Now this is my kind of socialist science.
The effect of television shows as a whole sandbags us; it doesn't wake us up, sharpen our critical faculties in relation to cops, even if a few shows here and there break the general rule.
Of course, this is obvious. Isn't Judith Butler discussing a process that is very obvious and yet so obvious that we take it for granted and don't hold it in our everyday awareness ? Why do we turn when the cop calls us ? It's not because of the subtle social critiques on a few television shows some of us like. If the cop shows have anything to do with it, it is that the shows put a warm fuzzy over that gun they wear.
Charles Brown
>>> pms <laflame at mindspring.com> 02/03 8:03 PM >>>
For some reason, as I was making my post-rush, auto-pilot way to work
today, that show with Sam Watterson or whatever, was stuck in my mind, and
I realized what's been snagged on my brain about our praise of the
non-reactionary elements(or whatever it's being called) of these shows.
In the end, when all is said and done, the wisdom of some old white guy who sounds like an EF Hutton commercial(what ever happened to them, gone with the buffalo?), is what assures us that the world, as we know it, is good. Sam's boss is the moral authority that comforts us. If only the good old white men, were in charge. And if only little Shirley Temple could come and charm the pants(perhaps literally, from the grown-up view) off the mean rich guy, so's he'd be nice to the poor people. If only the boss' sons would marry LaVerne and Shirley, the world would be swell. It's an old theme. And cherished. Ever notice how, in soap operas, if a poor person is nice, they soon become a lost relative, spouse, or personal assistant, living in the boat house, of the towns richest people? The last is a different thread actually, but I love bringing it up, so what the hell.
And what's with the woman attorney, in a state of continual awe for these extraordinary men?
Know what I mean?
p.