Television is a CURSE. A hideous CURSE, I say!

[baby_mouse]

It is a POX! A POX, I tell you, an IRRITANT, the equivalent in cognition to a vast DIGGER WASP, a PARASITE!

It is a baleful grey-eyed sucker of minds into the transfinite cesspool of celebrity mediocrity, an enshriner of tedium and the lowest of the low standards, of lies and half-truths, of games and head-trips, of fictitious politics, monstrous deception and the fine gleanings of sick, disappointed media-types' MIND-TURDS.

It positively THROBS with psychic poison, it glistens with malicious blandness, venal brutishness and straightforward BULLSHIT.

Can't you hear the awful sucking sound when you switch it on and vast black tentacles rise up hidden and sudden, twitching eagerly in anticipation through the fourth dimension from the bowels of Hades to fasten to your limp, bright souls and lick and preen and EXTRACT? ATTENTION! That's all these revolting TV executives want, the most important part of you, the part that is used for DOING things.

GHASTLY! O, Woe! Most FOUL of Demons, the TERRIBLE TEDIUM. Remember him from the Phantom Tollbooth, with his faceless head and his neat bowler hat and his posh, pressed grey suit? What does he remind you of more than a TELEVISION SET? Him with his tweezers to move a pile of dust from here to 2 metres to the left, his eyedrop to transfer a lake 5 centimetres to the right. LINGERING PERDITION! He is AMONG US in high definition format with bigger speakers than ever and his voice is lower and softer and sounding more and more desperate with every reality TV show! He's like the Child-catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang promising sweeties and lollipops and moon pie and all you get is drooling supermodels, drugged-to-the-eyeballs, half-wit US presidents, shootings, rapes, hegemonising pseudo-intellectualism and ad breaks! Cheap holidays! Cheap car insurance! Cheap skin products! Cheap beer! Cheap tits! Cheap thrills! Cheap as chips! Cheap, cheaper, cheapest! The price of everything and the value of NOTHING, writ large in a wibbly post-produced blur of swooshy "horror" sound effects and moodily lit tubes of toothpaste!

SWITCH HIM OFF!

Get his thin, angular, sensitive fingers OUT of your pink, pliable, post-traumatised 21st century brains and eyes and GO OUTSIDE and walk in the hills and breath the REAL, FRESH AIR, pilgrims. It's free. There's no advertisements.

I simply don't understand how anyone can WATCH the damn things. There's nothing on them but nauseating cheap nastiness, I LOATHE television with a deep, passionate, healthy venom and am increasingly AMAZED as the years pass since I switched off that other people haven't walked away in horrified disgust from these soul-scrambling attention disposal units after the whole phenomenon began it's latest and most lurid, naked grubbing for attention in the form of the reality TV shows, come ON guys, this is hardly a SUBTEXT any more, is it? PAY ATTENTION TO ME, PAY ATTENTION TO ME... OOOO look...HHUUUUUUMILLLLIAAATION.... he he ... he he ... BURLECH. :puke:

How DARE Humanity infest the planet with these filthy devices?!?! What possible excuse can there be for this appalling waste of attention?!?! Hm?!

Oh yes, and ANYONE who invents something as humane as a remote off switch for these fat mechanical basilisks is a HERO and a NATIONAL TREASURE and STATUES SHOULD BE ERECTED OF HE IN ALL THE MARKET SQUARES OF ALL THE NATION'S TOWNS in my *unashamedly* 19th century opinion! Hell's BREATH! Can you not see that he is a SAVIOUR of ALL MANKIND?!?! Are you so subtracted of your very SENTIENCE!?!?

pantpantpantpantpantpantpant

:rant:

Or at least turn on the radio instead, sometimes. You can do other stuff while listening to the radio and on occasion you can find quite nice radio stations with people having conversations about interesting stuff. And there can be pleasant music if you know where to tune into. And generally radio stations have to give out useful information because they can't rely on the hypnotic burbling of cheesy special effects and over-recycled and mass-processed dramatic tropes to make you listen. Sometimes they have to tell you real things.

Those of you of more than average observational powers may note that my feelings on this subject are rather strong.

:D

[PDJane]

1. Oddly enough...........

I don't own one. Don't have any desire to have one, either.

I read a lot and spend a lot of time on the 'net, in case you're wondering. I also have several hobbies, like needlework.

Leaves me calmer and better informed.

