"Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"
-- Truman Burbank
In the movie "The Truman Show", the protagonist, Truman Burbank, is a person that was born and raised on the set of a "reality" television program in a fictional town called Seahaven. But to him, life on the set truly is reality.Truman is watched by millions of people worldwide, but he has no idea that is existence is that of a character on television. He's the star of the program but he doesn't realize it.
People on the outside feel bad for him and some attempt to "crash" the program to let him know that he is actually on TV, but they are always stymied by the producers of the program. When Truman himself attempts to escape, to ostensibly leave the program, the producers go to great lengths to make him stay, including seeding the daily newspaper with articles about how great things are in the town where he lives.
The tiny town where I grew up, Bolinas, has become a little Truman-esque in recent years, including regular articles in the town's Hearsay News titled "3 More Great Things About This Place," and a mural that is going up near the People's Store and the Free Box that is emblazoned with the words "Why I Love Bolinas."
But Bolinas is not alone. At the supermarket in Rohnert Park the other day, apropos of nothing, the checker asked if I had seen the article in the Press Democrat newspaper saying that "people in Sonoma County are the happiest of anywhere in the United States." I said that I had not, and that it seemed like a pretty unusual claim for a newspaper to make, anyway. A woman in line behind me piped in that she had read the article and was in complete agreement. The checker and her then began a conversation of how great it was to live in Sonoma County.
What is going on here? Have people and the media decided that we need public relations and make-shift shrines to make us feel better about the world that we live in?
It's not that there is anything bad about either of these places: Bolinas and Sonoma County, California, are arguably examples of some of the most beautiful places on earth. But the cynic in my wonders if we aren't doing a disservice by espousing only the positive - actually promoting the bright and the beautiful - instead of tempering it with a dose of reality.
