country boys.

television ranks as the most destructive, yet beloved, invention of the twentieth century. and to realize this is true, all one needs to know is that in the average american household has it turned on for eight hours of each day. when you do the math, this is how it comes out: 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work, and 8 hours of television. obviously something about this balance strikes me as not being quite kosher.

without sleep, you lose your sanity. without work, you waste away and die (or live with your parents, a fate far worse than death). without television, you probably improve your health, broaden your culture and further your education. not only that, these days people will pay upwards of $100 per month for the privilege of becoming mindless zombies.

i won't pretend that i watch televison; i'm ashamed to admit that i even pay for cable television. and i think part of me knows that i surf the internet while watching the tube in order to dilute the feeling that i am completely wasting my life by doing something that can at least be considered marginally useful.

now proponents of television would argue that tv establishes cultural norms that everyone can learn, thereby unifying our diverse society. and while this is in fact true, who cares about a consistent set of values when the quality of culture created is so vacuous. network television these days consists of bad talk shows during the day and reality television (note: project runway is exempt from this negativity) in the evenings. viewers have distorted their values so greatly that even when a good show stumbles onto the networks, they can't recognize it, even after several seasons (arrested development, family guy). instead, they tune into ultrasafe sitcoms surrounding failed b-stars (see two and a half men, bernie mac show, george lopez show, my wife and kids).

the other purported positive about television is that it actually educates the public, on things like politics and news. sadly, this is also true. people do learn from something from television, but certainly not enough about any single thing to do anything about. for my money, i'd rather the people who get all their information from television to just stop watching. this way they'd be immediately identifiable as ignorant, non-participants as soon as any discussion about public issues and current events begins. they can break off into their groups and talk about the day's weather or whatever else they were able to observe in their functionally illiterate world.

but for once, i forgive people who scheduled their day to ensure that they could watch david sutherland's documentary on kqed/pbs about white trash families. i didn't causing me to miss the first half, but what i did see leads me to believe that this is a unique case of important television viewing. when i think -- and most americans as well -- about poor people, my mind immediately concentrates on the predominantly black and latino ghettos of the inner cities. and while there's no doubt that these places act as poverty traps to many of those who grow up there, it doesn't mean we should ignore the white ghettos of the south and midwest where they're can be equally devoid of opportunity.

i have to believe that part of the reason that these areas go uncovered is that as a group they're more difficult to sympathize with. after all, they haven't been the victims of a prejudiced society like other minorities but in fact are the ones who probably have done some of the oppressing societies. the dirty southern drawl and visions of confederate flags planted in the front of trailer park's doorways just doesn't make you feel anything for them except distaste.

poor people in general get ignored and that's because they don't have money and what group in society caters to anyone without some financial incentive. but because there are compelling social issues such as race and immigration surrounding minority communities, the media at least puts up a token effort to cover them. without an analogous reason for poor white folks, there really is nothing to compel anyone to talk about the plight of white trash. and so they don't.

for six hours, sutherland provides a glimpse for us into this. and it's not all that attractive a place. lots of ugliness; lots of obesity and lots of christianity. not my kind of place. i'll admit that i thought that the first segment struck me as more informative than riveting, but the preview of the segment looked to be more dramatic. plus, it takes time to really feel acquainted with characters.

country boys is a tad depressing, and watching the less fortuante always makes me feel a tinge of guilt for allowing my mind to spin on the comparably minor problems of my life. on the other hand, it motivates me too: to take advantage of the opportunity i have. hopefully, the latter sentiment wins out.