...Save the World

With a title like "Ochlocracy in Action" and a sobriquet as fancy as the one I've adopted here, it seems to me that I should have some kind of mission statement as to what this whole endeavor is about. In order to be consistent with the presentational theme, it should be someting high-minded, politically aware, non-frivolous, in the interest of the common weal.

Ochlocracy as a concept affects everyone because it is, in nearly literal terms, everyone. The goal here should be to elevate discourse beyond partisanship and reflex rancor; to be the mirror of societal self-reflection that allows us to see our own flaws and failings, goading us all to epiphany and action in the direction of the Hegelian moral right.

To that end, I feel compelled to implore you all to stop watching Heroes on NBC.

According to the declining numbers I've seen, many of you are well ahead of the curve there, and bravo, I say.

For the rest of you, I feel it's my social duty to point out just how much that show sucks, not just in the specific sense of bad ideas poorly executed, but as a symptom of societal decay that only we, as a collective force of action, can choose to stop.

I know many of us feel certain sense of loyalty to that show, going back to the first season, which, as I recall now, did not suck. It was actually compelling, as many new shows are, because they are forced to say something original--or at least say something that's been said a million times before, packaged in an artificially original way that we can at least appreciate for the effort--in order to get on the air in the first place.

It has become clear to me, however, that the writers of that show had exactly one year's worth of ideas and now are subjecting our mass media society not just to another bad television show, but yet another symptom of cultural rot that threatens to destroy us as a nation.

The first season of Heroes was artfully paced, expertly structured, with rare, judicious sprinklings of CGI-flavored sci-fi mumbo jumbo to keep things interesting.

The best part about it was that, even though we knew what the end was going to be, we didn't know how it was going to get there, or even, really, if it would exactly as suggested. Because of that, we could tolerate the execrable dialogue spoken by a cast of actors who, by rights, should have risen at most to the level of sitcom supporting character or, perhaps, infomercial fake testimonial interviewee.

Over the next half season (writer's strike) and the beginning of this one, it's entirely clear that the people in charge have run out of ideas entirely. Now every year, it's "we must save the world from the Dreaded MacGuffin of Doom!" which we know PRECISELY AND WITH CERTAINTY that they will and how they will.

It's the same exact problem that makes 24 such an awful show after one or two seasons of such promise. Everyone knows what every season of 24 will entail: initial threat, investigation hampered by internal treachery and/or incompetence, the president is in some way incapacitated, initial threat faced and defeated followed by BAD GUYS GET NUCLEAR WEAPONS (oh noes!!11!), moral dilemma involving Jack Bauer killing non-bad-guy(s) to save the day.

Yeah, great. Let's have eight seasons of that.

But this kind of thing persists because just enough people watch these shows in order to justify the selling price of advertising against their production budgets.

The problem is that American television is, if only in terms of volume, the world standard. Other English language countries, the UK for example, run short seasons (like 6 episodes) over the course of a few years and then MOVE ON.

We regularly crank out 22 to 25 episodes of every show, regardless of content, which means it's easier for Australia and the UK, not to mention our non-Anglophone, literate friends who can handle subtitles, to fill in empty time by importing American shows instead of producing their own total crap.

This is what we've been doing since the beginning of television, but the degradation of quality in the Heroes and 24 mold have had serious geopolitical repercussions. North Korea will not take our anti-nuclear weapons stance seriously. Why? I would argue because Milo Ventimiglia makes us non-credible as a negotiating partner.

Meanwhile, Arrested Development is cancelled after 53 episodes because people would rather watch foreign import karaoke shows, while at the same time, we are in serious danger of, less than a month from now, surrendering the last bit of international political credibility we have left. This is not a coincidence.

The only thing standing between us and total social collapse is me and Jump the Shark. The bees have neither and look what's happened to them.