We learn from everything around us. Observation is an innate skill of the conscious mind. We observe, we analyze, we mimic, and we predict consequences based on past observations.
I’m a fan of the Venture Brothers cartoon. It is somewhat based on the adventures of Johnny Quest, so it draws on my yearning for adventure and super science. In the cartoon, a scientist clones his two sons and educates them using subliminal messages in an electronic sleeping capsule (bed chamber) while they sleep each night.
The image makes me think of children vegging-out in front of the television for hours from childhood to adulthood. I think the things we see on TV hold a greater influence than we realize.
***Caveat: Of course, Im not saying that if you watch it, then you’ll do it. Bad TV programming isn’t the primary cause for the atrocious dregs of society that we see in breaking news bulletins of homicidal maniacs and domestic terrorists (I blame that on parents and lack of a value driven social atmosphere during the developmental years). I’m just saying TV helps shape our personalities by the role models we observe. We pick up little things here and there. We don’t see one thing and become it entirely.
Before the digital age of reality television, a greater number of television programs contained a higher quality of positive characteristics to be observed and learned from. More shows dealt with common problems and anxieties of life. Programs gave us characters with both virtues and vices. They showed people we could relate to (positively) and aspire to be. We observed their struggles and triumphs. We learned positive solutions to common struggles in our own lives. I didn’t have the advantage of growing up in the all-American nuclear family, but neither did most of my peers. However, I found a father figure in Dan Connor and Sheriff Andy Taylor. I learned charisma from watching Zack Morris. I learned team leadership from a turtle in blue. I learned about nurturing relationships from watching Cory Matthews and Shawn Hunter make their way through the transition from childhood to adulthood amidst common stress at home and at school. Even the Midnight Society taught me lessons as I observed unlikely heroes find courage to defeat supernatural terrors from week to week and Snick to Snick. The Waltons showed me life in simpler times, yet taught me lessons that hold value even today. Yeah I connected with John-boy, who else would it be?
Once upon a time, young scholars read the tomes of Plutarch to learn of the virtues and vices of those who came before them. They had to read for days to get to the heart of a lesson. We can absorb it in a half-hour afterschool special. That’s SCIENCE!!! Thank you science. Your tech boons are glorious!
Now go write your reps in Congress to urge them to support funding NASA and NOAA.
(Didn’t see that one coming did you?)
Seriously. Go do it… I’ll wait.
btw, if you see Doktor Sleepless around, ask him "where's my jetpack?"
