Moral panic - panic of the other

AS and A Level Religious Studies & Philosophy

Moral panic – panic of the other

Moral panic is a widely used and often misinterpreted concept in social sciences. The term was invented by the British sociologist Stanley Cohen the late sixties. Cohen defined moral panic as a form of collective behaviour during which: “A condition, episode, person or group emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnosis and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or (more often) resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes visible “ (Cohen 1972: 9). Cohen was using this term for a phenomenon in Great Britain in his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics primarily about the rockers who vandalised in a small town in the early 60’.

American scholars quickly adopted, used (and often overused) this term. Goode and Ben-Yehuda presented and analysed various moral panics through history and tried to search for common indicators. According to their definition "A moral panic is characterised by the feeling, held by a substantial number of the members of a given society, that evil-doers pose a threat to the society and to the moral order as a consequence of their behaviour and, therefore, "something should be done" about them and their behaviour." (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 1994:31). The more known moral panic in history is the witchcraft of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the more recent moral panic according to Goode and Ben-Yehuda is the drug panic in the US.

In this paper I argue that moral panic in not just a mass sociological phenomenon or a concept of sociology. It represents the collective fear of the society from the “other”. I suggest that today moral panic is not simply a matter of exaggerated social problems, but it is a fear of losing control over the “other” and the fear of the truth about the “other”. Moral panic intends to reinforce the boundaries between the “self” and the “other”. My case study is the moral panic of pornography on the Internet.

Moral panic What is moral panic? Moral panic ...

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Moral panic What is moral panic? Moral panic is a form of collective behaviour that from one day to the other considers a certain group of people dangerous. The reasons might vary from fake rumours to real (exaggerated) facts. The period of a moral panic usually ends with social actions either in form of attacking the “other” (in the case of a Satanic Ritual) or in changing the law (pornography on the Internet). Moral panics usually take place at the time of significant changes in society, when there is a great fear of loss of control. In these times “collective consciousness” needs to be reinforced so that society can locate new boundaries. Other examples of moral panics are over witchcrafts, satanic rituals, drugs, handguns, teenage pregnancy, TV violence, Internet and so on. According to Goode and Ben-Yehuda, moral panic has the following necessary indicators:

1. Concern - (different from fear) over the imagined threat (and those associated with it). This can be measured by sociological methods such as "opinion polls”.

2. Hostility – The concern is followed by intense hostility toward the “enemies” involved in the action that is central of the panic.

3. Consensus - Consensus of a part of the population that the threat exists, and it is and serious.

4. Disproportionality – The estimated numbers of cases and the extent of the harm is much greater than can be verified empirical investigations. This is a very important element of moral panic, since it is crucial to decide if the concern is actually a moral panic or not.

5. Volatility – It erupts and disappears suddenly. (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 1994:33-39).

Horsfield criticized the concept of moral panic from various points of views. He claims that Cohen (and Goode and Ben-Yehuda) try to avoid defining deviance as accepted and unquestionable, however, the “model of moral panics requires a structure of norm and deviance as a hermeneutical device”. He also criticises the term “panic”. Psychologically it is associated with being out of control or acting irrationally, whereas, moral panics are often very much rational acts. The word is “associated with the actions of an irrational and undirected mob in contrast to the measured and rational actions of rulers”. Moral panic includes both legal and illegal activities (drug problem, football hooliganism, vandalism) that – according to Horsfield - cause the indiscriminate and inappropriate understanding of the concept. He also suggests to question whether the concept of moral is as coherent as the concept of moral panic suggests (Horsfield, 1997).

Fear of the other

Instead of analysing moral panics, I would like to add my thoughts about the “fear of the other”. The fear of the folk devil is deeply embodied in Western cultures. I would even go one step further and claim that we have a constant fear of the other, and moral panics helps us to put in words this fear and quickly find some kind of “solution” for it. Indeed I claim that fear of the “other” is the major element of moral panic. Moral panic not only allows us to be “other” for a while (we can be involved in social actions, chase the “others”, and find solution to stop their action), it also puts back this fear to the lower “regions” of our unconsciousness. It also helps us to set up the boundaries again and divide “them” and “us”. However, I think that this fear itself can become more destructive if we “solve” the problems caused by moral panic.

Case study: pornography on the Internet

The latest world-wide moral panic is pornography on the Internet. With this case study I intend to show that moral panic is dangerous not only because it creates fear of the other, but also because it does not allow us individually to work on this “fear”.

First of all I have to state that I do not debate the existence of pornography on the Internet. Pornography is one of the most controversial topics in relation to Internet. One can often read articles titled “85% of the Internet sites are sex related” or “children were abused through Internet”. Why is pornography on the Internet a moral panic? The cover story “On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn” TIME, July 3, 1995 is a very good example of signs of moral panic. There is a concern about and hostility towards the “other” who uncontrollably uses pornographic sites for pleasure, sells it, and makes it available to “our children”. According to the number of articles in the mass media and the public discourse there seems to be a consensus about the fact, that this a problem to be solved. I am not going to give examples about the disproportionality of the panic, but doing survey on the Internet is a very debatable fact in sociology nowadays. The most debatable statistics regarding cyberporn done by Rimm and published in Georgetown Law Journal in 1995 states that “83,5% of all images posted on the Usenet are pornographic”. Although this number has lost its authority in the academic circles, the public and political discourse is still often relies on it. It became part of the public discourse. According to Goode and Ben-Yehuda the last indicator of moral panic is its volatility, it comes and goes quickly. I would suggest that this moral panic today is in its passing stage.

The panic is passing away and pushing back our fears of the “other” who uses pornographic images. This moral panic will pass away by creating laws and creating court cases. It is passing with “solving” the problem, with forcing the non-existing boundaries between those who enjoy looking pornographic pictures and those who do not. It stopped our work on the question of pornography, on questioning the need of pornography, on questioning our relation to sexuality. Indeed it increased the feeling of shame and guilt about pornography, and paved the road for the next moral panic.

Bibliography

Cohen, S. (1972) Folk Devils and Moral Panics, London: MacGibbon and Kee

Goode, E. and Ben-Yehuda, N. (1994) Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance, Cambridge, MA: Blackwell

Horsfield, P. (1997) Media International Australia No. 85, November

Rimm, M. (1995) Marketing pornography on the information superhighway. Georgetown Law Journal, 83, 1849-1934.