A friend yesterday asked me whether Orwell's 1984 remains on the school curriculum. Neither of us knew but we strongly doubted it as this would require students to think deeply about the nature and structure of the society they inhabit.
We then considered soaps and how these are used to manipulate the masses into a desired line of thinking.
Take as an example from many, the Les Battersby character in Coronation Street who is the only one to be opposed to viewing the transexual Hayley as a woman. Les is a bigoted clown and there is a subliminal message which is transmitted to the audience that they are as bad as he is if they ever share anything of his opinions. This is not even subtlety.The possibilities for the exercise of social control are enormous. The nice guys in soaps, comedies and even dramas, always hold the invariably liberal-left opinions of the writers.
Soaps have consistently trivialised the abortion issue. Socialists and liberals are 'all jolly good chaps' without exception. Businessmen are all Mike Baldwin types; grasping capitalists subjugating the workers and never the 'lifeblood of the nation'. An almost pure marxist perception.The list is endless.
Do not get me started on the differing portrayals of Christians and Muslims! My wife and I refuse to watch soaps.