[baby_mouse]

8. I am reassured.

Sometimes I feel like Gene wilder in that "Rhino" film.

Isn't it awful? Even the metaphors I use are auidvisual.

I will freely admit that I am somewhat obsessive about television. Where friends are gathered and potential group activities are discussed, my displeasue with television is made known. Mostly, they are not non-plussed.

The net is a good deal more constructive than television, flawed though it is.

[LSK]

2. CSPAN

[Dora]

3. My brother!

I'm willing to bet that minimally half here would FAIL in the experiment of banishing TV from their house for a week. Probably more like 80%. It took me two tries to quit.

Walk in the hills? Where do you think you are? Scotland?

[mondo joe]

9. I wouldn't fail because I wouldn't take the test.

I won't give up pasta either.

[Dora]

10. But giving up pasta would be insane.

Giving up television frees your mind.

[mondo joe]

15. Zealots always tell others what it takes to free their minds.

And it's always another form of bondage.

Repulsion of TV is as useless as adoration of it.

[baby_mouse]

18. My absolutism was intended at least partially in jest.

But yours sounds serious.

[mondo joe]

25. For the most part, this thread reminds me of the sort of puritan or AA

type absolutism. I suppose for people who feel helpless before television, it works.

[baby_mouse]

40. Indeed.

I suppose it would if there were any people who felt "helpless" before television.

[Dora]

50. True, that.

But adoration comes with a monthly bill from *insert cable co. here.*

[baby_mouse]

14. True, I am rather spoiled.

But America is also very beautiful.

[TheMightyFavog]

4. I happen to be going into the Television industry....

Does that make me scumnmier than attorneys or not?

[baby_mouse]

13. I forgive you.

And NO-ONE is scummier than attorneys.

Promise me that you will at least make television programs that are TASTEFUL and NICE, ha ha...

[TheMightyFavog]

29. I want to work for public televison, if at all possible.

End of line.

[baby_mouse]

42. Excellent stuff!

You'll probably have a lot more say in what goes on. My sister was in the BBC and she said that although in some respects it was a bit inward looking there just wsan't the same commercial pressure to aim for massive audiences and she got to make tons of programs that she found genuinely interesting. She's in commercial TV now and doesn't like it nearly as much...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

47. There are lower forms of life than attorneys.....

Some attorneys really are scummy. I used to work in the legal profession. All I got for my toleration of their abuse was high blood pressure and burnout. I noticed these guys aren't paying for my medicine either!!!

My old man told me the lowest forms of animal life were: Wrecker drivers, used car salesmen, pimps and insurance adjusters. And he was a poor but honest lawyer himself.

Oh, and scabs.

[NoGOPZone]

5. Sideshow Bob? Is it really you?

[baby_mouse]

11. Typical.

A "TELEVISUAL" comparison.

Wuuurr. Wuuurr. Wuuurr.

:D

:rofl:

Mea Culpa, mon cher...

[nam78_two]

26. CSPAN/Colbert/Stewart

And Aqua Teen Hunger Force :D!

[baby_mouse]

41. Aqua Teen Hunger Force?!?!?!?!

Is it any good?

[Ron Green]

6. About 40 years ago a child was asked, "Which do you prefer, radio or TV?"

Surprisingly, she said, "Radio."

Asked to tell why, in her sweet wisdom she said, "Because the pictures are better."

[kimmerspixelated]

7. Excellent,

however, I don't buy ino the argument that nothing good is on the telly. That's why we frequent the Science channel, Discovery, Animal Planet, so forth. I like old movies so TCM is another place I go, (no commercials)..WHEN I actually sit down long enuff to watch something. There's lots of educational things. Just like everything in life, you have to look for the good in it.

[Dora]

12. Yes, but how much of that "good"

"Just like everything in life, you have to look for the good in it."

What minimal amount of decent programming could ever compensate for the damages TV hath wrought in our society and culture?

Sorry, but the Discovery channel just isn't enough sugar to help that medicine go down.

[baby_mouse]

16. Acknowledged, sir.

... D'accord.

David Attenborough is a force for good and James Burke was a genius. Carl Sagan is sorely missed.

I just can't stand the rest of it, that's all.

[followthemoney]

17. You may love tv, But it will never love you.

Tv may seduce you, but will take no responsibility for the consequences of your seduction.

[Laurab]

19. Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert n/t

[baby_mouse]

21. ... raisins in a tsunami of turd. nt.

