This will probably be a bit long... but bear with me.
I watched the Daily Show w/Jon Stewart earlier this evening. As i sat there watching their "coverage" of the 9-11 hearings and Richard Clark's testimony, I became concerned about the mediums that we use to learn about the world around us.
I think the Daily Show is hilarious. Even though it seems to lean left some of the time, some of the jabs at the right are genuinely funny to this conservative.
I watch the show for its pure entertainment value, not for my main source of news coverage. My worry is that many see the short quotes, silly ridicule and words without context and assume that they are informed about the issues.
I've seen it happen to both sides. The Daily Show will clearly misrepresent what someone was saying for comic value. If I were not well-versed in the political environment or if i only learned about politics from Jon Stewart, I probably wouldn't know that very little of what is said on that show is indicitive of what actually happens in government.
Now, on to the meat of this post...
In our constant craving for amusement, I fear that we lose the ability to really understand the issues that face us. We have all witnessed, firsthand or otherwise, the need to be entertained in order for us to give something priority.
We've transferred this need to politics...
1. Political discourse has become a insult throwing contest
2. Most people learn about the candidates from inflammatory and misleading 30 sec ads
3. We vote for presidents who play the saxaphone on MTV
4. Minions repeat slogans like "no child left behind", yet haven't a clue how that transfers to their local school classroom
You can easily make that same argument when discussing religion. We compile what we know from a few soundbites and whatever slogans catch our eye as we drive down the road.
Information has lost all meaning, it has lost all context. We are left with the complete abstraction of ideas, nothing is tangible or learned through experience and research. We see a few seconds at an Israeli/Palestinian checkpoint on the news and are led to believe that we know something about the situation. No wonder everyone considers themselves to be an expert on every subject! That is what we're being told. The media makes no mention of the crucial limitations of the mediums they use to make millions.
If we demand to be entertained by all things in life, then we will gradually tend to favor the most extreme stimuli available (the kind of content that is easily delivered by televised sounds and images). Like it or not, seeing really is believing for most of us. We also know that on the TV, information delivered without context will allow anything to be seen in the perspective that the purveyor of the content wants it to be seen.
Is it any wonder that there is so much confusion and bitterness over such issues? My right-wing television shows do no better than any left-wing program in representing the full, contextualized, truth. It is the nature of the beast. Talking heads and short soundbites to not lend themselves to a deep understanding of anything. When we choose entertainment as a mandatory precursor for our attention, we put ourselves at the mercy of those who engineer the content.
This problem is not escaped by simply switching mediums, but it sure does help. Complex propositional arguments are more easily understood, logical fallacies more easily spotted when the content is experienced or read. You can feel yourself analyzing and digesting my words, an experience that would surely be stymied if you were simply watching me drone on the TV screen while you slumped in your lazy-boy recliner.
I'm not saying that I'm better than anyone, that I'm not susceptible to the need to be always entertained. But, I think it helps if we are at least aware of the dangers of accepting truth through a single all-consuming medium such as TV is for many people.
If you're still reading, then pat yourself on the back. What you just read probably wasn't awfully entertaining, but hopefully it was a bit thought-provoking. Well, I've got a lot more to say about this... but I'd like to hear what my fellow TFP'ers think. This is an issue that is independant of partisanship. God knows we've been short on those lately.