Bud Talkinghorn

Shy? Maybe you're just crazy

It used to be that we accepted conditions like shyness as simply a personality trait, part of the great diversity that made life interesting. Now it is defined as a genuine mental disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual--the DSM. This manual is the Bible for who qualifies as certifiably loony tunes. The DSM boys have been expanding the range of traits that are a symptom of mental illness. Too boisterous? Too retiring? Both conditions allow you to take the insanity route as your justification for a double murder.

Now all of this is disturbing enough. Don't we have enough "victims" whining away for special treatment based on their social pathologies? Recently a column in The Globe and Mail (April, 21 A-18), by Benedict Carey shows how joined at the navel are the DSM psychiatrists and the drug companies. For instance, "A research study done by Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts showed that 95--or 56%--of 170 experts on the DSM were receiving money from pharmaceutical companies. In the serious mental disease category, it sometimes approached 100%. The conflict of interest is apparent. The DSM doesn't even acknowledge that most of their staff are receiving funds. However, if they keep inventing new mental diseases, this gives the drug companies new avenues to "medicate" us. Look at what a wonderous success they have had with the "hyperactive" kid. Millions of children in North America are routinely given Ritalin--speed--under a fancier name. Maybe we can dope up our passive kids too. This "you got a problem, we've got a pill for you" mentality has to end before we are all considered crazy and are popping pills by the handful.

© Bud Talkinghorn




Them ole Canadian TV blues

I realize that it's almost sacriligious to criticize Canadian television. After all, it is supposed to be "telling our stories". In the case of "DiVinci--City Hall", it is the story that Abby Hoffman would have written. The mayor and his underlings are devious pols, while the businessmen and cops are corrupt. Abby would have labelled the show, "Smash the State", which wouldn't go down well with the CRTC. We pride ourselves on being more subtle. However, we rarely fail to ape some other American script. If American Idol is a success down south, we reproduce it up here. If we do try to be original it rarely goes beyond enough Canadian references to qualify for a federal film grant.

There are exceptions of course. The first and last seasons of "Wonderland" were often delightfully creative, although they badly fumbled the second season. Everybody who hits the courts is not mentally disturbed, as that season seemed to suggest. "DiVinci's Inquest" worked because there was a balance between the police perspective and the coroner's office. Once DiVinci became mayor, the bloom went off the rose. Small wonder the CBC cancelled it. I won't even get too far into the sad state of Canadian TV news. If it isn't pushing some left-wing political slant, it regards the rest of the world's news as important only if some political or natural catastrophe visits it. CBC simply imported BBC World News to tell us about the next Afghanistan to erupt. Likewise, "Coronation Street" for a good soap opera.

Occasionally, we get a "Traders", "Red Green", or "Cold Squad" to remind us that good Canadian programing can exist. Still, for the money that we direct to FIlm Canada and the CBC we should expect a more consistent quality. Unfortunately what we will probably get is "Survivor" knock-off, set in the Muskokas.

I almost forgot to mention "North of Sixty" which was the best Canadian and aboriginal show to appear. Of course, then we had to have a lame (totally racist) program called "The Rez" -- so bad that the natives should have demonstrated about their portrayal. The only reservation winners were the pimps and drug dealers.

© Bud Talkinghorn