedar ‘warga kelas dua’, yang mendapatkan diskriminasi dalam berbagai hal. Tapi juga mesti gigit jari, mesti sabar menonton hiburan-hiburan di televisi yang berpeluang menyakiti perasaan mereka.

Kuis mungkin memang hanya hiburan untuk kita. Tetapi, sebaiknya, konsep-konsep kuis juga hendaknya memperhatikan dampak psikologis bagi orang miskin. Terutama, untuk kuis-kuis yang tidak penting, yang hanya mengumbar hadiah miliaran rupiah dengan mudah.

Dalam bingkai yang lebih besar, bangsa kita sepertinya kurang memerlukan jurnalistik hedonis, jurnalistik remeh temeh (melalui berbagai infotainment yang menggempur rumah kita setiap hari), dan juga berbagai produk jurnalisme bernuansa kekerasan sebagai menu utama dalam tayangan stasiun televisi kita.

Untuk beberapa kasus, kita bahkan membenci media yang dapat dengan dingin bersifat netral terhadap posisi-posisi moral dan pesan-pesan spiritual. Media yang menayangkan gambar kemewahan selebritas virtual dalam satu detik (yang serba berlebih dan menghambur-hamburkan), dan pada detik berikutnya orang-orang di daerah pedalaman yang kelaparan dan nyaris sekarat.

Terakhir, untuk stasiun televisi, ataupun perusahaan-perusahaan yang menjadi sumber dana bagi penyelenggaraan suatu kuis, bukankah dana yang begitu besar itu sebaiknya diwujudkan dalam bentuk corporate philanthropist.

Membangun sekolah yang hendak runtuh, mengembangkan rumah sakit di daerah terpencil, memberi beasiswa bagi orang miskin, ataupun membantu pemerintah dalam mengatasi kelaparan dan gizi buruk, tentu lebih dibutuhkan oleh bangsa ini.

Pelajaran Dari Bangladesh

Komite Nobel Norwegia, seperti tahun-tahun sebelumnya, memberikan kejutan yang mengharukan. Kejutan berupa pemberian Hadiah Nobel Perdamaian 2006 untuk Muhammad Yunus dan Bank Grameen, yang sebelumnya sama sekali tidak disebut-sebut media massa dalam peng-anugerahan hadiah prestisius tersebut.

Perjuangan Muhammad Yunus sejak tahun 1974 untuk membangun pilar terpenting perdamaian, yakni pemberantasan kemiskinan, memang layak untuk diapresiasi.

Profesor Yunus berupaya mereduksi kemiskinan dengan memberikan akses modal bagi kaum miskin, tanpa jaminan dan collateral (syarat) yang berbelit-belit. Akses modal ini dikelolanya dalam lembaga kredit, yang kemudian ditransformasikan menjadi bank formal, bernama Bank Grameen.

Sejak berdiri tahun 1983, Bank Grameen, atau Bank Desa dalam bahasa Bengali, telah memiliki 2.226 cabang di 71.371 desa. Bank itu kini mampu menyalurkan kredit puluhan juta dollar AS, setiap bulan, kepada sekitar 6 juta lebih kaum miskin yang menjadi nasabahnya.

Kemenangan Profesor Yunus membuat isu kemiskinan, kredit mikro dan pemberdayaan kaum miskin menjadi arus utama perhatian masyarakat. (Entah kebetulan, atau memang latah mengikuti trend, iklan pemerintah mengenai program bantuan modal bagi masyarakat miskin dan usaha mikro tampak sering kita lihat di media massa belakangan ini).

Kemiskinan Di Indonesia

Masalah kemiskinan ini, seperti biasa, harus kita kaitkan dengan negeri kita. Dengan sekitar 40 juta masyarakat yang hidup di bawah garis kemiskinan, Indonesia merupakan negeri dengan masyarakat miskin terbesar ketiga di Asia.

Negeri yang sepertinya selalu mempunyai program pemberantasan kemiskinan.

Mulai dari kredit Bimbingan Massal (Bimas) semasa orde baru, program kredit mikro dari KUD, paket Kredit Usaha Kecil (KUK) sebesar 20% yang wajib disalurkan oleh bank di awal tahun 1990-an, pemberdayaan UMKM, program BLT untuk meningkatkan daya beli masyarakat miskin, proyek Perkasa (pengembangan usaha mikro khusus untuk perempuan), hingga kebijakan penguatan Lembaga Kredit Mikro (LKM).

Namun, dari realitas yang kita lihat, masyarakat miskin seolah tetap berada dalam lingkaran kemiskinannya.

Di negeri ini, usaha mikro bukan hanya sulit mengakses kredit dari perbankan (karena alasan tidak bankable), tapi juga terkadang kurang mendapatkan perlindungan yang memadai dari pemerintah.

Aliran kredit dari bank malah mengalir ke bisnis milik pengusaha besar, yang rasionya hanya 0,01% dari sekitar 44,69 juta unit usaha yang ada di Indonesia. Pasar-pasar tradisional mulai tergusur, digantikan mall-mall dan hypermarket.

Koperasi yang semestinya menjadi Multiple Purpose Vehicle bagi masyarakat, menurut Sri-Edi Swasono dalam sebuah Seminar Nasional tentang masa depan koperasi yang pernah penulis ikuti, malah disisihkan dan dihakimi sebagai anti-tesis yang tidak memadai untuk mengatasi persoalan kemiskinan.

Noble Principle

Kesenjangan ini tentu mengindikasikan adanya sesuatu yang salah, entah itu pada sistem ataupun pendekatan yang digunakan, dalam pemberantasan kemiskinan di Indonesia. Melalui kesenjangan inilah kita mesti belajar dari Muhammad Yunus dan Bank Grameen-nya.

