Political and social views have always heavily influenced television all from Full House to Game Of Thrones. Living in a time so hell bent on being politically correct leaves the question of how does this effect the “golden age” of television? The Golden Age of television (in North America) is from the early 2000’s-present. Next year is 2020 and the Golden Age is coming to an end at its 20 year mark. I can already see this happening with some of my personal favorites ending, Supernatural (last season airs next year) and what I think to be the best animated franchise of all time; How To Train Your Dragon released its third and final movie earlier this year. These are just a few examples of it all coming to an end. This isn’t written in stone maybe by some miracle films and shows continue with a whole new bunch of promising adolescent t.v shows, but I am not hopeful.
How does this connect to politics in T.V? Hear me out, before 2010 ish North America was more open to opinions that differed from the majority, at least in TV, these issues were sometimes just flat out not discussed but when they were they were done so in an inclusive manner. Television reflected political views on the rise at the time in how, mattering on the show, the average American would preserve it. Cut to 2019 and I see t.v shows picking sides in political issues to an extent that its goal to try to reflect actual life pales. Instead of showing how people around North America process things we pretend everyone agrees on all the issues and people who disagree are shunned and invisible. For example. I have seen many shows go about the issue of LGBTQ+ debate and it is handled in a way that made any opinion out of the apparent majority seem bigotry when in actuality they share a different opinion. Disagreeing with things out of the majority doesn’t mean you are intolerant of the opposing opinion.
Modern T.V has turned into everything it was avoiding, hypocrisy is the only word that comes to mind when thinking of some shows I’ve seen. Television is supposed to be a reflection of real life so when they speak of diversity and don’t include different races and religions but DO include LGBTQ+ characters (of course that’s good. Representation is important but to be so heavy in one strand and then have large religious groups almost non existent is hypocritical.) The downfall of television, and modern North American society itself, is being sucked into this morphed idea that we all must believe the same thing. So what if most Muslims think what the LGBTQ+ community is doing is wrong. You don’t see them coming at you with pitchforks do you? At the end of the day we are all people and whether your white, black, brown, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, gay, trans, lesbian or bi it doesn’t matter because we ALL deserve representation and an equal amount of it at that. Modern Television chooses to highlight one issue instead of talking about things like how their government is killing millions of innocents on their own land in places like Afghanistan and Sudan. The American people have become cowards, learn to think for yourself, trust me its liberating. Turning little problems into big ones just to hide from the ugly truth is just a means to an end. If you disagree with me that’s fine you do you boo, but know this. Your idea of diversity is one diluted by a nation hell bent on degrading minority groups.
Philosophical idea of free thought
After writing the piece above this sort of sub section came to mind. Recently I had been reading a book called “the evolution of every thing” by: Matt Ridley which in chapter 2 explores the evolution of Morality. On page 28 he speaks of Steven Pinker who discusses the “evolution of society towards tolerance and away from violence” his theory that we change our moral code based off of the societal structure around us. For example; A boy in the middle ages would believe murder in the name of his honer to be moral but now killing for any reason is considered to be immoral. Just based off of that example Pinker’s theory rings true. But it does bring up the question do we truly have any freedom of thought? If from our childhood we are taught to conform to rules made prior to our very existence do we have the freedom to think for ourselves? The moral code of a society is constantly shifting your grandchildren might think some of the things your doing is completely barbaric but do they really know why? Think about some of the things you believe to be immoral. Could you tell me why they are immoral in a comprehensive and persuasive way? Although it is important to keep a moral code it is also important to think for yourself. If you think something is moral or immoral as long as you have valid reason to do so “you do you boo”, of course i’m not speaking to any serial killers, cause their reasoning wouldn’t hold up, and cause y’all are crazy. You are not born with a set moral code, its something formed through trial and error during your adolescent years. Freedom is a flimsy word, complete freedom would create a society constantly descending into chaos laws and rules keep us civil. So looking at it from that point of view none of us are truly free, but that’s a good thing. The human brain is complex and unpredictable balancing freedom with rules is key to any functioning society. Overall inventors, innovators and leaders all think outside the box, not confining your brain to conform to all these rules of politeness and social rules is what makes you filled with potential. Its all about finding a healthy balance. Your sense of freedom can be as deceptive as your distorted sense of right and wrong.
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