We Deserve Better--Or Do We?

[Futwick]

[This is more a blog than anything and you certainly don't have to agree with it so don't be afraid to do so.]

As much as I detest modern day music and fashion, I have to ask why do we have it? Do we just get lazy all the sudden? Did guys just decide one day, “I don’t want to wear a fedora anymore” or did some fashion guru in New York say one day that hats were, well, old hat? I’m interested in these social dynamics where everybody sort of goes along with a trend despite no one actually being in charge of it or dictating it. What concerns me about these dynamics is that they appear to be destructive and so I think it would behoove us to find out how they start and why.

One example is reality TV. It’s taken the world by storm and what has it really done for global culture? Everybody I know seems to hate it and yet somebody is watching it. Kim Kardashian isn’t raking in tens of millions a year because no one is watching her. I just read that one of the girls on that “Tiaras and Toddlers” show is a millionaire. Obviously, it is a very popular show—has to be. Same with “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” which I think is a spin-off of “Tiaras”. Who could possibly care about this stuff to tune into it religiously? I don’t know but large numbers of people are because it’s a top-rated program. “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” is a top-rated program. This program (which I confess I’ve never seen and never will so don’t bother telling me I’ll change my mind if I watch it because I won’t) is the number 1 cable program beating out “South Park.” But get this—that’s in the 25-54 year-old range of viewers! I’m 54 years old! People my age are watching Honey Boo Boo??? There is some fear that pedophiles are watching these programs and that’s likely true as I’m sure pedophiles watch a wide variety of programs. Well, I can take solace in the fact that I must not be a pedophile because I will never watch that stuff ever.

There are a lot of insidious things going on to guide this social dynamic as far as television goes. First, we must keep in mind that everybody has to have a cable provider these days. Shows that are top-rated as Fox News has been for 10 straight years are that way at least partly because they are included in all the lowest-priced, basic cable packages. I realized this because I do not get CNN as part of my cable package which is pretty much basic but I do get Fox News which I never watch. Others might get CNN in their basic packages but all of us get Fox News whether we want it or not. The 700 Club was that way as well. You couldn’t NOT get it. This wouldn’t be so bad if Fox News was really a news program but it is not. Now, don’t some of you get angry and start railing about the liberal media bias, it has nothing to do with that. Fox is simply not true news anymore than the 700 Club although both dress their information in a newsy format. I’m not taking jabs at Fox, it just happens to be true.

I find that I almost never watch the major networks anymore. It’s all “Idol” and “The Voice” and “Dancing With the Stars.” Here are the Nielsen top 10 rated programs as of April 15, 2013:

1 THE VOICE - TUE NBC
2 DANCING WITH THE STARS ABC
3 DANCING WITH THE STARS RESULTS ABC
3 THE VOICE NBC
4 AMERICAN IDOL - THURS FOX
4 NCIS 9P - SPECIAL CBS
5 AMERICAN IDOL - WED FOX
6 60 MINUTES CBS
7 THE BIG BANG THEORY CBS
8 THE BIG BANG THEORY 9P-SP CBS
9 CASTLE ABC
10 SURVIVOR: CARAMOAN CBS

Of these, “60 Minutes” is the only one I watch regularly, “NCIS” very occasionally and the others never.

I was recently watching some DVDs of the old “Outer Limits” series and realizing just how far television has fallen. What’s worse was that “The Outer Limits” had no budget to work with. Most of the monsters and aliens were seen in a myriad of TV shows and 50s teen-fare movies and often portrayed in comical or buffoonish light and yet “The Outer Limits” managed to still make them scary or sinister simply through superior writing and directing. But even more, there was always an underlying message to each episode. I watched one called “It Crawled Out of the Woodwork” which was clearly about man’s attempt to harness the destructive power of atomic energy. Another called “O.B.I.T.” was prophetically warning us about what television will do our minds and culture by hilariously making it all part of an alien plot to take us over (the Hulu commercials starring Alec Baldwin even borrowed this concept).

