The Doomsday Channel
When The History Channel first started in the 90's, people joked that it was "The Hitler Channel" due to its perpetual broadcasts of documentaries about World War Two and the evil dictator. I don't know if that was due to the dearth of non-WW2 documentary programs (which I doubt) or more to do with our culture's fascination with the despot.
During this time period we saw the emergence of Hitler accusations in our political culture. The first Hitler reference that I can recall was Bush The Elder likening Saddam Hussein to him when the Bastard from Baghdad rolled over Kuwait. Ten years later, every politician and his (or her) favorite pundit was comparing someone to Hitler or his 1939 appeasers.
But now The History Channel (it likes to just be called History these days) has moved most of that stuff off to The Military History Channel, a channel I don't have. Except for the occasional run of Band of Brothers or a rundown of the presidents, history doesn't factor into much of its programming. Instead we have decidedly non-historical fare like Ax Men, Pawn Stars and Ice Road Truckers.
We also have MonsterQuest, a show about cryptozoology, and UFO Hunters, which you can figure out from the title. One can make the argument that both of these shows have a smidgen of history in them. MonsterQuest investigates whether mythical creatures ever existed and pores through historical records to find them. UFO Hunters kind of does the same thing except the targets are aliens. Yes, I know it's a stretch.
The network's saving graces are How The Earth Was Made and The Universe. These two shows deal with geological and cosmic history respectively. Neither is what I'd expect but they're still very good shows.
But what bugs me about The History Channel is its obsession with the end of history. The end of the world. Long before that 2012 movie came out, The History Channel was trumpeting our doom with documentaries about the end of the Mayan Calendar, Nostradamus, The Bible Code, and every other documentary about prophets and potential catastrophes. With the release of the movies, the frequency of these shows has only increased.
Now showing these shows on occasion would probably be ok. But the constant drumbeat of doom is too much. For instance, take Life After People. The premise of the show is this is what the world looks like if people suddenly disappear. They couple CGI with real world examples to make their case. But it's Ozymandias over and over again. You don't need to watch more than one show to get it, yet I believe that it's going into its third season.
Then there's the doomsday documentaries. The Mayan Calendar, the Bible, Nostradamus and a slew of others are trotted out before us to weigh in with their dire warnings. They even drag bona fide scientists in to describe the effects of say, an asteroid impact or a plague to lend credibility to the whole mess. But in no case does an asteroid impact, gamma ray burst, solar flare, magnetic pole reversal, or polar shift bring about our extinction in these prophecies. They all describe how humanity suffers terribly, but endures. That's not to say that were these things to occur, they'd be nothing short of extinction level events. But you can't mix prophecy with them because all the prophecies say that life goes on.
However, the producers of these extinction orgies cherry pick their prophecy pieces. While they're quick to point out that the fifth cycle of the Mayan Calendar comes to an end on the Winter Solstice of 2012, it's just the end of the cycle. The Mayans note that as each cycle ends, there's tremendous upheaval. But the calendar doesn't end: a new cycle begins.
As terrible as the Book of Revelations is in the Bible, it has a happy ending: Christ lives with us and wipes all our suffering away. Even Nostradamus's prediction of the rise of the third Antichrist and the oncoming third world war doesn't wipe out the planet or our species. He forecasts a happy ending with a thousand years of peace to follow the conclusion of those terrible times.
I wonder what's the point of these doomsayers anyway. If they're right, are they going to go around and gloat? "See? I was right! The world is ending!" Is that something you'd really want to brag about? In humanity's last hour, that's not going to make you all that popular. You might not even live to see the last moment. It must be short term gain.
I have to imagine that these shows are pulling in the viewers. Why else would they keep showing them? Our culture seems obsessed with its own demise, whether it's mere entertainment or paranoid bunker builder inspiration. So the doom and gloom producers get rich and/or famous in the short run and hide away in some cabana in the tropics hoping that their predictions don't come true.
So will the doomsday phenomenon grow, especially now with its own channel (books and movies aren't enough!) running the end of the world on a nightly basis? When 2012 runs around, will the hysteria about the end of the world become self-fulfilling? As long as the Doomsday Channel continues, I think the phenomenon will grow.
