# the worst blow to civilization? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 31, 2000, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304 "2000-01-31T16:37:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304/21 "2000-02-01T01:43:00Z")
Professional wrestling. And roller derby. * * * \>\< DARWIN \> \_\_ **L\_\_\_L** ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304/22 "2000-02-01T01:45:00Z")
It should go without saying that the Chia Pet and Shag Carpeting are tied for second place. Dr. Watson “Civilization degrades the many to exalt the few.” – (I Don’t Remember, but not me.) ---
**Author:** ![TheUnforgiven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TheUnforgiven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheUnforgiven)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304/23 "2000-02-01T01:54:00Z")
Ummm…anything “teeny-bopper” in nature. And cigarettes. And the eggplant. _shudder_ * * * “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” -H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu” ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304/24 "2000-02-01T02:02:00Z")
> [@](#): > > The master, Cecil Adams, says in this column [Why isn’t there a Channel One on TV?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_372.html) > > > [@](#): > > > > Green Acres, arguably the worst blow to civilization since the sack of Rome by the Huns. > > I think the word arguably is appropriate. I personally propose “Three’s Company.” Harumph. That comment has rankled me ever since I first read it. I yield to no one in my admiration for Cecil on factual matters, but when we veer into matters of taste . . . . A case can be made for the proposition that _Green Acres_ may in fact have been one of the most culturally important television shows ever. Much of what was being said in the writings of French philosophers like Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Paul Barthes, etc., was being shown, at about the same time and certainly before these writers we well known in America, by Paul Henning and crew in _Green Acres_. You want a treatment of the notion that reality is a social construct? How 'bout the episode in which Mr. Douglas is planning a trip to Washington, D.C. Each of the other characters individually asks whether he plans to see the Eiffel Tower. He of course ridicules them for thinking that the Eiffel Tower is in Washington. He arrives there, checks into his hotel, and opens the drapes of the room revealing a splendid prospect of . . . the Eiffel Tower. Mr. Douglas, while nominally the voice of authority (wealthy, politically influential male), is undercut at every turn by nominally powerless figures who manage to subvert the structures by which he attempts to manipulate and control his environment. Language, identity, kinship structures (Eb, Arnold Ziffel), economic systems – all are turned sideways and skewed, revealed as mutable and very fallible fictions instead of unchanging verities. Whether you have much use for French structuralist, deconstructionist, and other postmodern thought (I don’t really), you have to look more than once at a television sitcom that week after week explored these same issues. Or so I would have argued in my graduate student days. I do still think both _Green Acres_ and Henning’s other major work, _The Beverly Hillbillies_, are much better than they’re given credit for being. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304/25 "2000-02-01T02:33:00Z")
Hmmm, worthy nominees all, but a few remain to be considered: - Martha Stewart: stitled, pretentious android as a _role model!_ - made-for-TV movies and all docudramas - condensed books but my sincere opinion: - talk radio. Veb ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304/26 "2000-02-01T03:24:00Z")
Grecian Formula for Men MaxTorque – gotta love Groo – don’t tell me all the frays around here lately haven’t gotten you just a bit nostalgic for the little guy. ?? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304/27 "2000-02-01T04:30:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Catrandom: > _The View_. Even after they got rid of Matenopoulos. Explain please. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304/28 "2000-02-01T04:54:00Z")
I’ve changed my mind – I nominate the French philosophers. In fact, rather than expound on that thought, I’ll just nominate France instead and be done with it. Dr. Watson “Metaphysics: 1. An attempt to define a thing and by so doing escape the bother of understanding it.” – Elbert Hubbard ---
**Author:** ![crackwise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@crackwise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crackwise)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304/29 "2000-02-01T05:12:00Z")
Kathy Lee Gifford _AND_ Regis Philbin (or however you spell his name). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-blow-to-civilization/13304.md?page=1)