The Destructiveness of TV
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In The Age of Missing Information, Bill McKibben writes that "As much as [TV] loves choice, . . . it doesn't actually believe in choosing. It urges us to choose everything--this and this and this as well" (185). The question is, how can "TV"--an inanimate object or process--"believe" in anything? Does a river "believe" in the choice people have to look at it, or swim in it, or drown in it? The fact is that TV has a life of its own, just as the river does, and just as capitalistic society does in the theory of Karl Marx. TV, in that sense, does not "believe" in human beings' free choice any more than history believes in human beings' free choice. In both cases, human beings are dealing with forces beyond their control. And just as capitalism ultimately steals the soul of the worker (and the soul of the capitalist, too, of course), so does TV steal the soul of the viewer, leaving him with nothing but the desire to watch more of the same TV which stole his soul in the first place. What is the "soul" TV steals? To this observer, it is the freedom of choice to not do something which is self-destructive. TV is self-destructive, as Mckibben points out, because it tranquilizes, dulls the senses, alienates on every level, turns the viewer into a couch potato ignorant of nature and fixated on consuming, etc., etc., etc. But just as the drug addict cannot stop himself from using drugs, though they are destroying him, so the TV viewer cannot stop watching the TV that is destroying him.
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ws shows mock such shows as Jerry Springer, as if the talking heads were superior to the people who yell at each other on Springer, or to the actors who pretend to maul one another on professional wrestling. In fact, the poor, barely articulate people on Springer are more authentic than the
wealthy, highly educated talking head/experts on the news shows, because the Springer people are at least emotionally involved in their own lives while they are the show. The "experts" on the other hand, are merely pretending to care, merely pretending to be involved in meaningful action, just as the actors are on professional wrestling.
Does this mean that the Springer people lead valuable lives, that any of them are wise or even sane? No, not necessarily, but it does mean that they are not as smug or cynical or inauthentic as the "experts" who mock one another for pay, pretending to be "liberals" and "conservatives" with high values and principles, and then go out for drinks with one another and go to Washington parties and have a good laugh about it all. The Springer people are also more authentic than the actors who mouth idiotic one-liners on sitcoms.
However, the medium remains the message. Whether the show is Springer or the WWF or
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Approximate Word count = 1413
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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