Update: Oct 5th, 2023
I wrote the following blog ten years ago. I think it still holds its validity despite the fact that some of the named TV shows are no longer on the air. My general premises remain accurate.
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I get a lot of strange looks from people when I tell them that I do not have a TV set. Furthermore, I emphasize that I would not watch TV if I did have one. Many people then apologize and tell me that they agree with me and that TV is really bad but that they only watch the “good” stuff. Pause! Inevitably, this reasoning is followed by: “You really should watch: The History Channel, The Discovery Channel or PBS. There are some good shows on these channels.” They generally ignore my explanation that I can catch any “Good Stuff” on the Internet via Netflix On-Demand or even direct at the various channels where I can access archives of previous shows. Thus, I see what I want to see, when I want to see it and without commercials or other idiotic distractions.
Of course, there is the problem that I slowly and inexorably become out of touch with the “mainstream” culture. As new versions of “Survivors, X-Factor, American Idol, Pawn Wars, Game of Thrones, and NCIS come on, I have no clue as to what these shows are about or who stars in them or why I should watch them. I feel like a person born in the 18th century who is suddenly catapulted into the 21st Century. My clothing, concepts, ideas and knowledge of the current zeitgeist marks me as a “Stranger from a strange land.” I am a Stranger in the midst of all these TV viewers with their myriad diaspora of shows each complete with followers, devotees and addicts. God forbid I say anything negative about the Teutuls or Duck Dynasty or Holly Boo Boo or SNL. I must be old or ancient or senile. How could I miss the beauty and aesthetics of these shows? (By the way, I will not include sports shows in this blog, since they merit a topic all by themselves.)
Nevertheless, for hours at a time, I am frequently obliged to watch TV. It happens this way. Karen and I go to visit a relative, friend, daughter etc. We sit down in the living room in front of a MEGA 200 inch TV complete with loudspeakers, amplifiers, megaphones and surround sound. We talk for a few minutes and then the TV gets turned on. In the next three to four hours, we see snippets of over a ZILLION shows. My mind starts to reel from the paucity of knowledge and useless amount of information that is being directed at me from the BOOB tube. I am gracious and do not say anything negative about TV. Fortunately at some point, I am saved. Either it is time for dinner, time to leave or time to go to bed. In either case, my brain is overdue for “time-out” from TV land. The good part of this travail is that I am now current again with 21st century culture. I now know what moves the hoi polloi. I can converse with some degree of discernment on the relative merits of Simon Cowell as a judge versus Kelly Rowland. I can reminisce with those who mourn the death of the Sopranos or Breaking Bad. Furthermore, I have new content with which to write my next 1000 blogs condemning the inanity that I have somehow managed to survive before my brain totally rotted.
What have I learned from watching 21st Century TV? TV today is all about “Manufactured” drama. But you may argue, isn’t most literature and entertainment about drama? Circus acts, war stories, murder mysteries, Shakespeare, opera, cartoons, police stories, sitcoms, sports and almost any other form of entertainment that one can think about all involve drama. How is TV today different from “traditional” drama? Let’s start by looking at the definition of the words we are using here:
Drama:
1: a: a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue and typically designed for theatrical performance.
b: a movie or television production with characteristics (as conflict) of a serious play; broadly : a play, movie, or television production with a serious tone or subject <a police drama>
Manufactured:
1: to make into a product suitable for use
2: a: to make from raw materials by hand or by machinery
b: to produce according to an organized plan and with division of labor
c: prefabricate <a manufactured home>
To get a better idea of what I am talking about, I will use a concrete example. Let’s look at Shakespeare’s Macbeth and compare it to the TV show X-Factor. Macbeth was a story about a fictional King who may have been meant to resemble in part a real Scottish king of bygone times. The play’s main plot involves the desire of Macbeth to become King and the greed and depths of depravity that can bring someone to immoral acts to achieve their goals. The themes are powerful because we can all identify with them. The story is fictional, the lines are made up, and the characters are drawn from Shakespeare’s fertile mind. Nevertheless, nothing seems contrived or artificial about this play. The themes of power and ambition are strong because they resemble many such struggles throughout history. In fact, all of us can imagine wanting something so bad, that we might even consider unethical acts to obtain it. Macbeth becomes an icon for the individual who will sacrifice their morals and ethics for ambition.
X-Factor is a TV “reality” show in which singers and entertainers compete for a chance to win a grand prize. The format has one hundred contestants battling it out for just twenty-four places. Each of four judges gives their favorite contestants one of their six seats. The drama of competition is heightened by having four judges who alternately select and then reject the very people they selected.
The X-Factor producers are forced to create cruel twists to the competition because viewers are becoming immune to sob stories, a psychologist has claimed. Chartered psychologist Dr. Rick Norris believes that program makers have to keep shocking the audience to keep up high viewing figures. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2449808/X-Factor-producers-deliberately-creating-cruel-twists-claims-psychologist.html
Watching or reading Macbeth evokes themes of morality, justice, greed, ambition, loyalty and ethics. Watching X-factor evokes themes of contrived, fake, phoney, pseudo, cruel, malicious and obnoxious behavior. Watching Macbeth involves strong emotions wherein I can reflect on the morals that must mitigate behavior and action in the real world. Watching X-Factor, I am appalled by the fake melodrama and artificial behaviors of the judges and contestants. While Macbeth has no claims to be “reality” drama, TV shows like X-Factor seek to portray themselves as real.