In the meantime, I'll change the channel. Adult Swim is more fun anyway.
\_/
DED
During this time period we saw the emergence of Hitler accusations in our political culture. The first Hitler reference that I can recall was Bush The Elder likening Saddam Hussein to him when the Bastard from Baghdad rolled over Kuwait. Ten years later, every politician and his (or her) favorite pundit was comparing someone to Hitler or his 1939 appeasers.
But now The History Channel (it likes to just be called History these days) has moved most of that stuff off to The Military History Channel, a channel I don't have. Except for the occasional run of Band of Brothers or a rundown of the presidents, history doesn't factor into much of its programming. Instead we have decidedly non-historical fare like Ax Men, Pawn Stars and Ice Road Truckers.
We also have MonsterQuest, a show about cryptozoology, and UFO Hunters, which you can figure out from the title. One can make the argument that both of these shows have a smidgen of history in them. MonsterQuest investigates whether mythical creatures ever existed and pores through historical records to find them. UFO Hunters kind of does the same thing except the targets are aliens. Yes, I know it's a stretch.
The network's saving graces are How The Earth Was Made and The Universe. These two shows deal with geological and cosmic history respectively. Neither is what I'd expect but they're still very good shows.
But what bugs me about The History Channel is its obsession with the end of history. The end of the world. Long before that 2012 movie came out, The History Channel was trumpeting our doom with documentaries about the end of the Mayan Calendar, Nostradamus, The Bible Code, and every other documentary about prophets and potential catastrophes. With the release of the movies, the frequency of these shows has only increased.
Now showing these shows on occasion would probably be ok. But the constant drumbeat of doom is too much. For instance, take Life After People. The premise of the show is this is what the world looks like if people suddenly disappear. They couple CGI with real world examples to make their case. But it's Ozymandias over and over again. You don't need to watch more than one show to get it, yet I believe that it's going into its third season.
Then there's the doomsday documentaries. The Mayan Calendar, the Bible, Nostradamus and a slew of others are trotted out before us to weigh in with their dire warnings. They even drag bona fide scientists in to describe the effects of say, an asteroid impact or a plague to lend credibility to the whole mess. But in no case does an asteroid impact, gamma ray burst, solar flare, magnetic pole reversal, or polar shift bring about our extinction in these prophecies. They all describe how humanity suffers terribly, but endures. That's not to say that were these things to occur, they'd be nothing short of extinction level events. But you can't mix prophecy with them because all the prophecies say that life goes on.
However, the producers of these extinction orgies cherry pick their prophecy pieces. While they're quick to point out that the fifth cycle of the Mayan Calendar comes to an end on the Winter Solstice of 2012, it's just the end of the cycle. The Mayans note that as each cycle ends, there's tremendous upheaval. But the calendar doesn't end: a new cycle begins.
As terrible as the Book of Revelations is in the Bible, it has a happy ending: Christ lives with us and wipes all our suffering away. Even Nostradamus's prediction of the rise of the third Antichrist and the oncoming third world war doesn't wipe out the planet or our species. He forecasts a happy ending with a thousand years of peace to follow the conclusion of those terrible times.
I wonder what's the point of these doomsayers anyway. If they're right, are they going to go around and gloat? "See? I was right! The world is ending!" Is that something you'd really want to brag about? In humanity's last hour, that's not going to make you all that popular. You might not even live to see the last moment. It must be short term gain.
I have to imagine that these shows are pulling in the viewers. Why else would they keep showing them? Our culture seems obsessed with its own demise, whether it's mere entertainment or paranoid bunker builder inspiration. So the doom and gloom producers get rich and/or famous in the short run and hide away in some cabana in the tropics hoping that their predictions don't come true.
So will the doomsday phenomenon grow, especially now with its own channel (books and movies aren't enough!) running the end of the world on a nightly basis? When 2012 runs around, will the hysteria about the end of the world become self-fulfilling? As long as the Doomsday Channel continues, I think the phenomenon will grow.
In the meantime, I'll change the channel. Adult Swim is more fun anyway.
\_/
DED
Labels: our_insane_world
posted by DED at 6:38 PM
1 Comments:
We are a culture that seems hell bent on realizing a sort of grotesque self fulfilling prophecy.
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