 

[Futwick]

Television at one time invited viewers to think, dream, imagine. “The Twilight Zone” was a great example. The episode called “Shadow Play” starring Dennis Weaver as a man who was the same nightmare of being executed for murder every single night introduces us to the concept of idealism where reality is merely a dream and we are all bit players of the dreamer. One episode, “It’s a Good Life” starred Billy Mumy as a young boy named Anthony Fremont who could do anything with his mind and holds a reign of terror over his town cutting them off from the outside world and making them watch his special television programming. Since he’s telepathic, people have to be careful what they say and think because he might catch it and do something nasty to that person just by thinking it. The metaphor is obvious, Anthony is a dictator in a totalitarian state. Like most dictators, he’s cut off his people from the outside world, forbids singing (shades of Pol Pot) and takes over television so that the people must watch only what he allows them to watch (“That’s all the television there is!” shouts Anthony triumphantly). While discussing this episode online once, I pointed out the metaphor and these younger people wrote back stuff like, “That’s pretty good. I never thought of that.” It was bad enough that none of them had thought if it because they are completely unaccustomed to watching programs with deeper meanings but then one guy writes me and says, “You know, sometimes a monster kid with super powers is just a monster kid with super powers.” Only somebody raised on the vapid programming of today would have no embarrassment at blurting out such an idiotic comment (no, I didn’t call him an idiot, I didn’t reply to him at all). There was ALWAYS a message in each TZ episode. The whole point of the program was that it made you think—truly an alien concept in television these days.

So what happened? Did we get tired of programming with deeper meanings? I can’t believe that this is the answer. I am frankly perplexed when I go on Youtube to watch some old program or listen to some older music and read the comments and I keep reading something like: “I’m 15 years old. How come we don’t have television shows (or music) like this today?” or “I’m 17 and I just discovered this old series and I love it. It sure beats the stuff my friends want to watch all the time.” So why aren’t there these types of programs anymore?

The same thing has happened to music. Only in this age could teeny-bopper singers became not only major recording stars but have become virtually the only game in town. The days of the great arena rock concerts are gone. Every time I watch the local news cover a concert that took place in the area that night, it’s a boy band that I’ve never heard of and the audience is entirely girls. I don’t know who boys go to see these days. When I was a teen, I knew girls that listened to Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Mahavishu Orchestra, Zappa and Blue Oyster Cult—all bands with talent and chops. Today? It’s tweenie acts and rap. Yes, we had bs like Kiss and Donny Osmond but there was a lot more variety to immerse yourself in. Choosing to immerse yourself in Justin Bieber or the Jonas Brothers not much choice and is pretty pathetic. But I don't hate Bieber or the Jonases or Katy Perry or any of these people. They're just peddling their wares. They don't force anyone to buy it. They pander to a crowd who are essentially idiots and have been very successful at it. But it just goes to show how many idiots there are out there. according to Wiki: "Perry has received numerous awards and nominations; she has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and was named by Billboard as 2012's Woman of the Year.[3] She has sold 11 million albums and 75 million digital tracks worldwide.[4][5] Perry remains the only artist to spend 69 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Hot 100.[6]" That's scary.

Then we cut kids slack today. “Oh, they’re just kids! Let them be kids and enjoy their youth for crissakes!” Imagine if they said that to Mozart’s or Bach’s parents. When I was a teen, my favorite bands were King Crimson and ELP and then Gentle Giant after I saw them in concert with Renaissance. But you see the problem already—there are no Crimsons or ELPs or Giants or Renaissances for kids to go see today. I bought jazz albums, blues albums, American Indian chants, bluegrass, Japanese koto music, baroque guitar, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, medieval music, Gregorian Chants, doo-wop, avant-garde stuff like Varese, Cage, Stockhausen, Beefheart, Bulent Arel, etc. I really got into Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream as well. I bought this stuff with money earned at odd jobs and delivering papers. I didn’t want to listen to the same old crap other kids were listening to. I had no interest. Maybe I was an exception but I just can’t excuse musical indolence. If I was a teen listening to all that stuff then I expect other teens to do it—explore, explore!!! Only listening to somebody because they’re cute or hot or something just irks me. I’ve always HATED that.

