TV screens are everywhere, seemingly omnipresent; difficult to avoid; gatecrashing our minds and demanding our attention, whether we want it or not; techno-rapists which force themselves upon us…
Imaginative Conservative: I have long since broken the habit of watching television. We don’t have TV in the house and I relish all the good things that fill the time that would otherwise have been wasted in watching it: Conversation; unhurried dinners at the table with my wife and children; conversation; reading books with my daughter; reading books in the solitude and comfort of my favourite armchair; conversation; watching the chickens and ducks from the deck; sipping bourbon on the deck as the light falters at the end of another God-given day; conversation.
No, I don’t watch television anymore, though I sometimes see it at the gym, or in hotel rooms, or during airport layovers. This is, in fact, being written during a long layover at Dallas-Fort Worth airport, during which I have had little option but to see what’s on TV, even if I have no desire to do so. TV screens are everywhere, seemingly omnipresent; difficult to avoid; gatecrashing our minds and demanding our attention, whether we want it or not; techno-rapists which force themselves upon us. A little earlier, as I endeavoured to eat lunch in a restaurant, it had proved difficult to avert my gaze from a screen which kept showing an image of happy people helping each other, with the caption that we are all “citizens of the world,” a phrase which has become a mantra among those who see globalization as an infallibly benevolent force. Having paid my bill, I set out to walk from one terminal to another, partly to walk off my lunch and partly to escape the unwanted attention of the maddeningly repetitive screen that had spoiled the solitude of my repast.
As I walked past departure gate after departure gate I kept seeing the latest “news story” on CNN about the disaster that awaits the United Kingdom if the British government goes through with Brexit. I wasn’t watching the TV and couldn’t hear what the “expert” was actually saying but I couldn’t help seeing the tagline conveying CNN’s propaganda spin: “Disaster Will Follow Brexit by Any Measure.” I walked past the TV screen but it was there at the next departure gate conveying the same propagandistic tagline. It’s the end of the world if Britain goes through with Brexit. The end of the world. And this is not merely a danger, or a possibility, it’s a dogmatic certainty from whatever angle you look at it: Disaster … by any measure. more
Soon we might have “interactive TV”, ala Fahrenheit 451:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAFGUEUVweU&feature=youtu.be&t=1
Telling us what to think, what to do, and who to be.
Pushing us in what to buy, wear, and eat.
Pointing out who to believe in, who to trust, and who is not.
And of course telling us whom to vote for.
Like I give a crap about which butt-bandit figure skater wants to dis the Vice President. He needs a lesson on who’s been paying his way for all the training, condoms, and privileges he’s gotten as a “world class ice skater who thinks they can dance.”
Haven’t had TV since 2002, I believe it was. Don’t miss it.
I use TVs as computer monitors. I don’t really have these problems, and I don’t go too many places where they are, except my parent’s kitchen.
Someone did give me a Sony Bravia, and I’m wrestling with getting it hooked up. Camera disabled by former owner (in a rather careless or hostile manner – you pick). Now I get to figure out how to disable the internet and supposedly helpful listening function. Damned if I’m going to have something in my home voluntarily that has capabilities I can’t control. If I can’t get it right, craigslist is in its future.
How many people are there now that are subject to the programming inherent in it? Any guesses?
The ACLU is not saying nothing about this. . The ACLU didn’t say nothing about the FBI under Hussein 👀👀👀👀👀 on republican if that was a DEMS that the FBI was 👀👀👀👀👀the ACLU will be all over this.
Mind numbing dopamine inducing…
Big Biz telling you how to think,
act and live.Super Bowl had plenty…
Something interesting with most experts in politics and economy. If you bet against them 1:1 you will be better than them. At that point, proclaim yourself an expert.
We use like 2% of our brains, because crap takes up the other 98%. No, literally. It’s used for taking a healthy crap.
The media and the government want you to be afraid. Then they want you dependent on them for your safety and security. They are the wolf.