As I strolled through the Diag  a few weeks ago I was confronted,   like many of you, by the disturbing images of the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP).  I was shocked. “What purpose could this serve?” I wondered.  “Regardless of one’s stand on abortion, people will react to this exhibition emotionally; this will stimulate reaction, but no thought.  This is no way to promote civilized discussion.”  But a simple encounter later that day led to the realization of how incorrect my emotional reaction was, and how valuable shock can be.

That evening I was over at a friend’s place, and she began to bemoan the Diag display. “Can you believe that!” she exclaimed.  I sympathized.  She continued: “I mean, to compare the killing of millions in the holocaust to abortion! They’re two totally different kinds of people.”  I couldn’t help but chuckle.  “What - why are you laughing?” she responded.
“I think that’s kind of their point — to get you to see fetuses as people.”
“Well, they didn’t prove anything to me.  I already thought of fetuses as people.”
I was surprised; “Oh, you’re pro-life then?” I asked quizzically.
“Well, no…” came the reply.  And a discussion of the issue and the full ramifications of my friend’s revelation ensued.

Despite being an intelligent, rational, compassionate human being much like all of you, my friend had failed to incorporate fully people into her political consciousness her belief that fetuses were people.  Why is this, you might ask?  Perhaps it’s for the same reason most people do most things: Because it was the easiest path for her.  As a liberal at this primarily liberal university, it was easier for her to ignore this belief, to push it to the bottom and continue living her existence within the social norm, than to deal with the reality of the situation.
Historically there are countless instances where shocking images have forced society to reevaluate its beliefs and basic institutions.  The in-your-face rhetoric of Muhammad Ali and the images of Martin Luther King’s death helped lead to integration and widespread valuation of African Americans as people with equal rights.  The images of American boys dying gruesomely on foreign soil helped shock the country into grassroots anti-war movement.  Images of an American peacekeeper being dragged naked through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 led directly to public reevaluation of America’s role in the international peacekeeping sphere.  A shocking image can have powerful repercussions.

Nobody likes being shocked.  This simple truth is virtually impossible to deny.  However, this does not necessarily mean that shock is bad, or cannot serve a purpose.  It is all too easy to avoid thinking about things that disturb us. Shock forces an individual to confront issues that they would rather avoid.  The value of shock is not in the moment of incidence, where the emotion occurs, but rather when the emotion fades away and the issue remains, through the thought promoted and the discussion engendered.  Shock is the antidote to complacency, and let’s face it: we all need to be shaken out of our complacency at least once in a while.  If not that, what is college for?