I had the misfortune of seeing the very first few episodes of the TV show, Lost. How long has this show been running? A couple of years? I can’t believe it didn’t die after its first season, that any intelligent American would watch this show!
Ah, that explains the popularity of the program…
Lost is like a cross between Gilligan’s Island, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and values clarification lessons I was taught (and adamantly rejected) in school. When I was in high school, values clarification was just becoming vogue. In my senior year, we got a new Spanish teacher– she was 21 years old, fresh out of Colgate University, and therefore knew NOTHING. For most of the year, she had us cook AND eat gazpacho (I will never forgive her for that); she told us “funny” stories of her trip to Spain (oh, the depths of the Spanish language she learned in those 3 weeks there!); and she had us complete and discuss values clarification, in which I refused to participate and caused a big stink in class. Oh, and we did learn a little Spanish– in the last month before graduation– when Miss Wet-Behind-Her-Ears realized she hadn’t completed her Scope & Sequence, and dumped on us a 300-page AMSCO book which we had to complete for graduation. Needless to say, we couldn’t keep up and never finished the stupid book (it was pitifully boring, anyway).
So where was I?
Oh yes, values clarification. In a nutshell, it’s a type of “situation analysis” or moral relativism. You judge what’s right and wrong based on your personal assessment of the moment or time. In my Spanish class, for example, we were told that a nuclear explosion had wiped out all the population but 20 people, and destroyed all the food supply save for a small amount to feed 10 people for a year. Who is most worthy to live? The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker?
Real educational stuff, that public schooling. Mmmm.
My classmates, predictably, chose the young doctor, the young man and women (for future procreation), the farmer, the scientist… and ditched the preacher, the baby, the person with the flu, and the old folks. (Sounds eerily like the Health Care Reform Bill, eh?) Me, I loved throwing a wrench in the works– I always chose the preacher because there would have to be SOMEONE who had to knock everyone’s self-centered heads together and preach morality, heal the sick, and whip the evildoers. Heh heh. I didn’t need to pass that class to graduate on time, anyway…
ANYWAY. That TV show–Lost– as I watched it, it SO reminded me of those old values clarification classes. Yeah, you’ve got a guy with a hunk of shrapnel in his chest, he’s using up the scarce supplies of medicine and water, he’s only going to die– somebody shoot the dude and put him (and all of us) out of his misery… what drivel.
Plus, I just hated the behavioral psychology thrust on the viewer. Someone tell me for WHAT purpose we needed to see the main actress half naked, standing on the beach in her Victoria’s Secret?! And the women who dressed like ho’s with their miniskirts and super-tight tank tops… and let their bikinis flap in the wind?? RRRRRIGHHT!!! Well, I guess the producers have got to think of SOMETHING to keep the men watching…. but it made me want to puke. Not to mention the HORROR everyone had when it was discovered that someone had something DANGEROUS— a GUN! And then, KNIVES!!! Oh, the tragedy!! Suuuure, like all these Californians are going to PEACE and LOVE the snarling wild boars to death, and eat coconuts until they are rescued!!
On the other hand, the acting was actually pretty good. I mean, how hard is it for a Hollywood person to dress in skimpy clothes, complain about their breaking fingernails, and communicate with the Mount Shasta-like psychic monster in the jungle? Oh yeah– some guy who’d been paralyzed MIRACULOUSLY now walks again, and another guy is MIRACULOUSLY led to a water source by his dead (resurrected??) father whose coffin was in the crashed plane… but Jesus Christ is stupid because He isn’t as old as the beloved and mysterious Backgammon game!!!
Who watches this stuff?!? THIS is what people dump into their brains religiously EVERY WEEK?!?! I felt my IQ drip out of my nose as I watched it! And it’s not “harmless” entertainment, either– it’s behavior modification with a heck of a lot of that values clarification in it.
People, PLEASE! Have some self-respect!!!
*THROWS UP ARMS IN DISGUST*
November 8th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I never watched LOST luckily, although I know many people who do. As for values clarification, I know the group exercise you mean. We called it the “Fall-out Shelter” and I participated in it and used it in my Communication classes many times (where often the Preacher was chosen to remain, I might add). I always perceived it as a means to develop group problem solving skills–not change students’ values. A similar exercise that I often used involved a group that was lost on an island (sound familiar?) and the class had to work together to figure out how to get them back to civilization. Sometimes problem solving does involve making judgments. I’d rather have students get practice doing this in class before they have to do it in real life. Of course, I agree with you that in Spanish class, learning Spanish should come first.
