Nate,
Your story brought two images to my mind. The first was Winston Smith
being interrogated in the third part of 1984. O'Brien (sp?) the
interrogator reveals to him that the perennial images of the war that
Oceania is always fighting either against East Asia or Eurasia or really
just produced in a studio; the "floating fortress" upon which the heroic
defenders of INGSOC fight its enemies simply a model in a TV studio
(prescient George Orwell writing about TV's uses in 1947).
The second was the image of Jack Nicholson at the beginning of "The
Shining", turning to his son as they drive up to the Rockie Mountain Hotel,
"He heard it on TV, it must be true." Well, in defense of our children's
generation at least we can point out that we were guilty of the same fallacy
with respect to what appears in print. And it seems that this bias is the
basis of a lot of continuing fallacies: it must be worth something if it's
printed.
One must credit your son with his accurate perception of the quality of the
social commentary on the Simpsons!!
Paul H. Dillon
----- Original Message -----
From: Nate <SCHMOLZE1@HOME.COM>
To: Xmca <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 7:20 AM
Subject: Moonstruck: fantasy or fact
> Funny story. Last night I started watching a fox conspiracy show about if
we
> ever really made it to the moon. About 5 minutes into the show my brothers
> called asking me for my insights if NASA ever made it to the moon. The
> waving flag still gots me thinking but I was curious what my 9 year old
> son's thoughts were on the matter.
>
> So, I ask him what he thought bringing out some of the "evidence" the show
> was demonstrating and his answer cracked me up. He said, it has to be true
> or they wouldn't show it on the Simpsons".
>
> Bart wouldn't lie you know.
>
> Nate
>
>
> "The individual, when he apprehends himself as such, is social in his
> essence. He is social not as a result of external contingencies, but by
> virtue of an internal necessity, by virtue of his genesis." Henri Wallon
>
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