[quickesst]

20. My 23"

wide-screen HD tv doesn't suck hard enough, but the 60" plasma HDTV I've been eying should do the trick.:silly: Hopefully it will leave me with enough of my humanity that I can still work a forty hour week, spend time with my grand-kids, tinker with my RamSS/T, make love to my wife, fool around with a little photography, socialize with friends, keep my home and hearth up to snuff, and well, you know, stuff people do whether they watch tv or not. I've got a full life that I am more than satisfied with, and I doubt it would be any less so had I not turned on a television. But that's just me. I can't make a blanket statement for or about everyone else. Thanks.
quickesst

[baby_mouse]

22. Tried your best, though!

:applause:

Better luck next time!

[quickesst]

27. I don't see how, but...

:shrug: Perhaps I'm simply not worthy of this elite company. Forgive the intrusion. Thanks.
quickesst

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

23. I watch two programs

Judge Judy for the comedy of reality and Law & Order for the drama of fiction (and because I like Sam Waterston).

[baby_mouse]

24. I watch CSI. It's horrible.

But oddly compelling. Also there is the passing pretense of science in there.

I used to study Forensic Science and it's quite fascinating to imagine where they get all these stories from. Most Forensics Departments in MY country get about as much in funding as *one episode" of CSI. Also, I worked in an ER room. Needless to say, the TV versions of these things do not impress me. Mostly I watch CSI because it's on when I've finished everything else.

Judge Judy isn't actually that bad, I caught a show once and she wasn't as obnoxious as I thought she would be. Also, some of the people she was dealing with were clearly insane.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

33. That's why I watch

I figure the insane people on Judge Judy give me insights into how freepers' minds work.

[JVS]

28. I like TV. It is a good source of cheap entertainment

[baby_mouse]

37. I like books. They're a cheap source of good entertainment.

[mondo joe]

43. Ah ain't one fer book learnin! It's jes tv, day in n day out - cuz it's not

like one noggin could have'm both!

[JohnyCanuck]

30. Television and the Hive Mind

Television and the Hive Mind

by Mack White

SNIP

Experiments conducted by researcher Herbert Krugman reveal that, when a person watches television, brain activity switches from the left to the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere is the seat of logical thought. Here, information is broken down into its component parts and critically analyzed. The right brain, however, treats incoming data uncritically, processing information in wholes, leading to emotional, rather than logical, responses. The shift from left to right brain activity also causes the release of endorphins, the body's own natural opiates--thus, it is possible to become physically addicted to watching television, a hypothesis borne out by numerous studies which have shown that very few people are able to kick the television habit.

This numbing of the brain's cognitive function is compounded by another shift which occurs in the brain when we watch television. Activity in the higher brain regions (such as the neo-cortex) is diminished, while activity in the lower brain regions (such as the limbic system) increases. The latter, commonly referred to as the reptile brain, is associated with more primitive mental functions, such as the "fight or flight" response. The reptile brain is unable to distinguish between reality and the simulated reality of television. To the reptile brain, if it looks real, it is real. Thus, though we know on a conscious level it is "only a film," on a conscious level we do not--the heart beats faster, for instance, while we watch a suspenseful scene. Similarly, we know the commercial is trying to manipulate us, but on an unconscious level the commercial nonetheless succeeds in, say, making us feel inadequate until we buy whatever thing is being advertised--and the effect is all the more powerful because it is unconscious, operating on the deepest level of human response. The reptile brain makes it possible for us to survive as biological beings, but it also leaves us vulnerable to the manipulations of television programmers.

It is not just commercials that manipulate us. On television news as well, image and sound are as carefully selected and edited to influence human thought and behavior as in any commercial. The news anchors and reporters themselves are chosen for their physical attractiveness--a factor which, as numerous psychological studies have shown, contributes to our perception of a person's trustworthiness. Under these conditions, then, the viewer easily forgets--if, indeed, the viewer ever knew in the first place--that the worldview presented on the evening news is a contrivance of the network owners--owners such as General Electric (NBC) and Westinghouse (CBS), both major defense contractors. By molding our perception of the world, they mold our opinions. This distortion of reality is determined as much by what is left out of the evening news as what is included--as a glance at Project Censored's yearly list of top 25 censored news stories will reveal. If it's not on television, it never happened. Out of sight, out of mind.

