Television - The Drug of the Nation

Just heard this song on WOXY​.com. (The more I lis­ten to that sta­tion, the more I like it. And I just found out they have a “vin­tage” cast, too!) It’s really good. And very thought-​provoking.

It reminded me of this Calvin and Hobbes strip, too. Note that the open­ing gag is almost iden­ti­cal. This kinda stuff is why Calvin and Hobbes is my all-​time favorite Sun­day comic. As a kid, I just enjoyed all the adven­tures that those two had, and ignored all the big words. Com­ing back now, I pick up on a lot of stuff that com­pletely flew over my head as a kid, and I get to enjoy each strip twice as much.

But yeah, get­ting back on topic… I think I wasted a lot of my life in front of the TV. (Not that the com­puter is that much bet­ter.) I’m just sit­ting here imag­in­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ties if I had actu­ally gone out more and just inter­acted with real peo­ple more. Man… I was a stu­pid kid. And in a lot of ways, I still am…

And as for the larger mes­sage… TV *is* a hor­ri­ble influ­ence on “the masses.” Not to be a cyn­i­cal bas­tard, but every­thing on TV so biased. Everyone’s try­ing to sell you some­thing, whether the hottest new toy, an ice-​cold beer, or a polit­i­cal agenda.

TV teaches us that to be happy, we have to live as deca­dently as pos­si­ble, and that vio­lence is the way to get every­thing you want. Sure, the bad guys fire their lasers first (because bul­lets are bad, but kids can han­dle death from lasers just fine), but they always miss. And the hero doesn’t. And maybe he’ll be nice about it and only maim them or beat them into uncon­scious­ness instead of killing them.

TV teaches us that if we drink a cer­tain drink or chew a cer­tain gum, throngs of the oppo­site sex will chase us naked through the streets like the Macy’s Thanks­giv­ing Day parade.

TV teaches us that even drug-​abusing crim­i­nals can be elected into office, as long as you are rich enough to make your­self appear bet­ter than your oppo­nent in some small way. (Hav­ing a hot wife and/​or daugh­ter wins you big points. More points if she doesn’t wear bras. And if you have twin daugh­ters, you might as well write your accep­tance speech now.) Char­ac­ter assassination’s got­ten so bad, it’s not just can­di­date vs. can­di­date, or party vs. party. It’s cable net­work vs. cable net­work now. Who gets more eye­balls on their ²⁴⁄₇ stream of propan­ganda? And they don’t counter with facts, any­more, they have their legions of lawyer nin­jas attack with their attaché cases full of old scan­dals (which may or may not be true), friv­o­lous law­suits, and poi­son darts. And you can do what­ever you want once you’re in office, because TV doesn’t cover what you sign for the next two or four years, depending.

Just some­thing for you all to think about dur­ing those com­mer­cial breaks in between sum­mer re-​runs. (And I don’t mean to be preachy… I know I’ll prob­a­bly end up in front of the boob tube as well.)

Tags: Computer, Dinhternet, Law, Son D, Television, Work