Is it MTV's fault?

If basic cable had a channel that played the most vile extremes of hardcore pornography and all Americans received it, the ratings would be astronomical. I would imagine the demographic with the highest audience rating would be teenage males. The typical lunch room conversation would go like this “Dude, did you watch Sorority Sluts 4 yesterday, that shit was banging.” Should we let the free market rule the day and allow what would almost certainly be the biggest thing to hit television since Reality TV?

The non music part of “Music Television Station” is clearly hurting our society. It adds such little nourishment for the brain, unless viewed cynically. Those who complain about MTV are often met with the counter argument that it is a microcosm of real life and they are just showing the way it is. That’s almost certainly true for the average viewer. However, that argument while true demonstrates where I believe the problem lies, not in the lack of "reality" but extreme amounts of overconsumption. It suggest that on top of living my own average life, I am going to spend hours and hours watching prettier people live their average life. The damage scandalous reality TV is causing American society is not that it is corrupting us, it is that it is providing the luxury American can only temporarily afford, excess.

Then why is it acceptable to allow television to be overrun with shows such as “date my mom” and “real world”. I am in no way here to argue that MTV should be censored from their programming. The pornography example is the Heroin of video consumption, while MTV is merely the Marijuana, and I am all for legalizing marijuana. The unattended consequences of marijuana prohibition such as overflowing of our criminal courts, jails particularly in amongst urban youth is undeniable. There are many pot users who can control their use and eventually quit and can add productivity to our economy. The unattended consequences of Politically Correct over regulation would be even more numerous.

If I am not for censorship, therefore what I am I for. The easy and obvious answer is to tell parents to turn of the kid’s television. It seems so simple, and like most simple answers it’s just not totally practical. The parents should try to curb viewing habits and explain the rational as to why time would be better spent on school work. However, the average 15 year old is not going to acquiesce with a parents request to limit consumption and in most cases is going to fight it, despite the strictest of regulations. The onus is on the parent to try to limit consumption as much as possible, but the expectation that they will halt it is not reasonable. Though obviously the effort should be made to a much greater extent then is currently done.

I seem to have really squeezed out all apparent options, if not the government or parents then whom? The party that I would like to see step up and help curb this massive over consumption, is a branch of the vary monster I am ostracizing, that being more cleaver members and ethical members of the entertainment industry. I believe that this can actually come somewhat fluently and naturally. The natural course of events is when extreme segments of society are becoming domineering there is a blowback response. This happened with hippies in Vietnam and might be happening with Barack Obama in response to the current Bush administration.

The stupidity of the product the entertainment industry is producing has already started to show signs of being met with a growing backlash. The popularity of sardonic mediums such as the Onion, the Colbert Report, the Daily Show etc has caught on. Albeit more of a response to the current political environment as opposed to the entertainment environment, though one such recent onion headline I thought was appropriate “Area Eccentric Reads Entire Book” MTV should take the initiative to make intelligence "cool", "with the irony of MTV being ironic”, in the way it did a decade ago with Beavis and Butt Head and Daria. This would not only be for their benefit, but the benefit of American advancement. It would be to their benefit with the growth of greater niches and a new season in trends, they could capitalize on this by offering cleverness and intelligence on a greater scale (which could only work if don't honestly) . However, with the help of the internet and other entertainment vehicles, the popularity of scoffing the current stupidity of popular America may itself develop utterly out of spite ; and when if that becomes to popular and trite, perhaps a blowback against the evils of that sprout out from this industry will emerge.