Hope this topic isn’t a repeat, or at least that there isn’t a thread about it in the next index, anyway…
Why are police dramas, cop shows, crime scene invastigation sitcoms and so on so popular in America and England these days?
I remember reading a take on this in a book on art by Collingwood, but I forget what he said now.
Anyone have a theory about this?
it’s all part of a conditioning plot… one doesn’t behave as one should without threat of punishment… and with the death of god, who is left to punish people? the tyranical state? the “benevolent” state? the “righteous” state? put your trust in the state and embrase the glorious future… have no fear, they always catch the bad guys…
-Imp
Agreed. I wonder sometimes if people watch the shows because they are interested in the cops, or because they are interested in the bad guys. We all know we can’t act that way or we will be punished. The thoughts of committing crime have run through everyones’ minds and I think there is something about watching other people do it that is so intriquing. Maybe it’s to see the ‘force’ brought down on them, and being glad that it wasn’t us who just got busted.
But like Imp said, it’s also a form of conditioning. The state needs to maintain it’s monopoly over the use of violence, if we start using it and don’t get punished, then why listen to the state? As Max Weber argues, the state’s existence is dependent upon violence, and what better way to maintain it, then condition people their whole lives through television shows.
Exactly.
Know what the last philosophical show that was on regular tv was? Star Trek (the lastest one)
Can’t have the populace thinking outside the box now can we?
Sit back, grab the remote and be afraid/exposed to ruthless violence.
Take it back to 1930s cinema, the Gangster genre and the Western genre. Both allowed for the sort of simple, binary structures of conflict that make the propagandist dimension straighforward.
I was listening only yesterday to a report on the radio that said (in the UK, but the same trend exists, though to a lesser extent) that crime has been dropping for years but the fear of crime keeps on increasing. As Imp pointed out, it’s all about the authorities ensuring that people feel like they need them.
Why does the media play along - because they couldn’t really care either way and playing along is easy…
“The Romans dissapproved of Greek sports because the atheletes competed nude. This was shocking. On the other hand, people dripping with blood and dying for entertainment was fine. This is strangely similar to the moral standards of today’s commercial telvision…” John Raulson Saul, On Equilibrium
A fleeting image of a woman’s tit is said to have brought down the wrath of Congress and the FCC on the moguls of network television. “What is becoming of our morality?” they ask. And yet, what is business as usual? Night after night - murder, murder, murder. Let’s face it. Murder is our passion-play. These are the myths many of us have chosen to permeate our lives; simplistic tales of bleached white hats stiving against hats blacker than a gathering of black cats on a moonless night. A high-definition world in living color - minus any shade of grey.
I wrote about the evening news in another thread
After this past Thanksgiving’s dinner my family sat a long time around the table, talking. At one point my 20 year old nephew excused himself and disappeared into the living room. After a while I excused myself and went out to check on him. I found him on the sofa playing Grand Theft Auto. Showing me his proficiency at the game, I felt a surge of revulsion mired with sadness overtake me. I asked him to tell me about what he is thinking when he plays the game. He assured me that it’s just a game; that he had no secret fantasy to randomly gun-down pregnant women or club passer’s-by to death. I asked him if he was ashamed to show me this. “Not really.” Then I asked if he would be more ashamed to show me child porography on his computer or the game in his hand. “Come on, Uncle Mike!” I got up to use the bathroom and went back to the kitchen table. I’ll not mention it again. Obviously, murder didn’t arrive with the television. And there had already been an ocean of blood-letting long before there were video games. But there has always been myth.
The best part of us is fictional; mythical. It’s been said that we should strive to be worthy of our myths. But this has us peer down the wrong end of the telescope. Our myths should be worthy of us. Rather than strive to live a told story, tell your story by your life. Lay down your tracks just before you. Include what suits you best in this world. Invent the rest.
I’d sooner cut off an ear before I’d allow CSI to become part of the myth I bring into being. Ditto for Grandtheft, Bush’s squalid lies, strip malls or box stores. It’s been well over a decade since I threw out my television and nearly two decades since I moved from an blighted urban nightmare onto an ancient Vermont sheepfarm. If nothing else - and probably there will be nothing else - I swear that my myth will be worthy of me; worthy of my mother’s hope for me; worthy of my wife’s love for me.
Regards,
Michael
It’s true. The crime rate has been dropping since 1990…but the media makes it seem like crime is increasing. Being Canadian, and being that we just had an election, I was going crazy listening to our politicians saying how they plan to get tough on crime and get our streets back from the criminals. It just surprises me that people aren’t educated enough, or are not willing, to do any research of their own before believing this crap.
Hey William,
O Canada - what’s in your water supply? 
I followed last week’s election with interest. I can see the skyglow of Montreal (my favorite city in North America) on clear nights from where I’m currently sitting. What’s more, my brother married (er, well, they have kids and a house together up there) a French Canadian. Last week I proposed to his girlfriend that Vermont and Quebec ought to secede and form the “Independent Republic of Verbec.” She seemed pleased with that idea.
In any case, let’s hope it was only a protest vote against the recent Liberal scandal. You need to watch Harper closely, though. Otherwise, he’ll use his power to consolidate his power (gerrymandering, etc.). Before you know it, he’ll have placed his drones in every position of authority, from the head of local school boards on up. The opposition government will fold and the result will be our model of, “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer.” Another thing to watch for is if Harper starts hearing a god dressed in combat boots talk to him through his hair dryer.
I saw a bumper sticker here the other day, “Vermont: Most Likely to Secede”. 
What I’d prefer to see is all of New England break away. We’d be known simply as, New England. California, Oregon and Washington might want to do the same out west. Everything remaining in the middle would be called “Amerika,” or informally, “Bubbastan.”
Please don’t let the minions of darkness infect beautiful Canada. As with the original New England Loyalists before me, I’ve always thought of you as my escape route - should all hope be lost here.
Fermez la Bush,
Michael
Harper’s minority gov’t isn’t overly strong.
If I had to wager a guess I would say that most of his plans for social policy will not go through.
The only reason he got in is because everyone hates Martin, and not enough people trust Layton and the NDP.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see though…
I wonder if it’s all about law and order, or if there isn’t some of ‘the denial of death’ in it too? Watching True Crime shows has something of the same effect too, it keeps the mind somehow focused on a power over death, you can watch true crime show after true crime show, then maybe late one night it hits you just how horrible it is what’s happening to the victems of serial killers; before that we identify with the killer, in the cop dramas, obviously we identify with the crime fighters; the topic of death is intelectualized as the CSI crew try to science their way through a case, or way back when: the murder mysteries stimulated the intellect, so in some way the deeper faculties which revolt at the idea of death don’t get stirred up. Watching CSI everynight before bed helps to prevent the mind from wandering into the panic zone while millions of Americans try to fall asleep. Perhaps it’s best however that there are as few philosophers and religious fanatics as there are, if CSI was replaced with “The History of Absurdity: a 10 part series” or such shows, I can’t imagine the nation state would be too functional after a while.
Also, good point about the death and sex thing, these days I’m starting to feel that censoring websites and TV for the sake of the children or family values has little to do with kids, and a lot more to do with a distrust the typical conservative has of the responsibility of his fellow man to read or see what he likes, and act responsibly inlight of that knowledge.
CSI is a great diversion, but I seldom watch the telly except for during Sunday Mornings. LOL Russert really nailed Frist this morning.