Someone Else's Shoes
Tonight is the season finale of the FX network television show, 30 Days. In case you’ve missed it, the show is hosted by Morgan Spurlock, the man who brought us the brilliant documentary Super Size Me. In the movie, Spurlock subjected his body to a diet consisting solely of McDonald’s food for 30 days.
The show takes that formula and expands it to other areas of life. Every week, a different individual, usually on one side of a controversial issue, is plucked out of his normal routine and environment and thrust into a whole new world. For example, in the season premiere, a Minute Man (the vigilante group that has taken upon itself to patrol the border between the U.S. and Mexico) spends 30 days living with a family of undocumented immigrants.
It has been a pretty good season this year as the show has looked at the issues of immigration; outsourcing -- by sending a laid off American to India; atheism -- by sending an atheist to live with a devout Christian family, new age healing -- by hooking up an average Joe with a life coach; and abortion, by sending a pro-choice family planning employee to live at a maternity home run by an anti-abortion activist.
This week, the show will take a look at the prison system, specifically that of Virgina. Spurlock will spend 30 days in a county jail in Richmond, VA. The prison system in this country doesn’t seem to be working very well. Rather than focus on trying to stop people from committing crimes in the first place, the system seems to be more focused on just sequestering a significant portion of the population, particularly African Americans and Latinos.
Part of the problem is that politicians find it a lot easier to get votes from the American public by talking about getting tough on crime rather than by talking about how to improve the lives of individuals who live in crime-ridden areas and end up following the examples all around them.
I’m sure tonight’s show will try to depict what it’s like on the other side and that’s one of the reasons I really enjoy the show. The basic idea of the series is to try to get the audience to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. The show tries to present what I consider a balanced view of the issues it tackles. But at its core are two progressive principles: tolerance and understanding. I really do think that the world would be a far better place if people could just consider other people’s perspectives before making their judgments.
People don’t always change their ways of thinking of course, but they do seem to become more sympathetic. For instance, in the immigration episode, the Minute Man member decided to stop patrolling the border. After spending a few days in the Mexican town where the family was from, he was bothered by the idea of helping return people at the border to those impoverished conditions. Instead he decided to focus more on petitioning Congress to tighten security at the border. It’s not a renouncement of his ideals, but it’s a start.
So if you feel like taking a walk in someone else’s shoes, you can catch 30 Days tonight at 10 p.m. EST on the FX network.
The show takes that formula and expands it to other areas of life. Every week, a different individual, usually on one side of a controversial issue, is plucked out of his normal routine and environment and thrust into a whole new world. For example, in the season premiere, a Minute Man (the vigilante group that has taken upon itself to patrol the border between the U.S. and Mexico) spends 30 days living with a family of undocumented immigrants.
It has been a pretty good season this year as the show has looked at the issues of immigration; outsourcing -- by sending a laid off American to India; atheism -- by sending an atheist to live with a devout Christian family, new age healing -- by hooking up an average Joe with a life coach; and abortion, by sending a pro-choice family planning employee to live at a maternity home run by an anti-abortion activist.
This week, the show will take a look at the prison system, specifically that of Virgina. Spurlock will spend 30 days in a county jail in Richmond, VA. The prison system in this country doesn’t seem to be working very well. Rather than focus on trying to stop people from committing crimes in the first place, the system seems to be more focused on just sequestering a significant portion of the population, particularly African Americans and Latinos.
Part of the problem is that politicians find it a lot easier to get votes from the American public by talking about getting tough on crime rather than by talking about how to improve the lives of individuals who live in crime-ridden areas and end up following the examples all around them.
I’m sure tonight’s show will try to depict what it’s like on the other side and that’s one of the reasons I really enjoy the show. The basic idea of the series is to try to get the audience to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. The show tries to present what I consider a balanced view of the issues it tackles. But at its core are two progressive principles: tolerance and understanding. I really do think that the world would be a far better place if people could just consider other people’s perspectives before making their judgments.
People don’t always change their ways of thinking of course, but they do seem to become more sympathetic. For instance, in the immigration episode, the Minute Man member decided to stop patrolling the border. After spending a few days in the Mexican town where the family was from, he was bothered by the idea of helping return people at the border to those impoverished conditions. Instead he decided to focus more on petitioning Congress to tighten security at the border. It’s not a renouncement of his ideals, but it’s a start.
So if you feel like taking a walk in someone else’s shoes, you can catch 30 Days tonight at 10 p.m. EST on the FX network.
posted by The Pocho at 12:45 PM
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