almost every developed nation boasts of
having a rather unusual institution at
its center a state broadcaster these
state broadcasters receive taxpayers
money on the basis that they serve the
public interest in a way that commercial
broadcasters never can in exchange for
our cash they frequently broadcast shows
about ancient history and documentaries
about endangered species the concept
behind such institutions sounds
plausible but in truth there’s terrible
confusion about what they should really
be doing and in the process society
squander a lot of opportunities to
increase their well-being in relation to
the many and appalling problems they
face modern governments have some
traditional levers they can pull to try
and adjust behaviors most obviously they
have the law they also have the tax
system health policy and school and
university curricula in relation to some
challenges government levers work
extremely well but in relation to others
the results are patchy at best there’s
one crucial area where they hardly seem
to work at all a large arguably even the
largest share of the issues undermining
advanced nations are what one could call
psychological at their root that is they
have to do with our minds without deeper
patterns of thinking and feeling these
problems include family breakdown
domestic violence poor parenting
alcoholism drug addiction obesity
depression chronic anxiety delinquency
and loneliness taken together these
tennis shoes cost national governments
and overwhelming share of their annual
national budgets currently there’s no
easy way for governments to address
these problems at best they try and
tinker with the odd public ghoulish
advertising campaign try to add on a
class about this or that on to the
school curriculum play around with a tax
system give advice to social services
trial a bit of subsidized psychotherapy
print leaflets about parenting and hope
for the best but the results tend to be
very poor because better relationships
aren’t really fostered by a change in
the tax law few people ever read
leaflets there’s not much money for
public service ad can
pains and it’s naive at best to imagine
that you can address large-scale social
issues by tacking on some talks to 16
year-olds in schools on Friday
afternoons in order to stand any chance
of addressing national psychological
ills you have to get into people’s minds
on a huge scale with charm and skill at
regular repeated intervals this is where
the tantalizing opportunity lies just
within reach of most governments
available for no extra money stands the
most powerful lever imaginable the state
broadcaster broadcasting truly works
it’s the single most effective way of
changing mentalities a million times
more helpful than a book leaflet or
class revolutionaries have always known
that it’s why they always drive the
tanks to the TV station first currently
state broadcasters are aware that they
should be making programs that foster
the public good but they’re desperately
vague about what the public good really
constitutes it often seems to them bound
up with broadcasting shows about the
high arts but very few nations are
actually undermined because not enough
of the population know about lettre
viata
and vogner’s Ring cycle governments
should redefine what the public good
actually means they know what it is
because they have via their statistical
offices incontrovertible evidence about
what the public bad is their
statisticians constantly tell them the
figures on obesity drug addiction and
broken families public broadcaster’s
should therefore be charged with a
simple mission annually orientating all
their output to addressing the ten
leading social problems statistically
undermining their Nations this threatens
the sound horribly worthy wall-to-wall
programs about obesity and family
breakdown surely no one would watch one
imagines excruciating ly tedious shows
by egghead psychotherapists but that’s
precisely not what the mission would be
the challenge wouldn’t be just to make
unpopular programs about important
things but to make the good popular this
is what taxpayers money would really be
paying for to foster the genius required
to curry
compelling mass entertainment the very
best comedies dramas game shows and
documentaries about the most important
things to date this has only been done
sporadically the challenge would be to
generate this material institutionally
properly done state broadcasting would
dramatically start to change the mood of
the nation what one had seen on TV would
affect how parents spoke to children and
children spoke to parents how lovers
behaved how one would respond to anxiety
and deal with loneliness with enough
creativity applied public broadcasting
could do more to cure the ills of
nations than the police for social
services and the drug squad combined a
huge opportunity is at hand
waiting for the necessary political will
intellectual focus and creative talent
to be harnessed to be like a loofa
little kind of caverns and pockets where
it’s just sucking up all the things that
it needs some things it needs every day
some things it can hold on to and keep
over reserves for weeks and months I can
show you foods that are really rich and
great sources of things that
particularly your brain likes the more you mix it up and the more
