My generation had Gilligan's Island, this one American Idol (and worse) - Palin a sign of culture???

[NRaleighLiberal]

Could Palin, Rush, that whole detestable shock GOP ilk have gotten any traction in the days of limited news and trusted anchors (like Cronkite)? The versions of cultural banality back then - It's About Time, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched - all kind of harmless entertainment....so different than the train wreck, voyeuristic (Big Brother et al) or everybody is special stuff like American Idol - how much is the cultural shift towards filling 24 hour newscycles, blurring between real news and news as $$$$ - feeding Palinfrenzy?

Not trying to sound like an old fart wishing for "simpler times"...just trying to understand the dynamic that allows such dreck to elevate to such heights in the minds of so many.

[stray cat]

1. She could have been president and may still be if the dems don't get their act together

Gilligan was never a VP nominee

[edhopper]

2. They wouldn't be here

if Reagan hadn't repealed the Fairness Doctrine.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. Reagan was the predecessor to Palin with Shrub in between.

[Echo In Light]

4. It's the overarching, cumulative effect of agenda-setting, media saturated social climate

Incremental indoctrination, akin to tip-toe totalitarianism. After a few generations the un-reality becomes the consensus "reality" b/c a large enough % knows nothing else, has no basis for comparison, and so accepts the current corporate-man-mad-weather public mind acclimation unquestioningly.

There's a good deal of research/sociological studies on how these social processes work.

[orpupilofnature57]

5. The yen for omnipotence ,the less we have to think the more judgmental

we can be. We have changed the persona of celebrity ,we now enjoy looking with disdain and disgust as opposed to admiration and emulation.

[imdjh]

6. Ah, but we didn't actually believe that rich people and a movie star got on a piece of shit boat...

.... with trunkfuls of money and clothes for a 3 hour tour. We had to actively suspend our reason to lose ourselves in Gilligan's Island. That's quite different, isn't it?

[KittyWampus]

8. Did you know that Shakespeare's The Tempest was largely based on a contemporaneous account

by William Strachey who, when he finally returned to "civilization", detailed an actual shipwreck of the Virginia-bound 17th-century English sailing vessel Sea Venture in 1609 on the islands of Bermuda>

SEE? Whipwrecks and castaways do happen.

[KittyWampus]

7. American Idol = Vaudeville. So yes, you are an old fart wishing for a mythical time

that never existed :)

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. oh well....self awareness is a good thing!!

;-)

[KittyWampus]

10. I think the dawn of tv and then the period where there was "real" news with actual journalists

was an anomaly.

There's always been yellow journalism and tabloids feeding pabulum and papers pushing agendas.

Then with tv there was a new outlet and somehow for a while it managed to really inform.

Now there's the internet.

Wonder what the next new venue for real news will be after the internet.

[Echo In Light]

13. From Power's perspective, the medium was always seen as a tool for thought control/manipulation

... aside from just making $

[imdjh]

11. I'll step up here. Old shows and most of the stars were crap.

Seriously, without cronyism we wouldn't know who 90% of the "stars" of early TV were. I'm not going to shut up there. My mom was born in 1929 and most of her favorite performers, musical and acting, SUCKED. Frank Sinatra would be a burger flipper if he had to compete today. The man didn't have the talent to succeed in today's market or the looks to let him fuck his way through the door to success. Most of the movies of my mother's day were exercises in bad acting and dreadful production.

I tried to watch the Wizard of Oz last night. It's hokey garbage.

[NRaleighLiberal]

14. All a matter of taste and perspective - the beauty of the arts is that

there really is no wrong or right answer. Art (in every sense) is there for each person to value and interpret individually.

[imdjh]

20. Oh really? Tell that to some TA who is going to flunk you because you think that To Kill A Mocking..

... bird is a great story and that Harper Lee isn't some oracle writing in riddles, that she said everything she intended to say in plain English.

[callous taoboy]

30. Definitely a matter of taste and perspective:

I think Wizard of Oz is a masterpiece. Part of why I think so highly of it is how well it came off despite the film production limitations of that time period. The music, the dancin'...just great stuff. Garland, however, was not a great actress.

[Kalyke]

15. My 2-year-old daughter told me to kick you in the shin for dissing

her favorite movie.

[imdjh]

21. Shame on you for letting her read DU. :) N/T

[Kalyke]

25. It's far more informative than what passes for news these days.

:)

[crazyjoe]

31. can you give an example of who you think has the looks and

talent to succeed today? I mean, if you think Frank Sinatra sucked and all.

[Golden Raisin]

23. American Idol is more akin

to it's antecedents Major Bowes, Ted Mack's Amateur Hour and the dreaded Gong Show. Vaudeville, especially on the big circuits (Keith, Orpheum) was populated by professionals (some great stars, a good solid middle-ground of entertainers, and a bottom tier just a couple of notches up from amateurs), not predominantly by amateurs as on American Idol.

[Katya Mullethov]

12. Kids using Zee Scorpions "Winds of Change" in videos

After the last election , fucking hilarious . There's your sign ! There are no roller coasters in Gorky Park !!

[Demit]

16. Hogan's Heroes, in retrospect, was a pretty appalling idea.

LOL! I'd venture to say that making light of Nazis in WWII rivals anything today for tastelessness.

[callous taoboy]

29. Had a relative who was a POW in a German concentration camp and

he detested Hogan's.

[Kansas Wyatt]

17. Who says that the Howell's on Gilligan's Island didn't create Republicans?

So now we have a nutty group across the country thinking that they are the only ones entitled to anything and everything, because they wanted to be just like the Howell's on Gilligan's Island.

[dustbunnie]

18. The cultural banality back then also included Reader's Digest.

And John Wayne war time propaganda flicks.

The people who worship Rush, Palin, et al... have always existed. Back in the days you're talking about, it was okay to express racism and learning challenged kids were openly labeled retards. It all seems to have escalated because info is now 24/7 and instantly disseminated. But why do you think Republicans ache to go back to those days?

[DavidDvorkin]

19. The world is going to the dogs

Kids these days.

Get off my lawn!

[UTUSN]

22. Palin *AND* Prejean!1 n/t

[swilton]

24. She's Following in Bush's (father & son) footsteps

Please read Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life - he would attribute the phenomenon to many factors, many of which go to America's roots. The religious evangelical movement that was a turn away from the Puritan intellectuals, the creation of the American school system - denigrating by being forced to hire women and continually lacking a professional cadre of teachers, the political bias against intellectuals beginning with attacks on Jefferson and continuing with favoritism to those candidates who have military experience - the list goes on. All of the factors he mentions are even more valid today and are clearly evidenced in the social-political predicaments that we have found ourselves.

[niyad]

26. bread and circuses--just like rome

[Starbucks Anarchist]

27. Your generation had some bad programming, too.

And many of the best TV shows today are on HBO and other premium networks you didn't have decades ago.

Then there's the unspoken rule about your generation's programs -- if you weren't white, you were essentially shut out. But if you look at many shows today, there's been a huge increase in diversity that wasn't possible in your generation.

And Ronald Reagan, among others, can't be blamed on American Idol. ;)

[BillDU]

28. You must be young..

It's rigged you boob! Old fart you are expected to know that.

[Buns_of_Fire]

32. TV started going downhill the day they canceled "My Mother The Car"

...A show truly ahead of its time.