Re: cansei de ser sexy

This post is a response to this post by my good friend Miss Molly.

cansei de ser sexy is a interesting post to read, especially for me. Molly and I have talked about my distaste for celebrity gossip and television in general. Call me an elitist, I just don't like it. Some of it has to do with advertising, but that's not the extent of it.

I really appreciate Molly's ideas on why she enjoys celebrity gossip, etcetera, and I'm very glad to know that, at least for her, watching television is not an escapist thing. Molly uses television as a way to relate to those around her. This is a natural thing, I think. People look for ways to bind them to those they love and respect. Molly uses television; I use music. In short, Molly is saving up conversations for later, and that’s great. Not only is she being entertained, but she doesn't cut herself off from those around her. Rather the contrary.

Molly said one thing in particular that struck me, and that is this: "[H]igher culture ... tends to be more exclusive than something we can all do: turn on a TV." Essentially, this is true. Television is a very easy thing to do, and it's relatively inexpensive. On top of that, people are almost looked down upon for not watching TV, and even more so if they don't even own a television.

This gets to another reason I don't particularly enjoy television: I don't like the feeling of being conditioned to do something, especially when most media outlets are owned by six companies. This is probably hypocritical of me to say; I'm sure there are things that I do that are equally conditioned in me as television is in most others.

I recently (finally) got around to watching a wonderful film called Good Night, and Good Luck. It is about broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow who, in the 1950's, took a stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy, a fear monger exploiting the Red Scare to his own advantage. The film follows Murrow who decided to take a stand against McCarthy at great cost to himself. Other journalists were afraid to say what he said for fear of being labeled a communist themselves.

One of the things the film highlights, aside from saying that journalists should be watchdogs, not lap dogs, is the role of television in society. Murrow argues, eloquently, that television can be a tool for educating as well as entertaining saying, "let us dream to the extent of saying that on a given Sunday night the time normally occupied by Ed Sullivan is given over to a clinical survey of the state of American education, and a week or two later the time normally used by Steve Allen is devoted to a thoroughgoing study of American policy in the Middle East."

I'd like to note than I'm only arguing that television should do more than entertain. As Murrow says at the close of the film, "[if] this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now… . This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. Good night, and good luck."

Indeed.