But then I had parents that exposed me to a wide variety of music and I highly suspect that it is not the case with many kids today as evidenced by the fact that New Kids on the Block (now called NKOTB) are touring again and their audience is entirely middle-aged women. Imagine that, they’re in the 30s and 40s and 50s now and they still want to listen to the same old crap they wasted their time listening to when they were 16. I would be embarrassed. I would be ashamed.

I get accused of old-fartism online a lot when I rant about this but I don’t care. Humorously, I was called “an angry old fart” by a bunch of folk musicians in their 60s and 70s because I hate rap. I’m probably slightly more liberal than conservative but I often wonder why when I run into these stupid old hippies that think they’re being racist if they dare to say they don’t like rap. Idiots. I hate rap because this is the crap rap labels want to sell to my kids:

http://rapgenius.com/Future-karate-chop-remix-lyrics

“But my grandkids listen to rap,” one said to me. So what. Does that mean you have to like it? They so fear the “old fart” label even though that’s exactly what they are. “Every generation railed against the new generation’s music,” one of them told me. “Your parents railed against yours too. Now you sound just like them.” I could grant there might be truth in this (even though my parents didn’t rail against it), but I’m sure there were Roman citizens in the last days of the Empire who told all those who railed about how badly things have degenerated, “Aw, shut up, you angry old fart!” two days before they found themselves being led away in chains by the invading Visigoths. In other words, there’s a point at which the end of days really is the end of days.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We have what we have for one reason: it makes money, and the Boys From Marketing would televise fights to the death between rabid grandmothers if they thought there was money to be made from it. But the thing is, no matter what they do, *we don't have to take it.*

I manage to live my own life without ever listening to music I don't like, without ever watching television I don't like, without eating food I don't like, without wearing clothes I don't like, without exposing myself to anything I don't like. Fake cable news channels, idiotic reality shows, all the rest may be all over the place, but if I don't tune them in, as far as I'm concerned they don't exist. I don't know who the Big Pop Stars are, and I don't care. I don't know who the latest pea-brained tramps on the tabloid covers are, and I don't care. I don't know what the current styles are, and I don't care.

It really is as simple as that. Just because someone dumps a barrel of swill on the ground in front of you doesn't mean you have to lap it up.

 

[sheeplady]

First, we must keep in mind that everybody has to have a cable provider these days.

Nope. It's called an antenna. Or it's called "throw the damned TV in the trash." If you've bought into the fact that you *have* to pay for TV, you've already lost. You don't even *have* to own one. If you don't like what's on, get rid of the thing. The idea that every American home must have a television is a weird and inappropriate concept.

I'm convinced that most people would do a ton better- be happier, healthier, have stronger relationships- if they turned the television off and went outside for a walk, sat down and read something, or played a board game with their family. Heck, wouldn't it be nice if you spent an hour you spend watching TV instead catching up with old friends on the phone each week? Or out to see a free local concert at a nice cafe? Or touring a museum? Or getting a degree you've always wanted? Learning a new skill? Hobbies? Writing in a journal?

All the latest research suggests that excessive television watching is bad. How much is too much? The AAP recommends zero hours of screen time per week for a child under 2. The average american watches something like 4-6 hours of television A DAY. Turn the damn thing off, pick up a book, go for a walk, and play with your kids. If you find you suddenly have nothing to do and are bored out of your skull go out and volunteer for a local charity.

Personally, I enjoy television as much as the next person. But the plain fact is that to fill so many channels and fill the American appetite for television, television shows have decided to go to reality TV- which is cheaper to produce than dramas for a host of reasons. We're the ones who got us into this. We're the ones who will get us out.


--- I do understand what you are saying about the quality of television. Heck, the other day I was talking to my husband about the lack of quality children's programming compared to 30 years ago (or even 20). But then I realized that the truth is that kid's don't NEED TV. They don't need "quality programming." Heck, if you give a kid the empty cardboard box the television came in your child would be better off than sitting watching an hour of "quality programming."---

 

[Baron Kurtz]

The notion that you're stuck with it is absurd. Absolutely everything you do (except eating and drinking) is a choice - though of course what you eat and drink is a choice.

