Since the television networks are suffering a decline in their viewing market as Americans increasingly choose other entertainment alternatives (such as home videos and cable), the advertising designed to induce people to stay tuned to the networks has been getting more frenetic. The latest angle in this advertising is to stage a controversy about whether the networks will carry the program or not.
Posing the question that way produces hours of free advertising on talk shows and public affairs programs, as well as comment in the print media. So, like the endless discussions about whether or not television will carry condom ads, ABC-TV has promoted similar controversies about whether or not it should carry the TV series called “Amerika.”
For those who may be out of touch, “Amerika” is ABC’s long-drawn-out 14-1/2-hour television series showing America in 1996 after the Soviets have occupied our country. Having meekly surrendered after the Soviet Union knocked out our military communications system with the electromagnetic pulse, the United States is ruled by a Moscow-controlled puppet in the Oval Office, with the Star Spangled Banner subordinated to the hammer and sickle and the UN insignia.
In this fictional primetime presentation, Soviet control is enforced by United Nations troops taking orders from the Kremlin, schoolchildren undergo daily brainwashing, and dissidents are sent off to gulags in the Southwest or to mental hospitals for behavior modification. Some American patriots try to organize a resistance movement, and the Soviet bosses consider launching a selective missile attack on U.S. cities as a final solution to the American problem.
The Soviet Union tried to get ABC to cancel the program, but ABC could hardly acquiesce in that and continue to call itself the American Broadcasting Company. Criticism of the series has come from all parts of the political spectrum, but the funniest is the agonizing appraisal issued by the anti-defense lobby called Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR). These and other pacifist groups have for years been promoting the slogan that “nuclear war is unthinkable.” So, how can they deal with a program which forces us to think about something even more unthinkable, namely, Soviet occupation of the United States?
ESR has risen to this challenge by producing an eight-page teaching guide to teach teachers how to guide the thinking of schoolchildren so the children will not think what they want to think about “Amerika,” but will instead think what ESR wants them to think about the program.
ESR’s teaching guide shows how the teacher can prepare students ahead of time to believe that the real bad guys in the program are not the Russians, but “stereotypes.” According to ESR, we certainly don’t need to be worried about the danger that the Soviets can conquer the United States, but we really need to be concerned that some Americans might believe in stereotypes.
“Amerika” does not explain how the United States came to be occupied by the Soviets, but since no devastation from war or attack is pictured, viewers are left to assume that our occupation was the result of failed negotiations with the Soviets. ESR is really upset that viewers might think that U.S.-U.S.S.R. negotiations could lead to disaster for the United States.
The ESR teaching strategy for use in the schools indoctrinates the students ahead of time to believe that it is wrong to think that conflict is a situation in which one side wins and the other side loses. Instead, students are taught to role-play “win-win” situations in which both sides win.
Here is the example given to teach children that “win-win” is the way to go. Pretend that two people are arguing over an orange. One claims she found it, so it is hers. The other claims that he will share it with more people and not be selfish.
The ESR outline tells the teacher to explain to the students that, upon investigation, you can find out that the first person wants to eat the inside of the orange and the other wants the peel for a cake. (Note the gender reversal: the “she” wants to eat the orange, and the “he” wants to bake that cake.) So, a solution is possible.
ESR calls this “finding creative win-win solutions” strategy for U.S.-Soviet relations. ABC’s “Amerika” may be fiction, but the world it meets both needs is even more far-fetched.
