View masters - the debate over effects of pop culture such as TV

Reason, Feb, 1996 by Nick Gillespie

As with all market-based exchanges, knowledge, value, and power in popular culture are dispersed. And reining in popular culture - or, more precisely, the meaning of a particular piece of pop culture - is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. It's messy, difficult, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Regulators and paternalists are in the difficult position of stanching the dynamic flow of culture. They can outlaw "gratuitous" violence in movies, censor inflammatory lyrics in rock and rap, plant a V-chip in every television in the country. But they will still be frustrated in their attempts to keep pop culture - and its creators - in line. In that sense, they are like Canute attempting to hold back the waves, Gatsby striving to relive the past, or perhaps more appropriately, the castaways forever trying to get off Gilligan's Island: It just can't be done.

Nick Gillespie (ngilles123@aol.com) is a senior editor of REASON.