Choose to resist!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I've been television-free for over twenty years, but having said that I do have a cable provider for internet service only.

 

[Futwick]

We have what we have for one reason: it makes money, and the Boys From Marketing would televise fights to the death between rabid grandmothers if they thought there was money to be made from it. But the thing is, no matter what they do, *we don't have to take it.*/quote]

We do have to take it because it's not going away. We shouldn't take it but we do. People like it. I work with people who are HOOKED on some reality show or other. I do agree it's about money. Absolutely it is. If people stop watching, then it goes away. But they are watching and they are going to keep watching. What does it say about us that something like this Honey Boo Boo show is the tops on the cable networks.

I manage to live my own life without ever listening to music I don't like, without ever watching television I don't like, without eating food I don't like, without wearing clothes I don't like, without exposing myself to anything I don't like. Fake cable news channels, idiotic reality shows, all the rest may be all over the place, but if I don't tune them in, as far as I'm concerned they don't exist. I don't know who the Big Pop Stars are, and I don't care. I don't know who the latest pea-brained tramps on the tabloid covers are, and I don't care. I don't know what the current styles are, and I don't care.

It really is as simple as that. Just because someone dumps a barrel of swill on the ground in front of you doesn't mean you have to lap it up.

No, you don't. But you might be force-fed it. In my house, we don't watch reality TV. But I can't control what my daughters watch when they go over to someone else's house. So, it becomes my problem no matter what. I can't bury my head in the sand about it. The vapid pop stars are aimed directly at my daughters vying for their attention. I won't buy it for them but I can't keep them from downloading it online or getting it from their friends. And, as a parent, I can't FORBID them to listen to rap. That only guarantees they'll listen to nothing else. Fortunately, they're not that into that stuff but they can't avoid because it's aimed right at them and because of that, I can't avoid it. And, no, I will NOT shut myself off from it because I have to know what's out there vying for my kids' attention.

 

[Futwick]

The notion that you're stuck with it is absurd.

We ARE stuck with it--the whole country is and the whole country seems to like it. I have three daughters--17, 14 and 11--and every unhealthy garbage program out there is aimed at them. I can't ignore it because then I'm not doing my job as a parent, I'm just thinking of myself. And I can't control what other people want to watch in their houses and I can't forbid my daughters to have any friends and I can't chain them in their rooms and force them to only watch what I approve of. I have to help them navigate through this minefield of pop culture crap but that means I have to know where the mines are.

Choose to resist!

Sounds nice but how?

 

[LizzieMaine]

We do have to take it because it's not going away. We shouldn't take it but we do. People like it. I work with people who are HOOKED on some reality show or other. I do agree it's about money. Absolutely it is. If people stop watching, then it goes away. But they are watching and they are going to keep watching. What does it say about us that something like this Honey Boo Boo show is the tops on the cable networks.

What you mean "us?" I don't even know what Honey Boo Boo is, so its being successful doesn't say anything about *me.* I'm no part of the culture that produces whatever that program is or whatever it's about, and I accept no responsibility for it, any more than I'm responsible for the ritual dances of a tribe of Papuan headhunters.

When I was a teenager I had no use for whatever else it was that was going around among the other kids then. Part of it was the way I was brought up, and part of it was because I knew how to think for myself. *That* is the important thing that kids need to know. If they have the ability to tell the difference between Shinola and the Other Stuff, you won't have to worry about the rest of it. Teach kids that their purpose in life is not consumption, but production -- and you won't have to worry about the rest of it. Teach kids that once they put something in their heads it's hard to get it out so they better think carefully about what they watch, read, listen to, or otherwise absorb, and you won't have to worry about the rest of it.

 

[sheeplady]

No, you don't. But you might be force-fed it. In my house, we don't watch reality TV. But I can't control what my daughters watch when they go over to someone else's house. So, it becomes my problem no matter what. I can't bury my head in the sand about it. The vapid pop stars are aimed directly at my daughters vying for their attention. I won't buy it for them but I can't keep them from downloading it online or getting it from their friends. And, as a parent, I can't FORBID them to listen to rap. That only guarantees they'll listen to nothing else. Fortunately, they're not that into that stuff but they can't avoid because it's aimed right at them and because of that, I can't avoid it. And, no, I will NOT shut myself off from it because I have to know what's out there vying for my kids' attention.

