"How to save a life" - after these messages
How the hell would I know...
It seems to me that the line between fiction and life is becoming a bit blurred these days. Every night on the news all we here about is the doom and gloom of Americas position of power in the world, the lack of respect recieved from the rest of the planet, the daily bomings and deaths that accure because of descisions made on the behalf of the American poeple. And in the wake of this global bad news we have the local horror stories which seem to have jumped out of a Stephen King story. And then we have television...
Television used to be an escape, a way to calm down and give up the headgames we've played throughout the day, but it seems that todays tv faire would try to touch those feelings and subjects that actually matter to people today. Loss, love, togetherness, regret, life & death decisions. Good tv will hit you with a barrage of these emotions and topics in the time/space of 60 minutes. When done well, will make you reconsider or at least contemplate your real life experiences, if only for a little while. The flip side of that is that tv CAN make us forget all the stress and drama in our lifes if only for 60 minutes at a time.
Why is it that the "news" which people depend on as a daily part/ritual in their lives leaves us feeling helpless, isolated and disenfranchised when a tv program can leave us feeling SOMETHING, happiness, joy, sorrow, pain, love. Shouldn't the information we depend on be more valuable to our pshche than a scripted program? I can't say it's a sad state of affairs but if as much passion and energy (money?) went into our daily or weekly news that goes into our tv programing I believe Americans would give a damn about the state of the world, our country, our citys and each other.
It seems to me that the line between fiction and life is becoming a bit blurred these days. Every night on the news all we here about is the doom and gloom of Americas position of power in the world, the lack of respect recieved from the rest of the planet, the daily bomings and deaths that accure because of descisions made on the behalf of the American poeple. And in the wake of this global bad news we have the local horror stories which seem to have jumped out of a Stephen King story. And then we have television...
Television used to be an escape, a way to calm down and give up the headgames we've played throughout the day, but it seems that todays tv faire would try to touch those feelings and subjects that actually matter to people today. Loss, love, togetherness, regret, life & death decisions. Good tv will hit you with a barrage of these emotions and topics in the time/space of 60 minutes. When done well, will make you reconsider or at least contemplate your real life experiences, if only for a little while. The flip side of that is that tv CAN make us forget all the stress and drama in our lifes if only for 60 minutes at a time.
Why is it that the "news" which people depend on as a daily part/ritual in their lives leaves us feeling helpless, isolated and disenfranchised when a tv program can leave us feeling SOMETHING, happiness, joy, sorrow, pain, love. Shouldn't the information we depend on be more valuable to our pshche than a scripted program? I can't say it's a sad state of affairs but if as much passion and energy (money?) went into our daily or weekly news that goes into our tv programing I believe Americans would give a damn about the state of the world, our country, our citys and each other.
posted by Fat Bobby at 10:28 PM
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