(Simak komentar Muhammad Yunus: ‘Kami, profesor universitas semuanya pintar, tetapi kami sama sekali tidak tahu mengenai kemiskinan di sekitar kami. Ketika banyak orang yang sekarat di jalan-jalan karena kelaparan, saya justru sedang mengajarkan teori-teori ekonomi yang elegan’).

Komentar ini adalah semacam gugatan terhadap pakar ekonomi yang berada dalam menara gading, yang terlalu memuja competitive economics, dan cenderung meremehkan cooperative economics. Yang juga ikut serta melestarikan sistem sosial-ekonomi yang tidak adil bagi masyarakat miskin. Sistem yang terkadang memandang sebelah mata kontribusi usaha mikro (dan koperasi) dalam pertumbuhan ekonomi.

Dari Bangladesh, kita belajar bahwa usaha mikro (dan koperasi) bukan semata berperan dalam pemberantasan kemiskinan, tapi juga dapat menjadi countervailing power (kekuatan penyeimbang) dalam era globalisasi ini. Kekuatan yang menyebarkan noble principle: menolong diri sendiri untuk mandiri secara bersama-sama (mutual self-help).

Dari Bangladesh juga, kita belajar bagaimana Profesor Yunus berbuat sesuatu yang nyata untuk mewujudkan hasrat pribadinya dalam menghapus kemiskinan di Bangladesh pada tahun 2030 (Time, 13/10/06).

Lalu, bagaimana dengan kita?

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Children & Media Violence

“And by what our children learns to associate violence?
They associate with soft-drink, or with their favorite candies.
We play a role on raised a generation who learn to associate violence with pleasure”
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Finally (when television program with violence images as main content, like ‘smack-down’, hurt ours child), everybody yelled out, criticized and demanded to halt all kinds of television product which have violence substance.

As consequence, recently mass media become a main part of public debate. Unfortunately, public argues about recognizably ideas. Public already knows that media, as warned by Marshall McLuhan, is a central dynamics of our present life.

Media have an influential energy. They are able to entertains, teach, educates, and mislead us, unrelenting with unbelievable variation. They also as an absurdity sign of our world, spreads the expressive freedom, frequently unlimited, and able to direct all sorts of realities.

In relations to our social world, media could have a neutral characteristic, sometimes without sensibilities, toward moralize and spiritual messages. They could present a luxury scene in one second, and poor people whose starvation in next second.

Forced Entertainment Industry

An extensive study about relation between media violence and aggressive children on various countries shows considerable cross-cultural generalizability (Social Psychology, 1999:407). Its have meaning that those studies adequately applied on several countries with different culture. So, we could use the result of 1998’s National Television Violence Study on USA, as a scientific base on how we shall be reacting toward our television programs.

Latest news has shown that our refusal, even if reactionary, already forced Lativi to stop ‘smack-down’ program. It’s surely relieved our furies, included justify the fact about social responsibility from media to reduce all sorts of program with violence substance. Nevertheless, we ought to realize carefully, that aggressive children not emerge from singular cause, like those ‘smack-down’ program. It’s a complex behavior state.

Another vehicle for children to learning about violence still encircle excessively. From entertainment industries, movies loaded with violence which presented at prime time and accessible to our child, criminal news (media publicity about child-suicide could be a trigger for children to do same thing in future), up to an electronic games that played everyday by our child.

On this ‘smack-down’ case, significant trigger possibly came from ‘smack-down’ games, rather than its television program. This hypothesis, according to senior researcher of MIT Janet Murray, based on several research which shown that interactive games have more pervasive consequences to real life (High Tech High Touch, 1999:111). An electronic simulation on ‘smack-down’ games could transfer everything that learned by children in ‘simulation’ world to real life.

Games which played, violence images from movies and television program which digested by our children, become a part from children’s life experiences, and influenced children to shape their world-view. This synthesis roll-out violence images continuously.

Therefore, efforts to protect our child from media violence not only depend on media’s social responsibility, but also from entertainment and games industry. This process, as we’re forced tobacco industries to increase their fiscal and social responsibilities, take an exhausted time and debate.

Internal Feedback

Polemic around violence program which consumed by children also become a feedback, a self-criticism process for parents, educators and institutes that interested in this issues.

We, all of parent and educator, also have to evaluate our self. Where are we, when our child still wakes up in late of night? Have we known that some of our child’s spare time used for playing a violence games. Or, why educator, as a replacement parent in school, didn’t identified early symptoms from aggressive children and communicated its information to parents.

Those evaluative questions helped us to mapping a problem more objectively, and put our reactionaries’ attitude (and blame the other obsessively) aside. We must understand that we have a possibility to play unconsciously role on violence desensitization to our child.

This possibility also worried by David Grossman, the writer of ‘Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action against TV, Movie and Video Games Violence’. Dr Grossman said that we have a possibility to let our child watch violence images alone. On his book, Dr Grossman also asks, “And by what our children learns to associate violence? They associate with soft-drink, or with their favorite candies. We play a role on raised a generation who learn to associate violence with pleasure”.

In same intensity, self-criticism also prevails for institutes that interested in media violence-child issues. We all knew that ‘smack-down’ program already presented for several years ago. But, why those institutes gave their hard react recently, whereas in fact we also knew about its negative impact since several years ago too.

We surely not only wanted an artificial interests, but also a sustainable aid against media violence. We need a systematic guidance equipment, included an adequate assistance to identified violence products which sell to our child.