Did I Miss Something?

On the road this week I was doing a bit of channel surfing in the hotel room. At home with the satellite television service I generally just scan the channel guide and pick something, but in the hotel there is no channel guide. So I found myself flipping from channel to channel in search of something distracting.

Whether I've missed it, my perceptions are different, or I'm just getting older, I was actually shocked at the state of television in general. See, I mostly watch sports, news, a lot of History Channel, and a few selected ongoing television shows. I don't ever stop on channels like MTV or VH1, and generally only catch movie channels like HBO when I'm in hotels - and then only if they're playing a movie that interests me.

But my surfing resulted in this discovery about those channels that admittedly shocked me. Many channels have "Reality" programming that seemingly sets up ordinary people in situations that provide a sort of voyeuristic interest for viewers. My first shock is at the astounding ignorance, narcissism, amorality, and general lack of any identifiable standards exhibited by the people in those programs. I'm not sure whether that's the point of the programs themselves, or if these people exemplify the typical 21st century American. I sincerely hope it's not the latter.

But it's not just the "Reality" genre that I found shocking. Spending a few minutes on current versions of what I'd generally consider Situation Comedies, I discovered that fictional situations presented on those programs portray even more shallow, ignorant, narcissistic, and amoral protagonists. As far as I can tell, these programs have no point other than trying to figure out new and (they think) funny ways to get the characters "hooked up".

Fortunately I'd discovered the King of the Narcissists, Bill Maher, on HBO some time ago and learned to avoid his inane program. Just the idea that he gets enough viewers to keep his insulting political show on the air for more than a month is enough to lose respect for the American public.

It occurred to me that Maher's program is the very political show that would draw the same people who find the "Reality" show characters and shallow actors in the other programs relevant.

Everything's beginning to make sense, but in a demoralizing way that tells me the ills of our country are absolutely traceable to the behavior, attitudes, and ignorance of the bulk of the population.

If TV truly reflects the mainstream of America, then it's already too late to save her.