Steady Diet of Bad TV and Movies
We are in the middle of a big experiment. What happens when you subject hundreds of millions of people to vivid portrayals inducing consumerist tendencies and paranoia? A haunting thought keeps recurring to me: We were once a nation with such potential, but we have been poisoning ourselves with our mass media. Yes, there are many thoughtful TV shows and movies that challenge us to be self-critical, as well as shows that inspire us to be our best selves, Over the decades, though, we have willingly lapped up far more TV shows and movies that do the opposite. I haven't watched much TV for the past decade, but I do see many previews for shows, and I do check in here and there to see what shows are about. Thousands of plot lines teach us to distrust those who look like they are not from Europe or who talk with an accent. We learn that weapons are the first choice for solving complex social conflicts. We learn that failing to carefully plan works out most of the time. We learn to be cocky in our ignorance embracing Dunning-Krueger as a substitute for being well informed. We learn from show after show that putting other people down or dehumanizing them is a worthy substitute for empathy. We learn that people come in two mutually exclusive flavors, good and bad. We learn that impatiently acting out is often a worthy substitute for hard-earned intelligence and wisdom. We learn that we can recognize the good guys by the fact that they have lots of money, fancy houses, a lot of shiny consumer gadgets, and formidable weapons. [More . . . ]