The importance of being earnest

Subject: The importance of being earnest. 

People have said it was luck to be born and grow up in the 40s, 50s, and 60s when the world was a far freer place to live. The individual reined supreme and could get on with pursuing his or her interests without the cacophony of the internet to harass your every thought.

 One of the milestones in growing up was the advent of serious television with the opening of BBC 2 in which many programs were treated with almost monumental respect as were the people who made the programs. Television in those days was an opportunity for drawing people together as they congregate in front of the box drawn would you believe by a specific program which other members of the family also wanted  to watch. This was long before the advent of multiple channels and dozens of programs, all filleted by the same adverts every 10 minutes or so. In those days the Beeb was the only show in town, BBC 1 for light populist television and BBC 2 the more serious stuff.  Two programs stand out.
'Civilisation' directed and presented by Kennith Clark. A series which ran for about an hour each week depicting the rise of Civilisation, specifically in Europe. From the cave paintings to sublime gothic architecture and fretted roofs in the great European cathedrals. The art of Leonardo da Vinci, his anatomical drawings and his mesmerising portrait  of the Mona Lesa and the detail of the Last Supper, to Michelangelo's soaring masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and his revered sculptures, particularly the one of David. Clarks scholarly talk was that of a wealthy informed classist who's love for the world of artistic accomplishment was equally matched by the down to earth charm of Jacob  Bronowski in his series called the 'Assent of Man' a program based on the scientific achievement of man and the place science held in the humanities. 
Both programs were epoch making and both raised the levels of awareness across the land by integrating the public in a debate which took place in the informal setting of the living room. Much like the more recent but equally brilliant David Attenborough series on the animal kingdom and life in the oceans, these men were ground breaking in educating the ordinary man and woman who, without an university education, had the chance, probably for the first time in their lives to to be included and offered the opportunity understand a world which didn't require a mind deadening eight hours of toil in the factory and was accessible in the comfort of their own home.
We all see the past through rose tinted spectacles but the excitement of growing up and feeling education was important, that knowing stuff might come in useful, not to pass exams but rather to obtain a better understanding and gain the ability to converse on subjects other than football. 
If these programs were called highbrow, well so be it, they, along with the philosophical and political debates, a one on one format,  not the sort of hurried adversarial contest seen today in which the interviewee puts a  question but hasn't time or the inclination  to listen to the answer. In those far off days people these people respected each other and we respected them as we sort to look behind the obvious for the substance in the answer. I remember at the close of the program the headache due to concentrated effort to keep up on what was said and the meaning of what we understood and best of all, with the tele switched off, the discussion with my Dad as to our view and the avenues for further discussion the program offered.
Sadly today the answers come as sound bites, but in those days because of the sheer quality of the program and the people taking part, the answers were the grist to the mental mill, an intriguing opportunity for an active mind to try to plumb the depths purely because we thought it 'was' important.