** WARNING – THIS POST IS WAY LONGER THAN MY USUAL ONES. IF YOU HAVE A SHORT ATTENTION SPAN – YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP THIS ONE. **
I was chatting with some folks recently about television fare. As usual, I have not seen most of the shows that were mentioned. If it’s not on PBS, I probably haven’t seen it. I gave up on commercial television when CNN went to the provision of entertainment rather than news and scripted drama fell to the economics of cheaply produced reality TV. I mean…who are the Kardashians and why are they famous?! Honey Boo-Boo?! My Big Fat Gypsy Anything?! Intelligent people really watch this stuff? The reality TV phenomenon was something I just didn’t understand…. until recently.
During the election cycle I had to stop watching TV altogether, even my beloved PBS let me down. I had been meaning to reread some Ray Bradbury ever since the announcements of his death came out in 2012. So, it seemed as good a time as any to pick up some literature. I decided to reread Fahrenheit 451. I had forgotten how fabulous that book is. For those of you who don’t know the book, go get it and read it, not online but in its paper format so that you can be subversive as Bradbury intended.
The quick and dirty on the book is that it takes place in a future where firemen burn books because people are not supposed to read but rather obtain whatever they need to know from mass programming. A young fireman does the unimaginable and steals a book that is supposed to be burned, squirrels it away and reads it at a later point, having no idea that once he reads the words they will be seared into his brain as if burned there by a hot branding iron. He starts to question what his life is about. His seasoned veteran supervisor sensing a crisis of confidence is developing pays a surprise visit to the young man’s home. The supervisor reveals that indeed, firemen used to put out fires, not start them, and he explains why that changed.
And here is where Fahrenheit 451 is relevant to reality TV. Thanks to those of you who stayed with me to get here! The old fireman explains that governing the masses is easier when people don’t trouble themselves with thinking; when they don’t ask questions or try to understand the whys of things. So the government produces programming that tells the masses what to think and who to care about. The government allows the people to believe they can interact with the programming and impact its course. But in truth, their “choices” are designed so that they never impact any outcome. As a result of the programming, the people came to believe that they actually knew the characters in the programming and valued them over their relationships to their real family and friends. They became numb to the realities of life and the people did what the government wanted.
I had to reread that section of the book a couple of times. But you know what? It explained reality TV perfectly. The Kardashians are famous because some one told you they are, not because they did anything of significance to become famous. And people interact with them via TV, follow details about their lives posted on blogs, as if they had a real relationship with the Kardashians. So the name of some baby born through an adulterous relationship is more important than how many small businesses are suffering as a result of the sequestration. Bradbury apparently was clairvoyant because his novel was written in the 50’s in response to McCarthyism, yet he very clearly saw what could come to pass in our present era.
I won’t tell you what happens to our young fireman.. His supervisor offers him a choice: he may hold on to the book a little longer and then come to the firehouse and burn it publicly or he may refuse to burn it and become an enemy of the state. You can see that no matter his choice, life as he knew it is over.
I’m already thinking about safe hiding places for my book collection. What choice would you make?
…just something I was thinking about …
Midnight Musings 