Television Programs, Gentle Brain Washing

On many shows, especially those from America, there is always a   ‘secret message’.  The viewer ‘gets’ what is good or bad in general society by the characters, the plots, the words used.

Although this may seem to be a mere diversion, entertainment, it is a subtle form of brain washing.

On many of the modern television programs there is a high respect for America’s military, especially the Marines. If one is growing up in America and, as many Americans, feels lonely, and empty, lost, and needs to belong; joining the Marines becomes nirvana.

This is not surprising, as America as usually been at War from inception. From the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 to the Tripolitan, to the various wars with American Indians to the Civil War to the Spanish American, the First then Second World War, the Korean War, Viet Nam and now the near permanent deployments in the Middle East, America needs a lot of military personnel.

With the Draft gone, every member is a volunteer. No one is forced to fight, there is no law making Military Service mandatory. A great number of recruits are required and with a lot of people applying, the best of the bargain can be selected, and those not so good can be put on a waiting list.

This in rush to join the military can easily be tracked to television. Almost every hit show has characters who served.

Whether it is one of the NCIS crew; where the characters work for the Navy, and a few served in the Marines, to Grey’s Anatomy where two standard characters were in military service, to Scandal where all sorts of secret military folks are running around murdering everyone and fixing elections. to Blue Bloods where most of the members of the family served, hit shows in America today always have their military or retired military folks.

These are always the most loyal people. The best people.

Which makes that twelve year old who is not on the team, that sixteen year old who is pressured to join a gang, that seventeen year old who is not going to the Prom see an answer to their need to belong.

If one watches programs over a period of time, one sees not merely plots and actors but the culture of the time. What was good, what was bad, what was desirable, what was undesirable, on and on.

For example, up until the 1970s everyone smoked. Now, no one does. One will rarely see anyone with a cigarette in an American show unless it was set in the 1960s as was Mad Men.

Today, the military is the desired vocation. Not law or medicine or anything else.

American programs, always linked to the Government in some way or another, always trying to stay in the grid, using a drama as a recruitment poster is not new. Television molds opinions.