November 8th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
My husband and I watch this show eversince its debut on 2004, never missing an episode, and I engaged in discussion forums run by Lost fans all over the world. Lost is not about “intelligence” because not any single TV fictional show is ever created based on ” perfect and factual intelligence.” That’s why it’s fiction.
Lost is not to capture intelligent people but to spark interests or those who are interested in “faith, supernatural, fantasy, mysticism, mythological, etc.”
If you happen to have seen Lost from the very beginning, you would somehow appreciate it more.
November 8th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I suffered through one episode of Lost before finding that doing ANYTHING else was time better spent. I have not been able to fathom the popularity of the show and, for mine, its best left ignored.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:50 am
It is a known fact that television is detrimental to cognitive thinking of the brain. So while a story or plot may be fascinating, the brain is passive while watching TV, and constant exposure effects changes in the thought processes.
As far as Lost is particular, the concept of the plot– survivors of a crash must battle difficulties, etc— is terrific. But the show itself is a lesson in behavior modification. But don’t take offense: ALL television shows are this way, now. So no matter what your pet TV show is, they all stink for this reason.
Patricia– your comment was extremely interesting. Maybe it is only public-schooled children in New York and their teachers who want to ditch ministers. I guess that explains Jerry Falwell’s enormous popularity a while back…. heh heh.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Oh one quick addition in response to Patricia’s comment– I do think that the values clarification exercises ARE intended to change students’ values. Maybe you’d be interested in the multicultural agenda underway by McGraw-Hill? See here:
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/define_old.html and here: http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/education/multi_new/ for examples.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Dear CBL,
Believe me, as a life-long educator I am well aware of the “values-clarification” movement. Actually, my husband, who is a life-long English teacher is more aware of it than I am (the field of Communication seems to be more immune to fluctuations in political correctness where education is concerned). Yes, you may be right. New York state may be more of a hot bed of radical activity in public education than here in the Midwest. As far as television as a medium is concerned–don’t get me started. I have strong views (positive and negative) which I voice regularly on my blog.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:27 am
This is a disgustingly myopic stance. Morals have no foundation except for the whims and arbitrary goals of human desires. Morals are not ends of themselves, but means to ends. They rise out of basic survival tactics because they’re useful tools to control people. They are in fact meaningless in and of themselves.
The revaluation shown in Lost is radical perhaps, but it is in fact pragmatic, and CORRECT. Utilitarianism would do a great deal more for our world than religion our pointless arbitrary morals have ever done. Those things have done far more harm to this society than anything else. Read some Bertrand Russell. Educate yourself.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:52 am
MINE is a myopic stance?! Somehow yours is not?? “Bertrand Russell” and “educate” in the same sentence?!?! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You absolutely made my day!
Russell is so blindingly stupid that it defies reason! I suggest Russell-ites open their minds a tad and delve into the depths of Locke, Newton, Montesquieu, Rutherford, and Blackstone– all GIANTS (and all Christians and adherents to absolute truth). Russel is but a brief and phallical (pun intended) blip on the history of logical thought and reason.
December 6th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Opinions will be opinions, but facts will be facts. You’re confusing the two, as many religious people do. You want more academic citation? Look at Kant. Kant is one of the most prominent thinkers of the 19th Century. And it was Kant who pointed out that things like God, faith, or religion can’t be known because they can’t be experienced directly. There is zero logical reason to hold to any particular arbitrary moral system, except possibly those that are derived from natural law. If you’re such a fan of Locke, you should at least accept that much.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with morals, but there is the simple fact that no moral system is inherently RIGHT, either.
December 6th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
If you’re so certain that you’re right, and there is some sort of moral absolute, explain to me why I should believe you instead of pressing caps lock and attempting to argue with mud slinging. Try to handle conflict like an adult.
January 1st, 2010 at 8:45 pm
I think this blog entry about LOST is proof for why America sucks and has been going down the shitter.
For once, there is a revolutionizing, brilliant display of artwork for the FIRST TIME in this generation and everyone’s running to bash on it. There is so much brilliance layered into this show, and the fact that morons like this try saying it’s not intelligent proves that they just can’t recognize it. This is art that is being put on television, and America, once again, would much rather pop in a rerun of Grey’s Anatomy.
This blog entry is proof in the failure of the American education system.
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Dave. What. Is. Wrong. With. You.
So you’re saying that because people watch Gray’s Anatomy and don’t watch Lost and gush over it’s greatness, there’s something wrong with public education. YOU ARE INSANE! Hello?! The world began LONG before Lost, before TV, even! Look past your nose, man.