Tonight’s Programing
I was flipping through the channels a few months ago when I realized that it didn’t matter whether I tuned into Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, The Simpsons or a rerun of The Jeffersons; the deeper message was the same: participate in the the sociocultural political drama, get as emotionally involved in it as possible.
It’s very much like driving down a highway flanked by billboards– it doesn’t matter which one you pick, just pick one: the “easy off” (”hard on”) exit leads to all– beyond the parts, beyond advertising one fast food chain or another, all billboards advertise the system of fast food, etc.
But Fox is right wing propaganda, you say; the whole media is controlled by liberal schmucks, you say; it’s all a conspiracy, someone else says. And everyone is probably “right” (though not right wing; and not placed opposite the wrong wing; and, in fact, it takes two wings to fly), though the conspiracy is merely the great silent agreement of the population to participate in the drama, and to believe in the separate parts in it.
There is a long and, at this point, well enough documented history of “government” involvement in the messages being transmitted directly into the homes and minds of the viewing public, involvement in the writing of the scripts. And the scripts are two dimensional in that 1) the scripts are written for the news broadcaster, sitcom actor, etc, and 2) the scripts are for the people, who are the actors in the bigger drama we’re encouraged our whole lives to participate in. Someone, some many ones profit as long as the drama continues; and if we are to believe our scripts, we profit too.
If we cannot be reached by one part in the drama, there is another part ready to draw us in. If we despise the news, a nature program is on channel 13, building with beautiful images a wall between us and the world which we are undeniably of, from which the plasma screen keeps us apart. And if we don’t like the lines that what’s-his-name on Fox is feeding us for our conversations about the war tomorrow then we might prefer Christian Amnanpour or Bill Moyers– as long as we’re wrapped up in the drama of the world out there, or next door, we don’t have to look at ourselves, and as long as we’re rehearsed to death by the conflicts engaged in our names by representatives of our parts in the drama, we don’t have time to question the drama itself.
So let’s kick back on the sofa, open up a t.v. guide and see: what’s tonight’s programming (so aptly named).
