GOING TO EXTREMES: ARE WE BETTER OFF FOR IT?

One of the characteristics that sets the human race apart is its constant striving for extremes. Once a runner completes a mile in four minutes, every other serious runner starts training to run the mile in under four minutes. The highest mountains have been conquered by climbers, so they look for diffent, more challenging and decidedly more dangerous routes to the top. and so on.

Our culture is no better off in some cases because of the desire to do what no one else has done before. Take the new planned TV show called "Survivor," for example.

The producers are looking for 16 Americans who will agree to be stranded on an uninhabited island in the South China Sea. One by one, the adventuresome competitors will be eliminated -- democratically, of course -- until there is just one left. That sole survivor will collect $1 million.

That's another component of human nature: greed. Set the stakes high enough, and you can find someone to try almost anything.

It is somewhat interesting that this new TV show comes at a time when other bizarre contests are being held. Remember this summer's standing contest, which produced serious contestants right here in Cape Girardeau? The winner -- the prize was a new mobile home -- had to stand up outdoors for more than a week.

Extremes seem to be tested incrementally. Take a look at what are considered appropriate standards for the content of TV shows, magazines, videos and even newspapers. it wasn't that many years ago that content was carefully monitored, either by the creators or by the industry censors. Remember, in the 1950s, when there was a big flap over using the word "pregnant" on TV's "I Love Lucy"? The show's star, Lucille Ball, was pregnant, but it was deemed inappropriate to say so.

We've come a long way since then. TV, in particular, tries to stretch the boundaries with every new episode of virtually every new program. Foul language, sexual scenes and brutality are depicted in their rawest forms.

And you know what? Audience ratings indicate viwers are attracted to the garbage. Whether it is prurient interest or macabre fascination, crud seems to be a big selling factor for too much of the communications media.

Once upon a time, the extremes were also the exeptions. Now just the opposite is true, which is why stunningly good things stand out. One example was Thursday night's "Great Performances" presentation on PBS of the Broadway musical, "The Gershwin's Crazy for You." What a delightful combination of music and dance along with a bright, upbeat story that ends hapily with a splendid production number that brought the audience -- some at home watching TV -- to its feet.

In the meantime, millions of TV viewers will be breathlessly waiting for the next weekly episode of the stranded-on-an-island survivors. This is progress?