No, what you can do is raise your daughters in a supportive environment, teach them your morals and values, and let them know that your house is a soft space to land where they can always go. Your kids are going to go out into the world and be exposed to all sorts of horrific things. They might make some mistakes, some pretty big ones. Quite frankly, an hour or two of reality TV a week at a friend's house or listening to the radio for 15 minutes in a friend's car isn't going to change them into some weird freak and undo all your home teachings. If you seriously think that a teen with a good home life, raised with good morals, is going to turn into a racist or a criminal from a few hours of exposure to media in a week, you don't trust your child. Either that or your child is seriously hanging around with the wrong group of kids that are going out and watching nothing but violent porn and home videos of torturing animals or something. And if their friends are exposing them to that kind of stuff I have something to tell you... if they get involved with the wrong thing it's because of their friends who chose to watch those videos, not the videos themselves.

The media has far far less effect on your children than you do as a parent, or your children's friends have, or the other important people in their life. Even if your child does get involved in something they shouldn't because of the media (let's say eating disorders), you as the parent (and the other important adults in their life) are going to be the ones who save them. No amount of positive media is going to save a child who is starving her or himself.

You can very well forbid your child from owning or playing misogynistic or racist music because they are living in your home. (Which, I am going to clarify, not all rap music is misogynistic or racist; excluding a whole category of music with such a broad brush is not productive.) Personally, I would have no problem banning any music in my house that used racial slurs. Quite frankly if my child was so weak morally to become a racist from hearing a song with racist language or imagery on the radio or on someone's CD, I'd probably spend the day banging my head against the wall. If you treat your kids as mature individuals and explain to them *why* they shouldn't be interested in such music, chances are they will want nothing to do with it. Seriously, being told as a kid that certain music contained language that could hurt my friends and family members totally stuck with me.

 

[Futwick]

What you mean "us?" I don't even know what Honey Boo Boo is, so its being successful doesn't say anything about *me.* I'm no part of the culture that produces whatever that program is or whatever it's about, and I accept no responsibility for it, any more than I'm responsible for the ritual dances of a tribe of Papuan headhunters.

And if you were solely responsible for the direction our culture is headed then I'd feel pretty good but you are surrounded by people (many of whom do not admit it) that religiously watch some reality TV program or other. And these people number in the tens of millions and could well over 100 million. They all contribute equally to the direction of our culture due to a medium that is the main form of public discourse. You may not think it affects you but it affects you no differently than who the president is whether you voted for him or not or whether you voted at all.

When I was a teenager I had no use for whatever else it was that was going around among the other kids then. Part of it was the way I was brought up, and part of it was because I knew how to think for myself. *That* is the important thing that kids need to know. If they have the ability to tell the difference between Shinola and the Other Stuff, you won't have to worry about the rest of it.

That's fine but peer pressure does matter to a lot of teens. I would say 70% of them at least listen to a certain recording artist or watch a certain TV show because other kids their age do. And if they can't watch it at home, they go to a friend's house and watch it there.

Ever see that movie "Videodrome"? How prophetic that movie was. God knows what watching this stuff is doing to the collective consciousness of this country.

 

[LizzieMaine]

On the other hand, much of the generation that won the Second World War spent the latter half of the 1930's fixated on Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour (the most popular program on the air in 1935-36), along with such atrocities as the Court of Human Relations, A. L. Alexander's Mediation Board, the Goodwill Hour, and John J. Anthony. "Reality" entertainment is not a new thing, and it's always been cheap, exploitative slop. And yet, people have always managed to transcend it. Of all the vices that the world is soaking in today, it's actually pretty inconsequential.

It's not the programs I worry about. It's the garbage being sold to the viewers in the commercials we ought to be upset over.