Under the guise of journalistic objectivity, news programs subtly play on our emotions--chiefly fear. Network news divisions, for instance, frequently congratulate themselves on the great service they provide humanity by bringing such spectacles as the September 11 terror attacks into our living rooms. We have heard this falsehood so often, we have come to accept it as self-evident truth. However, the motivation for live coverage of traumatic news events is not altruistic, but rather to be found in the central focus of Cantril's War of the Worlds research--the manipulation of the public through fear.

http://www.mackwhite.com/tv.html

[baby_mouse]

38. Ye-es.

Of course, tell people all this and they think YOU'RE the one trying to manipulate them through fear.

Ironic, isn't it?

[NYCGirl]

45. That's one of the funniest things I've ever read. STAR TREK IS EVIL!!!

The globalists from STAR TREK want to take over your mind! TV is dirty and shows drug use!

:rofl:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

31. So You Don't Like TV. Yay For You. But Like, Don't Worry Bout What I'm Doin, Ok?

And don't you think this thread was just a tadddddd melodramatic? Maybe?

[baby_mouse]

39. Yes. It was very melodramatic.

... blink.

<strikes OperationMindCrime from list of people about whose doings I worry>.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

44. Ok, You Made Me Laugh With That Post. Very Good Reply!

Hey, gotta give credit where credit's due. :)

[progressivebydesign]

32. I watch about 2 hours a week of TV.

I have for the past 10 years... and I'm a better person for it. And my daughters are SO much more in touch with the world, respectful of other people, and generally not sullen and self-absorbed, AND never.. ever.. ask me for any type of designer clothing, gadgets, etc. One is 24, the other 15, and it makes a HUGE difference in them compared to their friends who grew up with TV 24/7 in their lives.

[baby_mouse]

36. Yes, it;s the amount you watch and WHAT you watch that matters, really...

It's not a medium that couldn't be used for something good, it's just that it's so very exploitable...

[Berry Cool]

34. I'd bother to read this

but it's almost time for Keith.

Sheesh. TV is neither good nor evil in and of itself. If you have one, you control it. It shouldn't control you.

If you choose not to own one, live and let live. No use trying to convert everyone else.

[baby_mouse]

35. Not really, no...

:D Enjoy your television, by all means. Who am *I* to tell you what to do?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

46. Yes.

Hanging out on the internet is so much more productive.

:eyes:

[baby_mouse]

48. Well... I don't know about you, but...

For one thing, I wouldn't know jack about what impeachment involves if it weren't for wikipedia. And DU, for that matter. Can't see much info about it on the box.

And there's more to the Net than DU...

[Nay]

49. Have you by chance read "Four Arguments for the Elimination of

Television" by Jerry Mander? If not, get a copy for yourself immediately. He is a former ad exec who, 25 years ago, wrote this book and outlined what TV does to a person, what it could do to a society, etc. EVERY POINT he wrote about has come true in reality.

Having said that, I realize that TV will never ever ever go away. Ever. Unless there is a total collapse of civilized society. I personally don't find most TV very compelling or interesting, but nearly everyone else I know watches it for hours. They'll turn it on and start watching, heedless of the story (which is often half over when they start watching), just mesmerized by the jumping images. I know people who won't stay in TV-less lodging while on vacation. It is chilling to me that real life, real vacation time in exotic places, is still not enough to wrench them away from the set. For some people, that state they fall into must be the only relaxation they ever get -- that's why they constantly seek it out.

It has indeed contributed to a great coarseness in this society, a coarseness that tries to pass itself off as being "truthful" or "real" or "honest."

It has also contributed to the development of whole generations of people who can't tell shit from shinola because they have been raised on manufactured images, not on real life and real situations. That directly contributes to the dumbing down of the population. Anyone who went to college in the 70's can tell you that college today is much less taxing than high school was back in the 60's. I just corrected a paper for a woman getting her master's degree--and let me tell you, my 8th grade English teacher would have thrown it in my face with a big red F on it.

Anyway, my take on it is that it will all go and go and go until one day it hits the wall. I certainly don't seem to have any influence on society.

[Kurovski]

51. K&R. The use of language alone warrants it. (nt)

[JackRiddler]

52. Ha!

As the likely immediate inspiration or rather target of your thread -

- since it sure looks like an oblique response to
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x109940

- do you think maybe too much TV is responsible for how almost no one gets irony anymore?