Not so much "down the tubes", or even floating down river, but corroding, steering, degrading, corrupting, and misguiding via the great one eyed nemesis, that great evil tube known as Television. As I've noted before, Bernays and those of his ilk were all agog at the enormous potential of television for manipulation and molding of peoples thoughts, ideas, opinions and desires. Some, infact, considered that there really should be a national entity or organization dedicated to such processes (how very prescient of them). The obvious blatant use was advertising - everybody can quote slogans and memes from numerous ads and ad campaigns over the years, mostly to sell products, goods or brands, but sometime a little bit of ideology or patriotism or militarism on the side, and don't forget to join the armed services while you're at it.
Our self image and world view was also being formed. Think about it, Wheaties was "The Breakfast of Champions", but, under a certain age, nobody really gave a shit except the undersized little guy who wanted to be a professional shortstop. Why? Hopalong Cassidy was on the cover of Raisin Bran, and he had a pair of pearl handled six shooters. We were cowboys with a side of detectives. Way back, of course, TV was something of a catch all, but skip the quiz shows, variety shows, and other miscellany, the shows with narratives, to pull one in and get you an alternative set of eyes to look through, tended to include a lot of westerns. I'd been thinking about an entirely different aspect of this phenomenon when I stumbled across the article that triggered this column. Cops Are Always the Main Characters by Kathryn VanArendonk, in Vulture, June 1 2020. https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/tv-cops-are-always-the-main-characters.html?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits
At 8 p.m. on Saturday, at the same time CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News were airing live coverage of the nationwide protests against police violence, cable audiences also had other options for what to watch. On PopTV, there was a marathon of NCIS: New Orleans. On WE, Criminal Minds. On WGN, Blue Bloods. On Ion, Law & Order: SVU. And on USA, a marathon of Chicago PD that began 11 hours earlier and continued until Sunday morning, followed by an episode of CSI.
The thesis of this article lies in establishing two points;
TV has long had a police’s-eye perspective that helps shape the way viewers see the world, prioritizing the victories and struggles of police over communities being policed.
and
The overwhelming mountain of cop shows amounts to a decades-long cultural education in who deserves attention, and whose perspective counts most. In stories of American crime, TV teaches us that cops are the characters we should care about.
and then drawing a line between them and connecting that to today's society, to our outlook and viewpoint on things and much more. I definitely think it is worth a read.
The funny thing is, that's not all there is to it. Back in the cowboy days, we still had good guys, sheriffs and marshals, and bad guys, outlaws, Indians, hooligans and the like. And even then we had Sgt. Friday and some others. You can dive into TV shows of the forties and other eras here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1940s_American_television_series, and then track forward decade by decade and discover a lot about the history of our opinions, feelings and culture, and the influences that were, to some degree, driving such things. Cops, spies, warriors and spooks have always played some role in our acculturation and play a seriously large large role today.
Beyond that, the bad guys have changed too. From rustlers we went to thieves, thugs, murderers, gangsters and mobsters, with a (small order of Russians) now and then. Today there are a lot of drug dealers, guys associated with cartels, serial killers, terrorists and persons from the latest bogeyman nation or organization. If we're pushing the Juan Guaidó coup, a Venezuelan military hit squad of trained assassins is sure to be on our soil seeking to silence some critic of the sitting Venezuelan government within a few weeks. Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Isis, al qaeda, Rooskies, of course, and Chinese villains all appear on demand as evil existential threats of the week cycle through the mainstream propaganda narrative. It is not just cops and their viewpoint, but special cops and special operations types who move in and out of foreign countries carrying out espionage and quasi-military missions and we are all being inured to it. Also drones as a routine part of operations here and abroad.
Our perspectives are being shifted simply by the incessant narrative in which the "good guys" undertake tasks and missions, use weapons, skills, techniques, and strategems that we really should question. I can't speak for today, but there was a long running show that seemed to require and justify torture on a weekly basis. There is still a tendency for some to claim that if they accuse one of terrorism then one has no rights, which is probably true, but we really shouldn't accept such behavior as a routine part of today's reality or a cops job. And, of course, be afraid, be vewwy afraid, for *they* are out to get you, and destroy our way of life, our demokracy and all the good shit we have like this great 50 year old scotch and some really dope Air Jordans.
be well and have a good one
Title Image is TV
It's an open thread, so have at it. The floor is yours .
Cross posted from caucus99percent.com