You Bet Your Sweet Bippy!

I've always been told by Orrin Woodward that the best way to teach anything is to reinforce it with a story. People can visualize and put themselves into the picture you paint, so they retain the information better. After doing a little mental gymnastics, I've concluded that this is no secret and we've been subject to this type of mind play for quite sometime.


I present to you television, the greatest story teller of all time. Where did America learn to accept the immoral decline we've come to live? Well having watched the process first hand, I can honestly point the finger at the boob tube. Days of yore gave us wholesome TV shows like Father Knows Best, replaced by the likes of Family Guy and a slew of others. Soap operas taught us it's okay to sleep around, and frankly any behavior isn't off limits. We have sitcoms that promote the decline of the family, disrespect of authority, and every conceivable immoral act a writer can contrive.

Looking back I believe the decline began with Rowan and Martin's Laugh In, backed up by the sitcom All In The Family. While I have to admit I was one who found plenty of humor in both of those shows, they also represented the production of topics that few openly talked about. The decline began as the slippery slope was broached. Soap Operas got more risque, and the comedy got raunchier. HBO launched when cable TV was introduced, and the censorship went out the window. We were able to learn every dysfunctional behavior right in our own living rooms, and we did. All taught to us by story lines dreamed up by television writers.

As the old saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. We are a product of the entertainment we've been subject to. What better way to make unacceptable behavior acceptable, than to desensitize us to it by daily exposure to it? How do you make the unacceptable the norm, than to portray it as normal? What better way to teach than by telling a story.....

God Bless!
Capt. Bill