Holidays in beautiful surroundings, where the aim seems to be to eat pretty, exotic food, top up the sun tan, and demonstrate how pretty, and boring, they are! Or showing off the the stately homes of their empty headed friends,the descendants of robber barons in the middle ages, who have done little since but fill their coffers at the expense of their "peasants". Maybe a tour round the expensive hotels that viewers are only ever likely to see as employees?!
The vacuousness of the these programmes, and their presenters, is astonishing. Are they meant to stimulate the watchers' desires to emulate these people? To make us crave such lifestyles? Or to make us feel inadequate that we can't afford these luxuries?
The media seems to have fallen into the control of a class of people who have no ambition for mankind than that a few should destroy the environment in utter, sybaritic, lazy luxury, whilst the rest of us look on in powerless envy!
I don't know about you, but wealth and luxury have never seemed even remotely desirable to me. I would be much more interested in programmes about rewilding the planet, how we can support positive change, about helping poor and marginalised people get a reasonable, and reliable quality of life. Programmes that show how the police force is becoming what it should be - a support for the community they serve, rather than the tool of those who would claim the best for themselves. Programmes educating viewers about different cultures, about disability, and how to reduce the negative social impact on those who are "different".
What happened to Reith's ambition that broadcasting would "inform, educate and entertain" in that order? We rarely find cause to put our television on, these days, and, while we have Netflix, I almost never use it. Life is not about being entertained, it's about leaving a positive legacy for those who follow. I grieve for the legacy we leave.
