Social Commentary

Yet another repost, deriving from March 23, 2005.



I find it interesting how "coincidental"
things can be sometimes. With Terry Schiavo being one of the hottest
news items, we find that tonight's eposide of American Dreams is
about Jack's decision whether to keep his brother alive on a respirator
after a brain-damaging accident. I wonder whether this is intentional
or not. Interestingly, Jack relays to his wife verbally that he wants
to be taken off the machine if it happens to him.



So what is the message? Are they commenting on Terry's right to die? Or are they commenting that she should be saved?



West Wing
has a habit of commenting on the social/political issues of the day.
They seem to be very current on what the issues are, and they have a
distinctly liberal view of how the problems should be solved. And
perhaps they are not so incorrect about their assessments.
Surprisingly, the real government does not seem to take its cue from West Wing, no matter how right their commentary on the issue may be.



Television
and the movies have a profound ability to communicate about
social/political/economic issues. These mediums have the ability to
reach a broader spectrum of the masses than even the news does, and
they do it subtly, almost submliminally. We watch, eyes glued to the
screen, and usually only later (if at all) do we analyze that which we
have watched. Particularly among our youth, peoples' views are formed
based on what they watch and are conditioned to accept based on what
they have seen. The power that television and movies have over the
masses is unbelievable, and almost scary.



Do I really think that
people are so mind-numbed that any idea professed on the TV is
automatically accepted? No. But when you watch it over and over, on
show after show, movie after movie, you become conditioned to the view,
to what you are watching, and gradually a greater acceptance for it
sinks in. Once upon a time, a television show about a gay person was
unheard of. Now, one of the most popular TV shows is Will Grace,
which has two gay main characters. I do not think that that means
society as a whole has become significantly more accepting and
understanding of gay relationships. But given time, who knows what will
happen?



So almost 30 minutes later, and they did pull the plug
on Jack's brother. Commentary? I suspect so. But will the right people
hear this message, and take it to heart? Unlikely. Sadly, most people
who watch this episode will fail to draw the correlation with Terry
Schiavo. What a shame.

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