The feeling I get from watching most current TV shows can be summed up as “CONTRIVED and PHONY.” Real people don’t behave like TV people do. Real people work 9 to 5 jobs and don’t live on Fantasy Island or spend their days at Pawn Shops. However, real people can be coerced by TV producers to act like “drama queens.” A few examples will illustrate my point. The following is from a graduate thesis: Behind the Scenes: Uncovering the structures and manipulations of Tabloid Talk Show Workers, Guests and Audiences. – By Kelly Thompson Losch Deshotel
The producers have the ability to persuade and intimidate guests into any behavior they feel is beneficial to the program’s ratings. One associate producer (AP) tells the guests that they will be portrayed as cowards if they do not defend themselves during the last segment when the studio audience is given the opportunity to voice opinions or ask questions about the guests on the program. “Get mad, get out there into the audience, they’ll respect you more if you fight back,” this AP exclaims. Directly following the commercial break, the guests jump out of their chairs and dart into the audience after every audience comment.
The next example is from Entertainment News and is about the Survivors. In a question about the “reality” of this show the author states:
We’re not too sure about the “pure” aspect of the show, especially since nothing on Survivor is as real as you want it to be. The contestants are filmed as they walk to Tribal Council along jagged rocks and beautiful oceanic views, but as a matter of fact, the contestants merely walk about 500 meters before they get picked up by a production vehicle with blacked-out windows. The contestants are not allowed to talk during this one hour drive to Tribal Council and if they arrive at the Tribal Council destination before dusk, they have to wait outside of the Tribal Council area until the atmosphere is perfect for filming. Several contestants have complained about this fact in the past and have revealed that the time spent at Tribal Council sometimes stretched into the early hours of the next morning to get all the dialogue pinned down.
With very little research it can be shown that almost all of the drama on TV is “Manufactured.” There is little real about “reality” TV and there is even less about TV that can be said to have any ethical, moral or spiritually redeeming value. TV was becoming a vast wasteland in the sixties and it has continued its march towards degeneracy, vulgarity, and mediocrity with little or no resistance from the vast millions of viewers in TV land. In search of a means of transcending the banality and ordinariness of everyday existence, millions of Americans have become addicted to fake synthetic versions of life that seem to offer something missing in their own lives. Turn on, Tune in and Drop out. Americans have added TV to drugs in their search for an alternate reality. The reality on TV is the reality of dreams while the everyday reality that most TV addicts lead is one of frustration, monotony and boredom.
Get a life. Turn the TV off. Use your imagination.
Time for Questions:
What do I have against TV? Why criticize something that brings so much joy to so many people’s lives? Did a TV fall on me when I was young and forever prejudice me against the BOOB tube? What would happen to America if people spent less time watching TV? What if instead of 36 hours per week that people spent watching TV, they only spent 18? What if we demanded an end to the fake reality that is a daily occurrence on TV? What if TV was more informative and educational and less exploitative and demeaning? How much TV do you want your kids to watch? Do you think most images and characters on TV should be role models for others?
Life is just beginning.
Once upon a time, I thought debates were the answer to the question of “how do we discover the truth?” I thought that if you put two intelligent people together and each took opposing positions on an issue, that through the interplay of ideas the truth would emerge. If you think about this a bit, it is the basis for our judicial system in America. One side argues for the defendant, the other side argues for the prosecution or against the defendant. It is also the basis for an academic exercise called Dialectical Research or Dialectical Inquiry.
A dialectical investigation is a form of qualitative research which utilizes the method of dialectic, aiming to discover truth through examining and interrogating competing ideas, perspectives or arguments. This latter method is often applied through the use of case studies in which students or investigators discuss…
We are surrounded by people who only do things because they get paid for it or because they will be rewarded by power, fame, or fortune. If the highest calling we can have in the world is to love others, then the next highest calling must be to perform some task or effort simply for the “Love of It.” Not because we are going to receive any payment for it. Not because we expect to get a promotion for it. Not even because we expect to get a pat on the back for it. Simply because we do it for the “Love of It.”
There are going to be those of you who will say that the title of this blog is preposterous. A few years ago, I would have called “Bullshit.” Funny how aging changes ones perspective. I asked four friends all over the age of 70 what they thought about my proposition. They all nodded sagely and said that they agreed 100 percent. I then went to my spouse Karen who as a Home Care nurse spent many years working with the elderly. I expected her to deny my proposition. I was quite surprised when she also agreed. I asked her why. She explained as follows:
I mentioned this to some running friends of mine. One of the younger ones asked me what I had done to prevent falling or to somehow adjust my attitude so that I could continue running. I explained that over the years I had started running with knee pads, elbow pads, shatterproof glasses, and hand guards like roller bladers used. I had the best trail running shoes that I could afford. He asked if I would be willing to look for some new ideas so that I could return to the mountain trails. I told him that I appreciated the offer but that I was finished with running rocky mountain trails.
