Western culture crumbles

Last week, without much fanfare, "Temptation Island" finished its season. Thank God.\nI never watched the show, but I read enough about it to know that it's a warning sign. Like when your car starts making a noise that sounds like squirrels are caught in the fan belt. \nUnfortunately, there's no cultural mechanic.\nOf course, my Constitutional sensibilities wrinkle their noses at the thought of fixing our culture. Talk like that should only come from neo-conservatives who want to post the Ten Commandments above everyone's bed, and who listen to Howard Stern just to make sure he really is that bad. People like Lynne Cheney, our second lady, who is uncomfortable with the revisionist history that brought us the truth about the rich white men who stole this country from its original inhabitants.\nMy sensibilities tell me that I'm a champion of freedom of expression, and that the First Amendment is the greatest guarantor that the arts will survive any attacks from the left or right.\nMy sensibilities tell me that man is such a piece of work that soul-stripping entertainment won't be tolerated for too long. And then my sensibilities get a whiff of shows like "Temptation Island" and "Survivor."\nOh, heavens.\nIt looks like we\'re headed toward the dark ages, friends. History Lesson Time!\nSome consider classical Greece to have been the height of Western Civilization. Democracy, in a limited form, slipped through the birth canal in Athens. Socrates pioneered one of the greatest intellectual revolutions ever. And can I just tell you about their urns? The best part was that the lines between fine art and popular art blurred. Those Grecian urns, like the ones on the second floor of the IU art museum, were used for carrying water and wine. And everyone (well, white men, anyway … but that was a pretty good deal back then) got to take the Socratic method for a spin.\nThen the Romans came.\n(Several history and classics professors are tearing their hair out as they read this simple-minded version of classical history … oh well.)\nFor a while, the Romans were able to pull together a pretty poor copy of Greek democracy. But then along came Caesar, and the rest is history. His adopted heir, Augustus, was named emperor of Rome.\nSoon after this, in 80 A.D., the Colosseum was dedicated as a facility to house gladiator contests. Once part of the Roman funeral ritual, these games captured the empire's imagination.\nTwo guys fight until one of them dies. And with the addition of more men, lots of water or lions, it could get even more exciting.\nThis was entertainment.\nIn the 20th century, we've just elected the heir of a former leader, and are all captivated by the squabbling of silly suburbanites duking it out in the Outback.\nDid you know "Survivor" grabbed some pretty good ratings when one of the contestants fell into a fire and ravaged his hands? I hear the camera lingered on shots of his third-degree burns.\nSo these sensibilities of mine are worried. We seem to be headed back to a pretty horrifying repeat of the fall of civilization. Our leaders in this bleak parade are the president of the United States and the executives at CBS.\nI'm more worried about the latter. There's not an election in which I can cast my vote for PBS. \nAnyway, the Constitution guarantees "Survivor" the right to survive.\nWhat bothers me is, in the words of playwright Anna Deavere Smith, we've lost the use of metaphor. Reality television has trumped storytelling. It's not enough to watch a fine fictive film or hear a story about something that happened a long time ago. It's all got to be real right now. The blood has to be fresh.\nJust like a good gladiator fight.\nUh oh. Well, like in the middle ages, those of us with our brains turned on can hide out in the monasteries and convents.