Story of the Day

Network television has some strange ideas about what they should be presenting for us to watch. I saw the previews for several upcoming shows on NBC. One trailer described a large crocodile as a monster. As though the animal had evil intent because it used a watering spot to catch and eat poor harmless good animals. What a strange idea. How can we ascribe motive to a crocodile? How can we call it a monster because it does what all animals do, that is it eats the appropriate food to survive? This type of commentary doesn't help our understanding of the interactions between living things. If some great white hunter used that same watering spot to capture prey or to shoot big game we wouldn't generally be calling him a monster.

We should I think better understand that neither the croc nor the hunter is a monster. If we do not agree with or approve of their actions this does not automatically make them monstrous.

The other preview was even more ridiculous. This one is about the smoke jumpers who were killed fighting the fire in Colorado recently. They were called heroes. How can they be heroes? What did they do that was heroic? They attempted to redirect and take control of a wild fire. They and those who directed them erred in decisions they made regarding methods, actions, locations, the weather, and other factors surrounding that fire. These events resulted in the deaths of a significant number of firefighters. This does not make them heroes. This makes them victims. I do not diminish their efforts. They were strong, brave people who gave their all for their jobs. Their loss is a loss for us all. But this program describes them inaccurately. It characterizes their efforts as a fight against an evil enemy. The fire is described as a killer that ambushed them. This monster attacked those poor heroes and slew them for its own evil purpose. What nonsense. They would be better portrayed as they were. People who had a difficult job to do. The fire should be portrayed as it was. A non-living force of nature with on malice or forethought.

If the commercial television shows could get rid of this absurd view of reality, maybe we all could begin moving toward a better understanding of interactions between people and forces of nature.

February 5, 1996

Comments welcome

Jack Jackson ( jjack@bearinmind.org )