Knock-Offs, Rip-Offs, and Just Plain UGLY!

[kiramdear]

There's no doubt that we lost our intellectual vitality in this country from the top down. But if politicians or political climate are responsible for the overt education that everybody gets, it's only for a short time, 12 formative years or so, and I would propose that the other, sustaining, work of educating and informing the public goes on largely in the TV and movie studios of America, side-by-side with the public schools but long outlasting the schools' effect on the public mentality when you consider that people watch TV for forty or fifty years or more, for hours every day. Who prescribes that other popular curriculum?

[jingle_jangle]

There's no doubt that we lost our intellectual vitality in this country from the top down. But if politicians or political climate are responsible for the overt education that everybody gets, it's only for a short time, 12 formative years or so, and I would propose that the other, sustaining, work of educating and informing the public goes on largely in the TV and movie studios of America, side-by-side with the public schools but long outlasting the schools' effect on the public mentality when you consider that people watch TV for forty or fifty years or more, for hours every day. Who prescribes that other popular curriculum?

Thanks to surveys like Nielsen, the people themselves. Our popular media are an exercise in adulterated democracy, subject to the same vicissitudes as our electoral process: influence peddling (e.g., "product placement"), buying and selling personnel, and promoting agendas with both commercial and non-commercial content. It's been shown over the last 50 years that, given the choice of content, people will repeatedly opt for lowest-common denominator entertainment that panders to emotions while reflecting the popular culture that it plays a huge part in creating. We'd rather laugh than learn, and we'd rather cry than think. In our own time, we've seen formerly "quality" cable channels like A & E and The History Channel, dumb down their content over the last decade to the point where their names are more ironic than real.

In Latin America, "telenovelas" (long-running, but not open-ended, soap operas) have been the most popular shows by far on the huge networks operating in that area. Roberto Marinho, the patriarch of Brasil's Globo network--a virtual monopoly with massive influence in a country of about 200+ million people--recognized the power exchange that telenovelas represented, fifty years ago, and began using daily content surveys to fine-tune the content and characters in them, in order to keep ratings consistently high, providing a forum for his own conservative views and manipulation of the population's perception of their society. This sort of interactivity goes on to this day, not only in Latin America, but everywhere there is a TV and content to be selected and provided. I could give long-winded examples here; suffice to say that race was minimized as a flashpoint, largely by the telenovela's turning a blind eye to its potential for controversy, and when a military junta took over for 20 years in 1964, it was with Globo's cheerleading.

I've said this before, but when Newton Minow (chairman of the FCC) stood before Congress in 1960 and called television a "vast wasteland", he had no idea, although he did sound a warning bell.

[wayang]

Yes indeed, the ruling class wants an undereducated populace that's easier to control, and Madison Avenue and teevee want an undereducated populace that's easier to sell ******* to...that's two-thirds of the story. As to the remaining third...they're building 'museums' in places like Kansas where the next generation is being taught that humans lived in the same time frame as dinosaurs, and our race is descended from two hairless, white, six-foot-tall individuals who commited the one unpardonable sin: seeking knowledge...and not a word as to who brought the syphilis onto the 'Ark'...

Not that it causes me to lose any sleep, but if things don't change, China and India are going to beat us like a gong...

[kiramdear]

So it seems like if we simplify things, there are three main ways by which we come to know what we know these days, and two of them are semi-democratic in function (with one of those being also partly scientific), and the third being pretty much authority based. But that still leaves us hitting around the mark if we look for the source of the default on a group level. Maybe it's just down to individual choice after all, and those systems interlink and interact like ping-pong balls and mousetraps around the weary seeker.

[wayang]

Yes, I think that's well put...

That, and Johnny Can't Read "bcuz he 2 bzy txtn..."

[kiramdear]

Remember when you wondered about stuff and all you had to do was ask Mr. Wizard?

[cjj]

Remember when you wondered about stuff and all you had to do was ask Mr. Wizard?

...and now we've got Google...

[jingle_jangle]

So it seems like if we simplify things, there are three main ways by which we come to know what we know these days, and two of them are semi-democratic in function (with one of those being also partly scientific), and the third being pretty much authority based. But that still leaves us hitting around the mark if we look for the source of the default on a group level. Maybe it's just down to individual choice after all, and those systems interlink and interact like ping-pong balls and mousetraps around the weary seeker.

...which still doesn't take into account the availability of data, which, thanks to WWW, would be a moot point in everything but a totalitarian regime. We still have not seen the full impact of so much data being so easily accessible, and I cannot believe that the entire Web will someday reflect the pedestrian tastes (and semi-literate feedback) presented by YouTube.

In São Paulo, they are building a monument to human foibles--the Museum of Corruption! Every country should have one!

[kiramdear]

In São Paulo, they are building a monument to human foibles--the Museum of Corruption! Every country should have one!

But doesn't something have to pass away before it gets a monument? Monument, never, amulet maybe ...

Where is Mr. Wizard when we need him now? Here we had authority, science, and popularity all rolled up in one personable fictional construct. I'll bet he could tell us just why these uglee products suck so bad

[cjj]

In São Paulo, they are building a monument to human foibles--the Museum of Corruption! Every country should have one!

I thought ours was Washington D.C. Oh, sorry you said museum, not monument...

[jingle_jangle]

Speakin' of which: I think the Washington Monument would be a different configuration if women were in charge...

Compare it and its ilk to the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, designed by a woman, Maya Lin.

[wayang]

[shamustwin]

Heck, I think Disney is evil.

[jingle_jangle]

Liberty-n-Justice.jpg

Liberty and Justice for all!

[jimk]

... As to the remaining third...they're building 'museums' in places like Kansas where the next generation is being taught that humans lived in the same time frame as dinosaurs, ....

Yes, and it's embarrassing the hell out of a lot of thinking folks, too. But then on the other hand Lawrence has always had that dreaded Liberal/Pinko reputation anyhow. Glad I'm not from here...I just live here.

JimK