Victim of Culture

CSI and the infinite resolution of doom

It may come to a shock to many, but the things you see done with computers on shows like CSI and 24 are pretty farfetched.  You cannot blow up an image infinitely and obtain details by simply “enhancing resolution.”  To put it simply, if this were true there would be no need for more than one megapixel digital cameras or high-definition content, as any video content would do.

But such shows persist in portraying the impossible as the mundane.  One can sort of buy it if this were to happen on Star Trek, but CSI and 24 are supposed to take place in our reality.  They’re supposed to be playing by our rules.  Of course, we know this isn’t true.

In truth, film and television take great liberties with reality all the time.  Sure, we can buy that someone might jump out of a moving car with only minor cuts and bruises, because after all–it does seem possible, if unlikely.  But what about the more mundane lies?  What about how just about anytime you see a minority portrayed dramatically they are in a position of power?  On The Office Michael needed a boss and so Jan was created–a woman.  Who replaced Jan?  A man named Charles, who also happened to be black.

Make no mistake, there are many minorities in positions of power.  One needs only to look to the White House to see this.  Barack Obama is President, Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State, and Condoleezza Rice predates both of them.  So the idea is hardly a lie or even absurd.  What is absurd is the disproportionate power minorities are depicted as having.  It leads many to assume that old racial barriers and glass ceilings no longer exist.  While the glass ceiling may be heavily cracked, for many it is still an inhibitor.

This is why so many young people today will tell you that race and gender no longer matter in this country.  Of course, those young people were unlikely paying close attention this past presidential election when issues of race and gender faced both Obama and Clinton, as well as Sarah Palin.  Perhaps if the three had only had access to the amazing computers of CSI?

We don’t always expect or even want something resembling reality in our fictional programming.  We should, however, be careful of allowing those fictional distortions to shape our reality.

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