Back in 1952 we got our first TV. My father wasn't big on it.
On several memorable occasions when we were engrossed in Science Fiction Theater, Mr. Wizard or something else equally entertaining, he'd walked into the living-room and announced that he "wasn't going to be a slave to TV" and shut it off. We'd take our cue and find something else to do which required physical activity and the use of a few more brain cells.
We hunted and fished. We played baseball, shot baskets and played half-court. We ice skated, fished and speared pike, built tree houses and went on hikes. We rode our bikes, played cards and Carroms. We played table tennis. We read. We repaired fences, mowed the grass and worked in the garden. We water skied. We still found time for TV but it wasn't the center of our lives.
What do you do? - your kids do? - your grandchildren do?
My bet is that the vast majority watch TV or play computer games. We get our corporation slanted "news" from TV. Too bad that it's the "news" that the corporations want you to see. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX - it doesn't matter. It's some truths, half-truths (lies), whole lies and trivia.
Most of us are told what to think each morning by our TVs.
When the big news is about Dancing with the Stars, Star Search, or Survivor, you are not even being lied to with a corporation half-truth which you can investigate further later on. You are being fed that which comes out of the north end of a south-facing bull.
How often do you hear or read the truth about anything?
If the monopolistic corporate world and the likes of Rupert Murdoch, owner of way too many television stations, radio stations, newspapers and magazines, continues to get his way the answer will remain -"seldom."
When was the last time that you actually read something which challenged your preconceptions, your prejudices? When did you last compare, evaluate, contrast, and research a variety of views on: wars, NAFTA, out-sourcing jobs to China, torture, the Bill of Rights, tax reform, the Supreme Court, lobbyists, corporate power, or how your senator or congressman voted on an issue--if you even know who they are?
Slave to TV? Hell, yes! We're slaves to lies, BS and trivia put before us by the corporate "news" media, part of the United States of Corporate America.
They have sucked independent thought out of our skulls.
What to believe, what to wear, what to buy today? Trust your TV?
