Monday, March 29, 2010

The problem is fundamentalism not scrupulosity

In an interesting essay for the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Steve Asma argues that, for an increasingly large group of secular upper and middle-class liberals,  environmentalism has assumed on the guilt-inducing role once held by religion.  At first glance, this argument seems like a something torn from the pages of an Ann Coulter book. And, if history is any indication, it's ripe for selective quoting by the climate change skeptics.  Still, these objections, in and of themselves, don't amount to much in terms of refuting his thesis.

This is not to say that Asma gets it right.   Specifically, his emphasis on "green guilt" seems misplaced.  He seems to think that most in his latte-sipping cohort (his stereotyping, not mine) lead lives of constant self-denial, constantly flagellating themselves (emotionally, of course) for not composting as much as they should.  He even ends his article by encouraging his fellow green-conscious liberals to "temper their fervor" and basically stop feeling so damn guilty all of the time.

Now, I have trouble imagining that there is a substantial element of the population that is taking our environmental situation too seriously.  Perhaps Asma is part of a very small group of exceedingly admirable people, but I think for more people, environmentalism mimics religion in a much more self-serving way. I suspect that it is more common for the upper-income, green-conscious crowd to use environmental concerns as a pretext for personal indulgence. It would certainly feel better to spend 40% more on locally-grown, premium foods if the alternative is morally objectionable.  Likewise, I doubt many Motel 8s are LEED-certified.  

In most cases, I think these purchases of environmental indulgences are inadvertent.  But a lot of people inadvertently use religion to sanction indulgence also.  Generally-speaking, the problem isn't people taking their values too seriously, it's people applying them too narrowly.

Monday, March 22, 2010

I still have some friends on the hill and was able to get some hidden camera video of Democratic leaders' efforts to get Bart Stupak and his group to vote for the health care bill.


Bluto's Speech

Tyler Burch | MySpace Video


As you can see, it was a closely run thing.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

I think Democrats will ultimately get the votes they need to pass the health care bill. At this moment, it seems very likely they are going to take a beating in the elections either way.

I'd compare their situation to the kid who gets caught shoplifting a candy bar from a store and, realizing the jig is up, has to decide what to do next.

I think that the Democrats will conclude that they may as well eat the candy bar.

Whether that applies to them individually as well as collectively, I'm not sure.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Is this a Golden Age of (Scripted) Televsion?

When people talk about the Golden Age of Television, they are usually assumed to be talking about the post-War era (unless you are with my friends from college, in which case it is assumed one is talking about the "Transformers" era). And, generally speaking, I think it's fair to call this period a "Golden Age;" it's nearly impossible to deny that for all sorts of cultural and historic reasons, this time period (late 40s to early 60s) was a really interesting and important time for television.

Still, having thought about TV a bit during this weekend's awful weather, I think you could make a strong case that the last ten years have been something of a second (or maybe third?) Golden Age of Television.  At the very least, I think you could say it's a Golden Age of Scripted television.

Consider some of the shows and miniseries that have aired or mostly aired in the past decade (I don't regularly watch all of these but I've seen a few episodes of most of them): The West Wing, The Wire, Friday Night Lights, Arrested Development, BattleStar Galactica, Flight of the Conchords, 30 Rock, The Office, House, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Lost, John Adams,  and Mad Men.

In short, lots of rich, well-written dramas, fresh comedies (often off-beat or satirical) and several shows with remarkably high production values.

If you accept the premise that this is a Golden Age, I can think of a few possible and mostly pretty obvious reasons:

  1. Networks can now pick the low-hanging fruit with relatively cheap reality TV options, so there is less need to try and fill prime-time spots with dramas and comedies that don't show exceptional promise.
  2. The trend away from the laugh-track.  Think "The Office," "30 Rock," and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
  3. DVD sales have created a secondary market for high quality television programming.
  4. Shows with well-constructed plots, like Lost" (which I never got into, but can understand the appeal of), and interesting, well-written characters, like "House," seem to make almost as much money in DVD sales as they do in advertising sales.
  5. More segmentation in the marketplace.  It seems even network shows like "West Wing" and "Friday Night Lights" have been given leeway to find and satisfy a particular niche, instead of being continually under pressure to post "E.R."-level ratings.
  6. More premium cable programming.  This is closely-linked to #5.  Networks like HBO, Comedy Central and AMC can put out programs like "John Adams," "Deadwood," "The Wire" and "Mad Men" precisely because they don't have to be all things to all people.


A few more reasons might be posted later (work beckons).  I'd be interested to see if this Golden Age pet theory holds up on second consideration and what other people think.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Kevin,

Thanks for getting this up and going. I'll kick things off with one of my favorite topics, movies. Specifically, the Oscars. All pretty much predictable, except I just can't wrap my head around Sandra Bullock as Best Actress. I would compare this to Marisa Tomei winning for "My Cousin Vinny," except that was only a supporting Oscar and Tomei has gone on to prove she can actually act (see "In the Bedroom" and "The Wrestler").

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A New Blog

One of my favorite things about college was the abundance of interesting, informal conversation.

Essentially, this blog is meant to play host to that sort of conversation. To that end, I have started it with several of my professors, all of them great conversationalists. Any topic is fair game, from current events to culture to anything else that might catch the bloggers' fancy.

Hopefully, several bloggers will be joining in coming weeks. If you have an interest in joining, please do not hesitate to e-mail me.

Lastly, this blog should be thought of as a series of thought experiments, a place for idle musing. Nothing written here is intended to be a final or binding statement of the author's opinion. In fact, there will likely be many instances where content shared here is done so in jest, given the blog's casual tone and purpose. Similarly, content shared via this blog should not be read as the endorsement, opinion or position of any group or institution with which a blog participant is affiliated.