During the past 3 weeks I have been very ill. I am recovering nicely with no residual effects, but I mention this to create some justification for 21 days of TV viewing, 24/7. When forced to remain prone day after day, unable to read, bored to tears, and getting more frustrated by the hour, the noise of the flat screen provides distraction, tiny amounts of stimulation, and noise that drowns out the moaning.
As a result of this adventure I have watched hours of programming, and feel forced to comment.
The adventure began with a commercial for a paper towel that attacked a well known brand sold on the "advantage" of quilting. The spokesperson for the challenger said, "Quilting is towel speak for air."
The now infamous "click" kicked in, and in spite of the fever I have been dwelling on Towel Speak in all of its various manifestations.
Reality TV:
A highly orchestrated, lavishly produced parade of 4 year old people, clothed in the bodies of adults, engaged in exchanges that were previously relegated to bathrooms. Participants freely insult, demean, and occasionally physically attack one another for reasons best viewed through the lens of profound immaturity. They are invariably rude, crude, and portrayed as unable to restrain their emotional and physical impulses. As the most highly watched segment of American TV, These programs give blanket permission to viewers to behave in ways that would not be tolerated in preschool.
Reality TV is Towel Speak for systematically changing the cultural norms of a society in destructive and highly dangerous ways by modeling infantile behavior as hip and chic.
This was my first "dip" into reality TV and as you might well imagine I was appalled. Prolonging early childhood well into adulthood gives permission for a range of irrational behaviors, and selfish expressions which, if widely accepted, reduce the glue that bonds mature societies into cohesive, goal oriented, wholes.
"...the American people..."
I spent a lot of time watching Bloomberg, CNBC, and C-SPAN, hoping for some nugget of real information on the current financial state in Asia, Europe, and the US. I got, instead, a parade of corporate shills, each touting their own strategy for accumulating personal wealth for themselves, and each proceeding their pitch with the words, "...the American people...". They then proceeded to characterize their greed as the majority opinion in the nation; an opinion which with if you do not agree, you are stupid, or evil.
The President of the Petrochemical Association insists that "the American people" know that we must keep drilling or we will be thrown into a stone age society. He actually used a comparison between the Jetson's and the Flintstone's!!
Politicians, wedded to an ideological misunderstanding of their historic roles, use their podium to speak for "the American people", to promote wealth, power, and a shield, for the interests with which they align. Once again, creating an false majority designed to draw in the least informed and most easily led, into a sense of group identity.
Strong evolutionary forces drive us to be a part of the majority group. We want its certainty, its strength, and its protection, particularly if we have limited information about the dangers and perils ahead.
"...the American people..." is Towel Speak for "I will say, and do, anything to get my own way in this matter."
The resulting opinions generated by this slight of hand, measured in polls, and mangled by pundits (all with their own goals and plans) create a view of the world that serves none but the power brokers.
Keep your eyes open for the latest Towel Speak - the use of language to create a false reality, leaving us easily manipulated, ignorant, and behaving badly.