Our Founding Fathers wrote a Big Lie and African Americans have been paying for it ever since. Women and other minorities were not even mentioned in the Big Lie, but it applied to them as well. Lies can be committed because people believe things that do not mesh with reality. Lies are a coverup for many government actions that our politicians do not see as palatable for the public. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, the overthrow of Salvador Allende, the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are only a few of the lies that have been fed to the American people. Of course, our politicians would have us believe it is for our own good. The really sad part is that the media is always complicit in these lies by reporting them with little or no verification of their truthfulness. Some of these lies fall into what I call the “Realm of Taboos.” Taboos are a good place to look for Big Lies.
So, we tell a Big Lie that age does not matter. And we have no one willing to challenge that lie. However, it is not only physical aging that puts people at a disadvantage, but mental aging as well. Many older people are stuck in a past generation of ideas and values that are no longer relevant today. Values and cultures change over time and people born in the 40’s and 50’s are less likely to understand and adapt to the changes that daily life brings. If you can only see the “Good Old Days”, you may be suffering from old age. The average age of Nobel Prize winners when they conducted their prize-winning research is 44.1 years. As for writing, “According to experts, we start becoming more creative and prolific in whatever field of art or study we work, around the age of 25. Most people reach their peak after the age of 35 or in their 40s. This is when they produce their most valuable work. After the age of 45, most artists’ prolificity starts slowly declining.” — 
Love is a word used in many semantic constructions. People associate love with sex, marriage, partnership, and other types of relationships between human beings. It is also common for the word love to be associated with inanimate objects and other animals. For instance, people say “I love my car” or “I love my dog.” These uses of the word trivialize the meaning of love. Romantic novels (think Romeo and Juliet) portray love as undying or “dying” passion but seldom show the hard work required to keep love burning. TV and movies feature continuous images of love based more on lust rather than what real love is. Even Jesus the greatest prophet of love did not get the idea of love right.
Jesus gave one example of “true love” but missed the most significant example in his life. Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13. Many soldiers have given up their lives to save others in the course of war. Often these soldiers were friends with the men they died for. However, to say that they loved them is quite off the mark. A number of years ago, I dove into a river to save a guy who was being dragged down the St. Croix River by its current. He did not know how to get out of the current and was fighting it instead of going with it. I swam out and brought him to shore. He was very grateful. I risked my life for this man. I did not know this man and I certainly did not love him. Many acts of heroism have been done by people out of a sense of responsibility or compassion, but I would not call these “acts of love.”
I propose that the greatest acts of love are to stand by someone when the world is bent on destroying them and you risk being destroyed along with them. The love of a mother for a son convicted of a heinous crime is one of these acts. Jesus’s mother Mary stood by the cross and watched her son die, never deserting his side. I am sure she suffered insults and criticisms and was blamed for his behavior. A mother who will feel love for her son or daughter no matter how grievous the crimes they have done is committing an act of love.
A few months ago, the news carried a story about a young man who had been in and out of trouble. He went into a dinner with a gun, robbed several patrons and was shot in the back as he was leaving. No charges were brought on the shooter. As it turned out the gun that he used in the robbery was a water pistol. The mother was questioned as to her thoughts. She did not attack her son’s killer, nor did she defend her son’s behavior. She did wonder if he really needed to be shot in the back as he was leaving. I was struck by the mother’s sadness and love for her son. It did not matter that he was a bad kid or that the whole of the media was gleeful about his being shot in the act; his mom’s (like Mary’s) love remained firm.
One of the most common tropes in movies and shows concern what I call the “Two Ships Passing in the Night Love Model.” Individuals who seem to resonate with each other go about their daily business and never tell the other person how they feel. This has been a part of so many shows that I have watched that I am losing count. You sit there and wonder episode after episode if they will ever say anything before it is too late. It is frustrating as you want them to get together and say, “I love you.”
I thought about this problem for a while. Many would say it was just a writer’s trick to get you to keep coming back for the next episode. You get hooked on whether or not they will ever consummate their love either physically or emotionally. It is a rather good hook but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was really art mimicking life. I have been guilty of the same behavior and many people I know have also been guilty of the same behavior. We fail to say I love you when it counts the most. We can say that we love our new shoes or that we love our cat easily enough, but we have a hard time telling friends and relatives that we love them. We often abbreviate the sentiment with “Love you” or we use the term generically. “See you later folks, love all of you.” The simple act of looking someone in the eyes and saying “I love you” is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks that many of us face.
But what is true love anyway? Is loving a person in the same ballpark as loving your dog or your new shoes? Would you give up your life for your cat or your shoes? There are many elements that are part of true Love. A life without true love is rather sad but more common than many people realize. How many people do you know who took marriage vows only to divorce within ten years or less? How many of these people were willing to go to a marriage counselor before they divorced? How many of them just gave up on the other person before giving them a chance to change or giving themselves a chance to change? My elements of true love include:
