Television

[Mikey]

Fes/Marokko

 

[Azur]

People have never seemed to lose the need to sense. This is a poor (and exploited) substitute.

 

[Mikey]

And it goes on at full throttle: The other day Austria's government has approved the start of mobile TV in 2008, with 15 channels in the beginning. No need for satellite dishes any more! Where will it end?

 

[Meg]

I have been without cable since February. I still have a TV, but no reception. Difficult adjustment, but I am better for it. I read more AND found my way to SOTT and alternative news. What is interesting was the cable company. They called me for 3 weeks trying to talk me back into service with sweet deals. I guess the PTB doesn't like it when people 'disconnect'.

 

[Al Today]

What is normal? Could normal in this definition mean that many, many people must get zombified by living an illusion of someone elses life? Is life so repulsive that the 'norm' is to retreat into a deeper virtual existence than we are already in? I am saddened that people cannot face the life they have. Must be easier to reject reality than to live, experience this life, and yes LEARN. Many think things are to be given to them, instead of putting forth effort (work). Thinking of the past, before television, there was radio. Again people were glued to the radio to escape their reality. And before radio were books (fiction).

Perhaps there is some program running within us that demands virtual input in order to provide distraction from objective reality? Recognize that program, fight against the machine, go out and DO SOMETHING with or about your life.!.!.! I think one gets what they work towards. What is one to work towards but FREEDOM or SLAVERY.

I think a choice must be recognized before a choice can be made. And it's up to the individual to choose the path they are to follow.

 

[Azur]

This reminds me of that classic quote from Network:

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

[shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, [shouting] 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: [screaming at the top of his lungs] "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

:)

 

[The Mechanic]

I have been without cable since February. I still have a TV, but no reception. Difficult adjustment, but I am better for it. I read more AND found my way to SOTT and alternative news. What is interesting was the cable company. They called me for 3 weeks trying to talk me back into service with sweet deals. I guess the PTB doesn't like it when people 'disconnect'.

I've been living without cable for a few years now, and I remember some difficulty in adjusting as well. I remember this was due to the fact that I was used to watching television often at night just to spend some time after work or school, and suddenly I found myself getting bored and not knowing what to do, now that just watching the tube wasn't an option anymore. After a few years without cable, I think that ditching the darn thing was one of the better choices I made in this live (or perhaps it's that getting one in the first place was one of the worst :) ). I now spend my time on things that are much more valuable to me, just as you said, reading sott and other alternative news. I also read more books and see much less but much better movies. Selecting what to watch myself, instead of accepting to watch what is chosen for me, has certainly benefited me in a variety of ways. I also noticed that I simply can't watch most programs anymore, even those that I used to like (or similar ones), because of the simple and predictable humor, the simple mindedness of the ideas, the obvious biases in discussion and news programs, and especially the fact that the latter never seem to cover things that are really important. When I see television nowadays I usually just get annoyed and want to do something more worth while.

About those sweet deals you mentioned: when I move out my house and a new person rents the place, cable as well as a satellite connection with something like four hundred television channels will be mandatory, at 19 euros a month, to be paid together with the rent. Not only for the house I live in right now, but the other 1100+ in my neighborhood as well. Story is that they wanted to get rid of all those satellite dishes people had on their balcony, so they installed a new system which unfortunately had to be made mandatory for everyone to break even. Talk about a sweet deal...