Behavioral sink

An almost 30-year-old Tom Wolfe essay about ‘behavioral sink’ (an ethological term describing the deleterious effects overcrowding has on society, arrived at through studies of various species, including humans’ fight for time and space) draws some strikingly appropriate parallels to modern-day film and tv entertainment.

Wolfe said, in describing inner-city New Yorkers: ‘Overcrowding gets the adrenaline going, and the adrenaline gets them queer, autistic, sadisticÉnumbÉ’ He goes on to offer a more clinical explanation from ethologist John Calhoun: ‘A behavioral sink does act to aggravate all forms of pathology that can be found within a group.’

It would explain the talkersÉ

Overcrowding in this sector of the programming arena has reduced producers to combing the underbelly of society, in search of the lowest forms of dysfunctional relationships and sordid stories.

Even without the arrival of 500 channels, programmers seem caught in a downward spiral of one-upmanship in their efforts to attract viewers of one sort or another.

Witness also the critical popularity of the New Brutalism in films. (In 1994 the action/adventure genre rose to an all-time high of over 40% of films screened at the American Film Market.)

With these thoughts in mind, and wondering whether such trends reflect an anomaly of the ’90s or indicate what’s ahead in the all-out competition for the consumers of entertainment, Playback asked u.s. author/film critic Michael Medved what he thought the impact of 500 channels and the wired world would be on content, specifically the volume of violent and disturbed material.

‘I think it has worked that way with daytime talk, but I don’t think it could be applied as a general rule. I persist in being optimistic, because the taste of the public is much better than people in Hollywood would have us believe.

‘I think one of the problems with the increased freedom of choice is for people who are addicted to violent entertainment, and that’s a small but worrisome percentage of the audience. Those people will have greater access to more horrific forms of violence than ever before. I wouldn’t be surprised in a 500-channel universe if they have the pedophile channel.

‘The real concern about the impact of media on society has never been that it’s going to take well-adjusted tax-paying citizens and turn them into mass killers, it’s the impact on those who are most vulnerable to its malign influence.

‘In the last year there have been positive changes, in terms of more entertainment aimed at families. Cable gave rise to a&e, Bravo!, The Discovery Channel, the Disney Channel, all positive alternatives to network tv, and you have a few sex channels, Playboy, Midnight Blue, but I don’t think there is a channel that caters to a lust for violence.

‘If this appetite were as great as people assume, wouldn’t you assume there would be a slasher channel? I think the audience bloodlust is hugely overstated. Most hyper violent films fail at the box office. Natural Born Killers made less at the box than Angels in the Outfield.’

Popular taste, it appears, can only sink so far.