The following is a diatribe directed at John Fahey, the chairman of the board of the National Geographic Society. It's from Society Matters, a blog for which I'm an advisor and occasional contributor; it's a band of ex-NGS employees who are concerned about the editorial direction the magazine has taken, and even more about the dreck presented as factual and educational on the Society's cable channel.
It should be said that Geographic, following the gimlet-eyed greed of its former president, Gilbert Grosvenor (the grandson of the first editor-in-chief, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, son of the great e-in-c Melville Bell Grosvenor, but "the blood ran thin") sold 70% of the channel to the King of Sleaze, and the Enemy of Journalism, Rupert Murdoch. Even so, the channel carries the Society's "brand" and is cheapening the venerable image built painstakingly by extraordinary explorers, writers and photographers. My nine years at Geographic were proud times for me. The Society's standards today are much-degraded.
But this isn't merely about Geographic. There is a corporately imposed disconnect between learning, journalism, honesty and the working people of our country. Giving citizens bread and circuses is cynical but understandable. Giving citizens lies and assuming your own citizens are cattle is short-sighted, wrongheaded, and enormously damaging to the fabric of society with a small "s."
I'm a fussy elitist in my own way. But I have enormous respect for the American working citizen. I reject the notion that working people are lazy, prefer welfare, are stupid and dull. No. It simply isn't true. We had, not too long ago, a lively and discerning middle class. With a few notably dented exceptions, everyone I've ever met would prefer doing good work to being given government doles. We're in a crisis when the Geographic Society and the politicians in DC consider the citizenry as a herd of biddable, predictable, mindless sheep.
"The fix is in. Everyone's crooked. You'll do anything for enough money. If you don't do it, someone else will – you might as well get paid for doing it. Miracles don't happen and governments are corrupt; it's always been that way, always will be. Why complain about politics? It's all a show. People are so dumb and lazy that it's worthless to offer them anything of quality. Joe Six-Pack likes it dumb."
This is what Alexander Pope was worried about in his "Essay On Man":
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Our Devolved Geographic Society is operating on the cynical principle that its audience is so imbecilic that it will only favor bright lights, candy and scandal. This debased Society also embraces the fiction that "reality shows" are something the public desired.
First, Joe Six-Pack is a hell of a lot smarter than the TV vice-presidents and the boardroom think. He lives in a complex world of compromised possibilities and is more aware of broader issues than his grandfather or great-grandfather. Joe has been exposed to more cultures and religions and places. He's been relieved of much sentimental surety about faith and politics and permanence. He's seen the world change drastically. He is trying – and this is an ongoing, difficult effort – to retain balance.
Joe didn't want "reality shows." They were a function of the Writer's Strike in the 80's, when it was discovered that a small production company that paid only a few of its subjects could – by being in-your-face provocative – provide passable air-time for less money. The formula was so successful that "reality TV" proliferated.
Given a chance, Joe Six-Pack could make intelligent decisions. Cleverly, his corporate government has narrowed his access to information and overview by actively restricting information, unashamed propaganda, disinformation, and even by flooding the internet with spurious data (we're beginning to learn that much of the right-wing no-climate-change web myth has been generated by oil-paid bloggers).
Not only does Joe's government try to confuse his balance, but a venerable ally of education and exploration – The National Geographic Society – has surrendered its virtue to the myth of Joe's idiocy. A Society that once addressed cutting edge technology and revealed archaeological wonders is serving up junk-food – scripted soap operas insulting their subjects and disregarding facts. These "shows" play to gullibility, lubricity and scorn. They stray as boldly across the lines of good taste as Hiram Bingham strode boldly through Inca jungles.
The central and most damaging principle on which the Devolved Society functions is that it MUST provide such dreck programming. If it doesn't, John and his boardroom cronies suggest, the Society could fail, lose its audience, disappear, go the way of the dodo.
Very well, then. The National Geographic Society has had a good run, has done great work, and perhaps it should close its doors before it disgraces itself so grievously that its stellar reputation is tarnished beyond retrieval.
Sell, off, John: the buildings and equipment – location, location, location – are worth a mint! Give up! Conclude finally that Joe Six-Pack doesn't deserve good journalism or honest facts, tidy up your desk, and everyone goes home with a nice bonus.
The alternative is more difficult. It will require a trip back into the Age of Reason to fetch the notion that Man Is Perfectable, that given tools of truth and skill Joe Six-Pack could see the world more clearly. It would require effort on an Herculean scale, John, and a few – ahem – shifts in policy. It might even require the dreadful admission that "after some thought and soul-searching, we've decided to re-direct our editorial navigation and get closer to the spirit of the Society's founders and the giants who made it great."
You could be one of those giants, John. Honestly. It wouldn't be easy! My God, the flak you'd take, and you might lose some advertisement, too. You could lose a lot. But you might regain the soul of the Society.
Relying on a perceived stupidity should be more dangerous than it is. The only explanation for getting away with it is that elections and Congressional decisions are so predictably in favor of corporations over citizens, that to recognize the corruption would mean the whole damn system is broken. If it is, we'd all be obliged to go through a vast social upheaval to build a new system. This loss of surety, comfort, predictability and the specter of real discomfort is – even to the intelligent working people I trust – unthinkable. We're stuck for a time in a denial mode: "No, it's the pendulum swinging. We're a democracy. We just gotta get to the polls and vote in the right folks."
That time is past. The big corporations control both parties. The parties determine who will run. We're given a choice between senatorial and presidential candidates who are all approved by big business. Choose one party or the other and we're still powerless.
What's the answer? Unthinkable.
Braxinoso Speaks:
Himself is about to make an enormous shift from California to Florida. Out of the frying pan, so to speak. He plagues himself with these ponderous problems of state, injustice, human rights, heritage, revolution. Honestly, I wonder if he is merely avoiding practical focus on the problems HE has. He makes sense but he has no real forum, no following, and before he leads a charge he must feed his horse. It's my task to persuade himself to be prudent of his time.
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