 

[Futwick]

The radio shows are OK. I've played a lot of them for my kids. My oldest loves "Mr. Moto." Some people decry it as racist but I think that's silly. First of all, it's radio so you just imagine a Japanese man. What's the problem? She likes that Mr. Moto is always well behaved, warm and polite but always noticing everything and staying a step ahead of everybody. Those aren't qualities that I would want to discourage her from developing. They've heard Major Bowes because i have transcripts. That's where Sinatra got his start. Radio as a medium automatically stimulates the imagination. Television, on other hand, is a visually-based medium. Nothing is left to the imagination visually. So TV should be thought-provoking. I don't believe in television as an educational tool because it's in an entertainment format. Using it to educate kids really doesn't work that well. But it can teach them to use their imaginations which is, in my opinion, at least as important as education--which they get from school anyway.

I still often read a story to my girls before they go to sleep even at their age they still want a story. That's because I always read them interesting stories. The youngest loves the spooky stories. Her favorite is Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows." And I read them like a radio show--I do all the voices. All my daughters love Lovecraft because I read them every Lovecraft story. We even once vacationed in Massachusetts and Rhode Island just to get a feel of the Lovecraftian atmosphere. I also read them the entire "Moby Dick" and we visited Seamen's Bethel in New Bedford which is mentioned in the story. I also read them "The House of Seven Gable" because the house that Hawthorne used as his model is also there and does tours. It made all those stories come alive for them. They pestered the poor tour guide with questions: "Where were the old documents found?" "Where was Jaffrey killed?" "Where did Uncle Venner sleep?" The house has a secret passage not mentioned in the book that they absolutely loved. My middle daughter told me that, to her, Moby Dick is still out there, still swimming around with harpoons embedded in his blubber but still free and uncapturable. They all loved Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" which is one of the strangest stories I have ever read to this day. I was able to explain it to them by showing them the popular literature of that time period which really brought it to life for them--to hold that actual literature from the 1830s and 40s. And, yes, we went to Nantucket.

I've worked hard to cultivate the kids' upbringing. I cannot let anything undermine it now.

 

[Tomasso]

the Boys From Marketing

Those guys are starting to get on my nerves.

 

[Futwick]

Worse, when cable first came out it was commercial-free because you paid for it instead of corporate sponsors. Now we're paying more than ever and there's more commercials than ever. I have a DVR in my control box so I can tape a show and watch it later so I can fast forward through the commercials. An hour-long program has about 20-25 minutes of commercials! And it's the same ones repeated over and over and over.

 

[Foxer55]

Ita all about commercialism and influence. Listen to the music today and it is so commercialized its irritating. No creativity, just stuff made that will sell because its a different noise. Compare it to the music of the '30s, '40s, '50s, that was created for pleasure.

Everything is about money and influence. I'm glad someone brought this topic up and it would be fun to discuss other dimensions of it.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

This could be a very deep pool to dive into (topic wise) however, my take on all of it really boils down to the majority have become eroded by a generation or two of people willing to drop the values that were at one time good and moral, for lesser values, and then those people had kids....and those kids are now grown up and making programs and music in a way far different then what was in our adult past (loungers older than 50 know what this is). It seem to spread past just what would be on the "boob tube" or what noise would come out of a recording/music...(some of it now reminds me of a broken reel to reel tape player stuck on replay)...and thus, the mindset of looking back (for me maybe not you as a lounger but then again maybe so for you as well, you see...) being able to look back at the "golden age" or a time period of our past, draws the typical lounger to "connect" to the time period, it's values, the romance of it, and a hope of having the best values today for us as individuals regardless of the "Wazz up" influence that has infested society.

I hope I make sense here, you may have to forgive my rambling here, I did have two shots of Scotch! lol!

