Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The Politics of 24

Well, first off let me premise this post by saying I fell a little dirty liking a show that Chaney reportedly “loves.”

I started writing a post similar to this after watching the 2nd half of the season opener of 24, but abandoned it after meandering all over the place and not really saying much. Then I came across this article and my thoughts were once again focused on this subject.

24 is really quite an interesting show. Being a film and TV nut when I first heard about a show that would take place in “real time” I was interested and after watching a few episodes I was hooked. It had a fascinating gimmick, lots of twists and turns, and loads of action. It was fun to watch. I never really thought of the show much until the who torture issue bill arose, and the fictional Television show 24 was not only used as a justification of torture, but also as in argument that Americans supported torture by watching the show. WHAT!? Then this season premier came along and within 4 hours of the show's day, middle eastern terrorist blew up a nuclear bomb in California. That's when I realized that what some are saying just might be true: 24 could well be a NeoCon's wet dream.

The show portrays America as constantly under threat from terrorist and that only the Government can protect us from those threats. Jack Bauer, the hero and only character still alive from the first season, uses any means necessary to get the info or the man he wants. In the second season of the show he kills a government witness against a bomber to reestablish the bombers trust, Jack was undercover in the bombers organization in the past, to find out if the intel was true about the bomber's plot to blow up a target in LA. In every season and just about every episode Jack resorts to torture to get his information, and not only does the torture always work (sometimes it takes longer than others), but it is correct 95% or more of the time.

I have to say that I never gave the politics of 24 much thought until the torture issue was raised at the national level. I have always and continue to view the show as purely fictional. It's an action movie made for TV, and to view it as anything else seems silly. But yet I have heard all sorts of people use the show as a justification of torture and the importance of the Federal Government becoming more and more involved in our everyday life (“We don't want something like 24 to happen.”) I'm sorry, but a show like this cannot be used as a justification for anything, like I said it's basically an action movie made for TV. I don't want to defend the politics of the show because I don't agree with what it seems to be saying, but on the other hand if this ever was meant to be some kind of propaganda, it sure isn't subtle about it, and I can't see many people being won over to their cause because of this clearly fictional TV show.

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