The common-sense observation that the tool is not responsible for the carpenter’s misuse of it has been included to great effect in political debates such as gun control. While the bumper sticker reductionism of “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is both trite and true, the notion that people are in fact responsible for their actions, as well as the actions of hammers, power drills, guns and SUVs are under your control, it seems like nothing more than simple common sense.
Of course, common sense is now quite rare. And so we find a surprisingly large number of otherwise sensible “personal responsibility boosters” rejecting this simple thought when the target of their anger is the media, specifically television. Suddenly, one begins to hear the kind of all-encompassing generalizations and one-size-fits-all thinking that typifies the average politician: “Television is a wasteland, a cesspool, teaching our children violence and consumerism without sense”. There is no room for gray in this kind of thinking; it’s as black and white as Milton Berle’s original series. And the chorus of voices grows.
“Offensive Contractions”
Recently, at his church’s weekly men’s meeting in Glendale, California, Jerry Bray heard an itinerant evangelist plead with the assembly to throw their televisions, CDs and other “offensive gadgets” in the trash. Apparently it would be acceptable to recycle them into toasters or space heaters, but they surely shouldn’t be sold at a garage sale. “You can protect your family from television poison without selling it to someone else, at a bargain price or otherwise,” according to the brochure the evangelist hands out with cookies after his presentations.
If you “eliminate the devices that bring that dirt into your home,” the brochure goes on to say, you apparently won’t be missing a thing. In this abolitionist view, there is “no problem” in ditching the electronic multimedia funnels that funnel the sick and savage products of a “wicked and godless” entertainment industry into the home. That’s some pretty heady stuff there.
Somehow, though, that sounds like a poor carpenter blaming the tools again. We don’t like what others are building with them, so let’s ditch the hammers, screwdrivers, and belt sanders. We don’t like some, or even many, of the shows, so turn off the TV. Wait a second!
Childish and perverted?
In recent years, a growing number of concerned parents have chosen to ditch the television. Millions of well-meaning moms and dedicated dads have apparently decided that today’s American TV fare is 100% (im)pure, unalloyed crap. It’s a wasteland “out there,” the argument goes, but you don’t have to bring it “to the family sanctuary.” The operative word here is “it,” which stands for all television programming, from Homer Simpson smoking marijuana to Seurat’s Impressionist masterpieces. “That” is all “worthless”.
Or is that it? Certainly, the most popular sitcoms, cop shows, reality shows, and game shows are childish and perverted nonsense, if not pure propaganda by “the unreconstructed sensualists of Hollywood-on-the-Volga” (! that evangelist can convert a sentence!). But right there in tv guideSandwiched between “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” channel listings and a Marilyn Manson hymn to the joys of demonic possession, it’s a terrific documentary about the Lewis and Clark expedition. Just change the channel and you’re done.
And look, on the next page of program listings, hovering over the blurb for the hottest reality show of the moment (cops and prostitutes living in a car?), along with the listing for an exhibition of fascist cannibals in the Catholic Church , is an invitation to see “Jesus of Nazareth” and “Moses the Lawgiver” back to back later in the week. That’s a great variety, isn’t it?
part time parents
A semi-loving father told me recently that he just doesn’t have time to monitor his 12-year-old son’s viewing habits. What occurred to me, of course, is that he might as well have said that he just doesn’t have time to raise his child, to instill values in him, to teach him how to control himself. So the easy answer for this parent was to throw out the TV entirely, a classic example of throwing out the baby with the bath water, as well as the soap, washcloth, towel, and tub. This young man will now be saved from “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” even as he misses the chance to learn about the US astronaut training program.
Certainly, I tell the father, there is a way to avoid the first and take advantage of the second, right?
“Too much work and it takes too long,” he said. “It’s easier to just get rid of it, of everything.”
Oh! With hundreds of channels, there really is something for everyone in the information-age coffee shop of “personalized” television, with the seemingly limitless choices of cable and satellite receivers now complemented by a bevy of new technologies for recording, delaying, play, record, splice, slice and dice programs. With the capabilities comes a torrent of content; In my area, the cable company gives me high-speed Internet access and a TV package that includes all the channels I need, all for about $90 a month.
Still, I don’t watch much TV, and I never just flop down in front of it and flip through channels. I get a Sunday paper mostly for TV listings, and if there’s something I want to watch over the next week, I can make time to watch it (rare) or set the DVR to record it (common). My wife and I will kick back with cooking shows (God bless Emeril Lagasse – bam!); watch the various political squads spinning, shoving, stopping, and obfuscating on cable talk shows; and occasionally deducing along with Sherlock Holmes who did the dirty deed this time. These are not wasted experiences, I assure you.
acceptable alternatives
It’s all too easy to simply relegate an entire technology to insignificance in one’s life, and dangerous too; you will miss a lot of what is happening around you. If you have children, you may be able to limit the harm done to your children through television programming by throwing away the set, but you will also limit the enriching experiences. They’ll watch Miley Cyrus’ soap opera musical or Shannon Doherty’s latest Gen X brat character anyway, whether it’s at friends’ houses, at the mall, or even at school; but they won’t see you with your play-by-play commentary, followed by a channel change to the acceptable alternative you’ve researched and provided.
Yes, television is a continuous and omnipresent influence in our society. But a television is just another tool; getting rid of it in your home can be a powerful statement, but it backfires in the end. The challenge, particularly for parents, but also for the rest of us who crave intellectual edification and stimulation, as well as an occasional escapist meal (and that’s fine too!), is to control this enormously powerful technology. It is so powerful, in fact, that George Orwell populated 1984 with as many big, propagandistic monitors as there are characters. Big Brother would not have been great without television.
Interestingly, however, it was not the fear of television as a permanent promoter of an authoritarian state that stuck with people. No, it was television in reverse, as a full-time silent snoop, that took hold as the technology matured in the 1950s and beyond. With the proliferation of video surveillance cameras in the UK (there are over 4 million in London alone) and their gradual introduction in the US in the almost benign form of “traffic cameras”, perhaps we shouldn’t rush to see the paranoia as overheated and baseless.
use versus abuse It is too early to say how public use and abuse of television, video security systems, and related technologies will develop. It is true that a tool can quickly become a weapon; some things, like axes, could be said to be both to begin with. It might be helpful to watch TV in this light. Ultimately, it is up to each of us, acting for ourselves and for our children, to use our home’s trusty ax to chop down the firewood that warms the hearth that warms the house and lights up the room, so that we can, with security. and consolation, read a story and see the accompanying illustrations.
An intruder, one who may even wish us harm, is always waiting for us to let our guard down, so that he can come in and grab that ax and use it against us. You may want to sell anything sugar coated to our kids when we’re not watching, wearing a blue streak on a cable movie, or littering our safe haven. But we are not powerless here. We are wide awake and diligent, and remember, when we go to sleep we can turn on the surveillance cameras and close the doors, both figuratively and literally. Still, as that traveling evangelist said, evildoers are plotting to attack you and your children through the airwaves and wired connection.
There’s no good reason to miss out on DaVinci himself just because he wants to keep going. The Da Vinci Code outside your home Sure, their “enemies” may try to take over the entire entertainment industry so that one day there will be no quality options at all.
But whose fault is it if you let that happen? And why would you want to speed up the day? don’t do it. Don’t help the wrong side.
Don’t throw away that TV.
