Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Blaming TV

[Virginia C. Risk (ginny]

Documania wrote:
> 
> Ginny wrote:
> ><snip>"And that the 'just exercise personal responsibility' line of
> thinking comes off as an evasion of issues."
> 
>         Uh, did I read that right? How does exercising personal 
> responsibility,
> and desiring/requiring that of other people, equate to evading issues? I
> always thought it was part of maturity! How do you plan to operate in a
> cohousing community if you think of exercising personal responsibility in
> that way?
>

No, I don't think you did read me right.  I was referring to the
traditional libertarian argument that a society should not make
collective decisions (like outlawing TV) because the burden should lie
solely on individuals to exercise personal responsibility.  Some have
wrote on this thread that people should be responsible for controlling
their own TV watching...  I think, and I think I was agreeing with
Stuart, that the questions about what kind of influences TV watching has
on people can be asked, and should be asked.  To say, "well people don't
have to watch to much TV", in my opinion, is evading the questions about
how TV affects our culture.

> "Also, as a general principle, I think it's constructive to avoid blaming
> people."
> 
>         Perhaps in the manner of pointing fingers and calling names and in 
> general
> being inflammatory, yes, it is constructive to avoid blaming people.
> However, it's _de_structive to ignore blame entirely. "Blame" is part of
> the process of isolating cause. To understand something you have to be able
> to recognize cause and effect. Once you've done that, you can determine a
> course of action.
> 
> Carolyn Haley
> dcma [at] ct1.nai.net

My point about cause and effect was echoed by Ann, who posted:

>> As one of the origioners of this (surprisingly active) thread, I feel I must
>> add that those homeschoolers who have TV on in their house are two of the
>> calmest, sweetest kids in the community. As much as I once thought "Nurture
>> is Destiny", I am becoming more convinced that "Nature" has a huge hand in
>> the whole thing. Isn't it cool how things just get muddier as we get older?

The point I was trying to make is that, where life experiences and
values and community culture are concerned, it's not a simple question
of cause and effect, of nature vs. nuture, or of chicken and egg.  Most
of us have been trained to think that way (in the tradition of Western
Rationalism).  When it comes to values, I disagree with your statement
that 

>To understand something you have to be able
> to recognize cause and effect. Once you've done that, you can determine a
> course of action.

In my opinion, TV effects our values and our values effect how we use
TV, and the things that are considered causes are in fact influenced by
the things that are considered effects.  And clearly this discussion
might be about more than TV.

Speaking of being inflammatory, I found the tone of your first paragraph
rather harsh.  Perhaps I misunderstood.  Here, though, for the record,
are some facts about me that I was able to resist sharing before:

on TV
        for more than half of my childhood, my family did not own a TV
        in the 23 years since then I've owned a (B&W) TV for only 3 of those
years
        living without TV has been great for me

on Cohousing
        oh, nevermind

Ginny