Knowing the constant gives
perspective. — Tao Te Ching
As a parent, I love the commercial media. Every nasty, morally
bankrupt minute is a Godsend. Cable is even better.
My folks started a family with Donna Reed and Father Knows
Best as their standard. Wally and the Beaver were good, wholesome kids, and
mouse-eared Annette had that marvelous, innocent twinkle in her eye. Marcia was
hot, but modest. Shucks, even Otis the town drunk never gave Sheriff Taylor any
real trouble. The television intoned what family and community life must be.
Who could possibly measure up to such cruelly high standards?
Today’s media culture is far less sanctimonious. Our heroes are
thrown up and torn down at breakneck speed. Motivation is almost always
questioned. “Reality” show idols eventually stick a knife in whatever back
they’re scratching. Dads tend to be inept. Moms are often shrews. Kids are
conniving little manipulators. Who could possibly fall beneath such crass, low
standards?
With the help of HDTV, my children see clearly that perfection is
myth. As the digital screens get flatter and thinner, the current generation
can see behind what we cathode-ray-tubers considered rock-solid. Cynical?Perhaps. But our children
are also becoming far harder marks for the hucksters to hit.
Corporate media’s gradual abandonment of broadcast standards
means we set our own. Every time my kids and I dodge a mass-murder commercial
we say brutality is to be avoided, not celebrated. Whenever we channel-surf
past people half out of their minds and their underwear, we affirm sexuality as
a gift, not a ploy. Appear in public without Gameboy
pacifiers and we join a human race already in progress.
So God bless our corporate media conglomerate. Any fool can
create life lessons simply by turning off and finding something better to do.
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2007.
