Tom, you should hope that we don’t go head to head with
your
program. Ha ha. Of course I’m only teasing.”
“Of course,” said Brokaw flatly.
“In any event, the success of VTV is not just mine. On a much
broader level, it represents the success of the masses to determine,
and get, what they want. If there’s a lesson to be learned from all this,
it’s that the truth will eventually come out in the wash. For many
years, our society operated under stodgy Victorian ideals, but it’s
only been recently that we’ve shed those symbolic corsets and
powdered wigs and are getting back to our true human nature.”
“Which is?” Brokaw asked.
The corners of Gareth’s mouth curled up ever so slightly. “Well,
sex and violence, of course,” he said. “Freud taught us that years ago.
It’s just taken us this long to get used to the idea.”
“Okay. And what do you think Freud would have said about
shows like,
Torture Around the World
,
The Injuries of War
, and
When We Were Savages
?”
“He would have thought them good, cathartic therapy,” replied
Gareth, smiling. “Instead of going out and killing someone yourself,
you might diffuse that bomb with a little televised tension release. I
should add that there has never been shown any correlation between
watching TV violence and actually performing violent acts.”
“Yes, that’s widely known,” said Brokaw. “However, some would
argue that society on the whole is getting more violent, and though
we can’t point to individual causation, it’s possible that on a general
level, our cultural values have been undermined by programs such as
yours, and that what seemed taboo before might actually now be
perceived as glamorous. I understand that T-shirts with your slogan
“VTV—Hurts So Good,” are quite a big fashion item among teens.
Not to mention the VTV assault water pistols which shoot fake blood.
What do you make of that?”
“Oh, about a hundred million dollars,” joked Schlechtmann.
Brokaw didn’t even wince.
“Seriously, though,” Gareth continued without missing a beat,
“the notion that our society is getting more violent is baloney. The
rate of per capita murders and assaults has stayed the same, and in
some cases dropped, in the last hundred years. There are more
murders, but there are also many more people. And increased
awareness has helped to stem countless cases of spousal abuse and
irresponsible weapons handling. Not so in countries without
H O L Y S H I T !
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