 

[loosebolts]

i havent had a TV since i was 22. granted my one vice is mythbusters but 5 years TV free otherwise. that said i am completely out of touch with the modern culture. i have no idea who brittany kim gum-snapper-pop-rocker is but what i have seen as a grouchy 28 year old is that the culture surrounding that type of stuff has a strange uniformity to it. the fans of something (brittany kim so'n'so) that think they are so indy hip or edgy actually are pretty uniform considering that they all tune in, they all absorb it and hang on every note and reality TV seems to possess some super gravity. it loops in all the 10-20 year olds that either want to model their life off of or live like the people the see on TV.where the reality and individuality? or does TV dictate culture these days? all the little girls want to be like these wrecks that drive a Ferrari and have a chihuahua, this crap is not a positive influence. if any thing is is promoting reckless and hazardous behavior and presenting overly sexual images to young people that might not grasp exactly what they are viewing and what it means to dress like that

i dont take myself seriously, all i am is a hardcore pre 60's jazz fan that sips stout coffee and loves noir films. thanks to my parents, if MTV came on...i would be intercepted with a swift directional correctional impact. and i thank them for doing so, otherwise i'd probably be a hipster jerk.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The radio shows are OK. I've played a lot of them for my kids. My oldest loves "Mr. Moto." Some people decry it as racist but I think that's silly. First of all, it's radio so you just imagine a Japanese man. What's the problem? She likes that Mr. Moto is always well behaved, warm and polite but always noticing everything and staying a step ahead of everybody. Those aren't qualities that I would want to discourage her from developing. They've heard Major Bowes because i have transcripts. That's where Sinatra got his start. Radio as a medium automatically stimulates the imagination.

My point was that "reality radio" really wasn't all that different from reality television. Major Bowes' program was really little different from "American Idol." People didn't listen to it to root for the performers, they listened for the vicarious thrill of hearing the Major ring the gong on the acts that weren't any good. People listened to John J. Anthony to wallow in the sordid details of the stories told by the people he was supposed to be "counseling," even though he had no qualifications to counsel anyone except maybe to give advice on how to get out of alimony jail. I've listened to vintage-era radio all my life, and have made a living writing about it, and if there's one thing I've learned it's that if its best was very good indeed, its worst was truly awful. Listen to the sleazy giveaway shows of the postwar era and you'll hear the Boys From Marketing in all their glory, appealing to the basest, lowest instincts of the Great American Public.

And that's what we have to worry about now. Complaining about reality TV or crappy music without going after the root of the problem -- an overcommercialized, overmarketed, exploitative, marketing-driven society -- is like straining out the gnat and gulping down the camel. Honey Bunny Boo or whatever her name is isn't the problem, she's just a symptom. You can turn the TV off and never look at it, but if you're still buying into the acquisitiveness and commercialism and market-driven greed of modern society, if you lay awake at night dreaming of your new IPad, your new SUV, or your $800 vintage suit, if you base your life on what you own instead of who you are, you're just flailing in the dark.

As far as TV itself being a worthy medium for kids, it is capable of doing much good. Two words: Mister Rogers.

 

[Futwick]

I guess we're going to disagree fundamentally on this. It's up to the people to accept or not accept this. Complaining about the corporate sponsors is pointless because they have all the money and power and they always will. They will always win in the end. We cannot hope to rid ourselves of them. We can, however, force them to give us what we want and we do that by our choices of what we watch or what we listen to or what we buy. This idea that you can withdraw from it all is self-deception. You can't, you never could and you never will. You have to live somewhere, you have to have money, most of us have to have a car and--let's face it, folks--most of us have to have a computer. There would be no Fedora Lounge without it. There are advertisements all over this page as I'm typing on it.

We can't get rid of it so let's make it work for us. We cannot expect any better than reality TV if we're going to embrace it as Americans have done. If there's a demand, the corporations will be right there to fill it--like it or not. So we must demand better. We do that by not watching it. That's why I titled this thread as I did. Are we victims of corporate marketing or are we full participants in our victimization? Do we deserve better or do we have exactly the programming we deserve? Sorry but I'm leaning towards the latter. Until WE as consumers exercise the power of our choice of what we consume, we will get nothing better. And we deserve nothing better, quite frankly.

Same with politics. We get the politicians we deserve. We get the recording artists we deserve. We're getting everything we deserve. The corporations will give us anything we want if we show them that we will buy it. But we're showing them that we are more than willing to buy crap. Yes, WE. Because WE are all in this together whether WE like it or not. If you think the country is going to hell in a handbasket but it somehow isn't going to drag you with it, I have a reality TV series I'd like to sell you.