Deep Thunder 8/22

According to Casey, the notorious Dr. Rog, in postmodern culture "Commentary supplants authority." This idea can seem unnerving at first. After all, shouldn't the people go to authority to find truthful information, and isn't this the way it has always been? Well, for our lives to date, and through most of history, it would appear so. However, historically, the withholding of knowledge, or, the stockpiling of knowledge in the bins of the elite, has contributed to the oppression of the lower classes and less fortunate. But is it as big a danger as it sounds to let commentary supplant, or is this a part of human evolution? Is this, in some manner, a socialist, or, more comfortably for us Americans, a democratic movement? During some of the most oppressive times in civilized history, knowledge was restricted, and one had to be knighted, in a way, in order to be considered worthy of attention. But with commentary on the rise, is the power of this knowledge being returned to the populous? Are we now more open to varying opinions and viewpoints than in the past, and if so, is that a bad thing?
Take reality shows, for example. We, as a culture, seem to now be more interested in watching people locked in a house together lately than a good work of fiction. This, at first, would appear to be a decline in the interest of story. But looking a bit harder into these shows could show that we are more interested than ever in story, but we want that to be the human story, not the fantasizing of an author. How would one react, we wonder, if forced to eat gruel for a week? How far are the people on Big Brother, for example, willing to go for money? Perhaps by watching these shows we are trying to see more of who we really are, rather than who we would like ourselves to be and does this bring us closer to understanding each other. In some ways, this modern day coliseum full of eager volunteers may be bringing us closer to a higher state of evolution, a natural step on the way to a compassionate and intelligent society as we allow our data to come from the people around us instead of only the people above either in power or intellect.