On the "History channel."

[nadinbrzezinski]

:rant:

Now lets face it... what was once a good idea has become a joke. They started really going down oh with a certain program that "proved" I tell you that Exodus was for real. I know the special effects were a beaut to behold, but the time line was at times 1000 years off. Hey I know my bible, and I know the Exodus only took 40 years to rid the Israelite from that still tainted generation. Hardly forty is 1000.

And yes they have been running increasingly cookie TV. I mean searching for Monsters can be as entertaining as TLC when there is nothing else on TV and you need noise in the back. Or you need ideas for the next mystery or murder short story you are working on. But that is hardly history.

Then they went there with UFO... and now we have this program that is all but history... telling us about Ancient Astronauts. Now some people BELIEVE this as if it were true. I mean ancient humans could not, ever, find a way to build those giant structures. I mean we cannot do it today, so how could those primitives do that? I mean the horror. Well at one time we believed in this shitty theory about a single place of invention and then cultural dispersion. These days we know that is well that ridiculous. (I am sorry Toynbee... you helped spread that one) Well guess what? These UFO we were made by Aliens, because brown people's could not do that... are a VERSION of that now quite discredited theory.

As I said as fiction, they are fine... and lord knows they have been like extensively mined by fiction writers... Stargate Universe anyone? How about Galactica? But here is the joy of history. Finding out that ANCIENT humans like had a brain and could come up with AMAZING engineering solutions... some of which (Pyramids) are natural solutions.

This fits actually with New Age thinking and it is, in my view, a new religion... which has a lot in common with the Cargo cult, except we don't have like cargo planes. And if it makes you happy, that is fine. Hell, lord knows I like to watch these things for ideas... but I know they are fiction... and not even good fiction. Though the production values are high.

That said, if we as a nation are to move out of the place we wallow intellectually it is time to do some serious real thinking on things like this, and recognize fiction for what it is. I don't expect that to happen... after all that means trusting "experts" never mind these guys are oil snake salesmen, who also pass themselves as misunderstood experts.

Oh the irony!!!!!



:rant:

[madinmaryland]

1. And why the fuck does the "History Channel" show Ice Truckers??

What part of history is involved in truck drivers hauling oil drilling equipment around AK and Yukon Territory?

:wtf:

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. As much in common as the UFO programs

exactly... not history.

At least the Pawn Stars and American Pickers do go into the history of some of the things they find. They are hardly put in context, but hey at least you can learn some interesting facts. Like the other day... what do you mean the Revere Family had both dad and son working in the bizz? Out of material context, absolutely, but still interesting.

[annabanana]

2. I find the devolution of the concept really really sad. What a

wasted opportunity to make History "fun". It's not like there wouldn't be a market for well made, well told tales of bygone times. There are fantastic stories that have much to teach us.

If I were a gazillionaire, I would buy this channel and make it right.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. This has to be on purpose acttually

who owns what?

[depakid]

5. The "History"channel has become as big a joke as "The Learning channel

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Why do you think I used TLC in the post?

Their shtick is slightly different, but the programing has the same lower common denominator

[depakid]

18. I wouldn't even call it the lowest common denominator

It's just downright bizarre. In the states, you have music channels that don't run music, history channels that don't run history, and learning channels that don't teach anyone anything!

Seems to me it's part and parcel to the larger culture of lies and fraud that permeates the country- and in particular has been reinforced by the deregulated corporate media.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. There is someting to that

there used to be respect, at least for a generation, of middlebrow culture. But this is gone, and may be part of the cultural DNA... I am not sure about that.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. Speaking of ancient astronaut stuff... (video)

This is always worth recycling. A guy showing how a small crew could build stonehenge with surprising (but simple) mechanics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvx5gSnfW4

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. The BBC did an extremely good series years ago

on how they moved the stones... amazing stuff.

We simply, in the West, don't give primitive people enough credit.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

9. And we underestimate repetitive labor, also

Though the horizontal beams of Stonehenge were probably erected quite cleverly there was always the option of piling up dirt around a column into a giant hill, then pushing the beam up the hill and placing it, then scooping all the dirt away.

That kind of super labor intensive thing doesn't even occur to us but it would work.

Hell, the Great Wall of China is made of dirt. (faced with stone) You can do a lot with dirt.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. It would occurr to confined space rescue people

but then again you got to solve engineering problems on the fly and wood is amazing...

I mean it is really out of this world what you can do with a nice two by four.

:-)

For that matter with small digging hand utensils.

Granted mine were made of Hardened Steel, it will take more of them if you are using copper or wood...

I'll admit, at 13 the Chariots is entertaining as hell...

At 45, after all that work... I could not get through the first chapter.

[elfin]

11. Agree - BUT "The American Pickers" is fun.

Lowbrow, but still "history" with two guys traveling in their "Antique Archaeology" van rummaging through old barns and basements of hoarders and ooking for old cycle parts etc.

They know their stuff and give a good look at that occupation.

Along the way, talking with geezers surrounded by their "stuff" and making deals to resell to other collectors or businesses.

That's the only show I watch on that channel -- I used to watch many more.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. You may like Pawn Stars then

some of the stuff coming in is amazing and they have a crew of historians, weapons specialists, et al.

And yes, extremely low brow but hey.. entertaining.

[elfin]

13. I did check that out

but liked Pickers better. May check in on it now that it appears Pickers is over for the season.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. We watch both

I did not like stars in the beginning, to be honest. That is until they started getting a historian and a weapons expert. And some of the stuff that has shown up is amazing.

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. unfortunately the "History" channel can be downright ridiculous and anti-historical

When a program about theories about how the world could come to an end includes serious interviews with Tim LaHaye who is treated as a serious contributor and discussions of ancient Biblical archeology completely ignores credible scholarship in favor of pop culture fundamentalism's anti-scholarly interpretation - this is begging for mockery.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. And he was not alone among the cooks either

I get him and a few others on the 900 Hour... that is where they belong

Which tells me who owns this wants that crap there.

[Douglas Carpenter]

17. I suspect it is largely a marketing ploy

A trip into any Barnes and Noble will reveal that a lot more people are spending their money buying New Age and Evangelical writings then are buying serious works of research and scholarship.

I suppose the idea that they pander to both the pop culture Evangelical audience and the pop culture New Age market simultaneously is something the 700 Club would never do. But it is certainly not history.