subversive TV

[Andrew Dinn]

I've been feeling kind of uneasy over the fact that TV does seem to be
the common ground for a great many folks on this list -- even, dare I
say it, more so than the works of TRP!  (it always seems to spark the
longest, most heated debates).  Or am I just being paranoid?
Andrew doesn't seem to think so.
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Paul DiFilippo writes:

> A footnote in the history of subversive TV--and a footnote
> that reveals the limitation of official tolerance--is the Sixties
> show _Turn On_.

   [anecdote snipped]

The title of this thread is both beautifuly ironic. How can couch
potato fodder of any quality *ever* be subversive or revolutionary.
Putting revolution into people's living rooms is the quickest route to
its emasculation (cf Isaiah II-4's comments in chapter 1 of Vineland -
el deado meato).

> Don't imagine that today is any different.

And maybe there is one difference today. People are so sucked into TV
culture that even those who should know better *believe things are
different*. Like a smack-head thinking he can handle his habit, Mr
TV-potato considers himself post-modern enough to control and
determine, to select and filter the network junk - deciphering the
modern-day verities which have infused into its soul. But stand back a
bit, take a long squint and lo and behold, what is there to sift from
the dreck but meta-dreck.

It's a network, owned by the likes of Murdoch, funded by expensive,
corporate agendas (don't presume our dear old Auntie here in the UK is
any different just because [for the moment] it is funded from the
public purse), moulded and peddled to meet a mass consciousness,
policed by political checks and balances all of which ring-fence the
product, hemming it into a cleaner, whiter, fresh-mintier, holier than
thou centre ground. It doesn't actually require paranoia or a
`Them-system' to achieve this. It's all there visible on the face of
the network. TV is a business and like all businesses is and always
will be saturated with `safe' values no matter how risque the
superficial detail. After all it's just another damn system,
prioritising its own mediocrity above the potential of the servants it
is meant to serve, something else for you to be enslaved by. Or you
could maybe construct your own - thank you, Mr Blake.


Andrew Dinn
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And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.