Philosophy
I've never been one for soap operas, but it is interesting that after 40 years the show All My Children is coming to an end. At first glance, you might be tempted to say that because of economic hardship or because we've evolved as a culture, that we're not interested in watching melodrama, tawdry human relations, and cheap hyped tragedy. But then you'd have to explain away the rest of what is still on.
We have replaced the melodrama of soaps with the melodrama of reality tv. Fictional lives being destroyed by backstabbing, cheating, lying people who call themselves friends and lovers is cheesy, we want to see real lives destroyed by backstabbing, cheating, lying people who call themselves friends and lovers. While no one would confuse Days of Our Lives with Lysistrata, it does seem a somewhat apt metaphor to say that in our cultural viewing habits, we've moved from the theaters of Athens to the Coliseum of Rome.
You see a ratcheting up effect. If this is popular, we need to create buzz by going one step further. American Gladiator leads to Fear Factor. One Life to Live leads to the Real Housewives. I have no attachment to All My Children and so don't feel one way or another about its disappearance from daytime television, but it does make me wonder "what's next?"
- Boxing Day: Will Mma Make Boxing And Professional Wrestling Obsolete?
Reality television has taken the place of soap operas. We now get to see absurd plots and dysfunctional relationships in which real people suffer actual emotional damage. Are we seeing the same for our cultural blood lust as we are for its psychological...
- The Romanticizing Of Outlaws
Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Henry McCarty, better known as Billy the Kid. He was not the serial killer that his legend holds him out to be and, indeed, was not well-known until Pat Garrett, the sheriff that ultimately did him in, wrote...
- Catcher's Ethics
The shorter of the short people has taken to playing catcher on his little league team. So, when we watch a ballgame, we often pay special attention to what the catcher does. In a game the night before last, the Orioles were playing the Mariners and with...
- International Adoption And Racial Attitudes
Another race question. International adoption is a wonderful thing allowing children to find adoptive parents who love them, who deeply want children, and who live in sufficient affluence to give children who might not have such opportunities in the lands...
- The Allegory Of Truman
The Allegory of the Cave Travis Larkin Book VII outlines the most famous metaphor in the novel and philosophical writings in our human history. The allegory of the cave is this metaphor, it tells of a dark scene in which a group of people has been living...
Philosophy
All My Children: Have We Gone From Greece to Rome?
I've never been one for soap operas, but it is interesting that after 40 years the show All My Children is coming to an end. At first glance, you might be tempted to say that because of economic hardship or because we've evolved as a culture, that we're not interested in watching melodrama, tawdry human relations, and cheap hyped tragedy. But then you'd have to explain away the rest of what is still on.
We have replaced the melodrama of soaps with the melodrama of reality tv. Fictional lives being destroyed by backstabbing, cheating, lying people who call themselves friends and lovers is cheesy, we want to see real lives destroyed by backstabbing, cheating, lying people who call themselves friends and lovers. While no one would confuse Days of Our Lives with Lysistrata, it does seem a somewhat apt metaphor to say that in our cultural viewing habits, we've moved from the theaters of Athens to the Coliseum of Rome.
You see a ratcheting up effect. If this is popular, we need to create buzz by going one step further. American Gladiator leads to Fear Factor. One Life to Live leads to the Real Housewives. I have no attachment to All My Children and so don't feel one way or another about its disappearance from daytime television, but it does make me wonder "what's next?"
- Boxing Day: Will Mma Make Boxing And Professional Wrestling Obsolete?
Reality television has taken the place of soap operas. We now get to see absurd plots and dysfunctional relationships in which real people suffer actual emotional damage. Are we seeing the same for our cultural blood lust as we are for its psychological...
- The Romanticizing Of Outlaws
Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Henry McCarty, better known as Billy the Kid. He was not the serial killer that his legend holds him out to be and, indeed, was not well-known until Pat Garrett, the sheriff that ultimately did him in, wrote...
- Catcher's Ethics
The shorter of the short people has taken to playing catcher on his little league team. So, when we watch a ballgame, we often pay special attention to what the catcher does. In a game the night before last, the Orioles were playing the Mariners and with...
- International Adoption And Racial Attitudes
Another race question. International adoption is a wonderful thing allowing children to find adoptive parents who love them, who deeply want children, and who live in sufficient affluence to give children who might not have such opportunities in the lands...
- The Allegory Of Truman
The Allegory of the Cave Travis Larkin Book VII outlines the most famous metaphor in the novel and philosophical writings in our human history. The allegory of the cave is this metaphor, it tells of a dark scene in which a group of people has been living...