having a rather unusual institution at
its center a state broadcaster these
state broadcasters receive taxpayers
money on the basis that they serve the
public interest in a way that commercial
broadcasters never can in exchange for
our cash they frequently broadcast shows
about ancient history and documentaries
about endangered species the concept
behind such institutions sounds
plausible but in truth there’s terrible
confusion about what they should really
be doing and in the process society
squander a lot of opportunities to
increase their well-being in relation to
the many and appalling problems they
face modern governments have some
traditional levers they can pull to try
and adjust behaviors most obviously they
have the law they also have the tax
system health policy and school and
university curricula in relation to some
challenges government levers work
extremely well but in relation to others
the results are patchy at best there’s
one crucial area where they hardly seem
to work at all a large arguably even the
largest share of the issues undermining
advanced nations are what one could call
psychological at their root that is they
have to do with our minds without deeper
patterns of thinking and feeling these
problems include family breakdown
domestic violence poor parenting
alcoholism drug addiction obesity
depression chronic anxiety delinquency
and loneliness taken together these
tennis shoes cost national governments
and overwhelming share of their annual
national budgets currently there’s no
easy way for governments to address
these problems at best they try and
tinker with the odd public ghoulish
advertising campaign try to add on a
class about this or that on to the
school curriculum play around with a tax
system give advice to social services
trial a bit of subsidized psychotherapy
print leaflets about parenting and hope
for the best but the results tend to be
very poor because better relationships
aren’t really fostered by a change in
the tax law few people ever read
leaflets there’s not much money for
public service ad can
pains and it’s naive at best to imagine
that you can address large-scale social
issues by tacking on some talks to 16
year-olds in schools on Friday
afternoons in order to stand any chance
of addressing national psychological
ills you have to get into people’s minds
on a huge scale with charm and skill at
regular repeated intervals this is where
the tantalizing opportunity lies just
within reach of most governments
available for no extra money stands the
most powerful lever imaginable the state
broadcaster broadcasting truly works
it’s the single most effective way of
changing mentalities a million times
more helpful than a book leaflet or
class revolutionaries have always known
that it’s why they always drive the
tanks to the TV station first currently
state broadcasters are aware that they
should be making programs that foster
the public good but they’re desperately
vague about what the public good really
constitutes it often seems to them bound
up with broadcasting shows about the
high arts but very few nations are
actually undermined because not enough
of the population know about lettre
viata
and vogner’s Ring cycle governments
should redefine what the public good
actually means they know what it is
because they have via their statistical
offices incontrovertible evidence about
what the public bad is their
statisticians constantly tell them the
figures on obesity drug addiction and
broken families public broadcaster’s
should therefore be charged with a
simple mission annually orientating all
their output to addressing the ten
leading social problems statistically
undermining their Nations this threatens
the sound horribly worthy wall-to-wall
programs about obesity and family
breakdown surely no one would watch one
imagines excruciating ly tedious shows
by egghead psychotherapists but that’s
precisely not what the mission would be
the challenge wouldn’t be just to make
unpopular programs about important
things but to make the good popular this
is what taxpayers money would really be
paying for to foster the genius required
to curry
compelling mass entertainment the very
best comedies dramas game shows and
documentaries about the most important
things to date this has only been done
sporadically the challenge would be to
generate this material institutionally
properly done state broadcasting would
dramatically start to change the mood of
the nation what one had seen on TV would
affect how parents spoke to children and
children spoke to parents how lovers
behaved how one would respond to anxiety
and deal with loneliness with enough
creativity applied public broadcasting
could do more to cure the ills of
nations than the police for social
services and the drug squad combined a
huge opportunity is at hand
waiting for the necessary political will
intellectual focus and creative talent
to be harnessed to be like a loofa
little kind of caverns and pockets where
it’s just sucking up all the things that
it needs some things it needs every day
some things it can hold on to and keep
over reserves for weeks and months I can
show you foods that are really rich and
great sources of things that
particularly your brain likes the more you mix it up and the more
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