Weathering Survivalist TV, Like ‘Man vs. Wild’
By NEIL GENZLINGER
NYT
The other day during my commute home, the New Jersey Transit train I was on had to pause mid-Meadowlands for some kind of storm-related delay. The conductor announced that we’d be moving again shortly, but I wasn’t taking any chances: I immediately constructed a double-sided lean-to from the laptop cases of my fellow passengers, caught three egrets by holding a Hopi bird snare out the emergency-exit window and built a makeshift stove to cook them on using soda cans and iPods.
Yes, some of the other passengers looked at me oddly, but that’s because they haven’t been watching nearly enough survivalist television. I don’t mean “Survivor” television, though that show is certainly related to the phenomenon. I’m talking about the seemingly endless parade of programs that feature self-appointed experts demonstrating how to survive should you become stranded in a desert, or on an island, or almost anywhere in Alaska or Canada.
While “Survivor,” in the final analysis, is made to entertain you, survivalist television is made so that you can take notes. That, at least, is what I’ve been doing, because if there’s one thing television executives have proved repeatedly, it’s that they know what we need before we ourselves do.
Three decades ago we had no idea that we needed to watch news and sports 24 hours a day, but television executives did, and they created CNN and ESPN. Now these same executives, or perhaps their offspring, apparently think we’ll soon be needing to know how to forage for edible roots and gut porcupines, presumably because the collapse of civilization is imminent. Sure, they could be wrong, but is that a chance you’re willing to take?
(More here.)
NYT
The other day during my commute home, the New Jersey Transit train I was on had to pause mid-Meadowlands for some kind of storm-related delay. The conductor announced that we’d be moving again shortly, but I wasn’t taking any chances: I immediately constructed a double-sided lean-to from the laptop cases of my fellow passengers, caught three egrets by holding a Hopi bird snare out the emergency-exit window and built a makeshift stove to cook them on using soda cans and iPods.
Yes, some of the other passengers looked at me oddly, but that’s because they haven’t been watching nearly enough survivalist television. I don’t mean “Survivor” television, though that show is certainly related to the phenomenon. I’m talking about the seemingly endless parade of programs that feature self-appointed experts demonstrating how to survive should you become stranded in a desert, or on an island, or almost anywhere in Alaska or Canada.
While “Survivor,” in the final analysis, is made to entertain you, survivalist television is made so that you can take notes. That, at least, is what I’ve been doing, because if there’s one thing television executives have proved repeatedly, it’s that they know what we need before we ourselves do.
Three decades ago we had no idea that we needed to watch news and sports 24 hours a day, but television executives did, and they created CNN and ESPN. Now these same executives, or perhaps their offspring, apparently think we’ll soon be needing to know how to forage for edible roots and gut porcupines, presumably because the collapse of civilization is imminent. Sure, they could be wrong, but is that a chance you’re willing to take?
(More here.)
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