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Is TV Worth the Transition?
At twelve noon on June 12, 2009, the end of analog television's era was also when I let my set go dark. The last declaration I saw was that there were about three million of us disconnected but, no worry, we can still order the "converter box" to bring all those programs back to our living rooms. Going dark on tv was not that hard-at least for a while. My recent memories had too many "yuks" and too few "harks".
President John F. Kennedy's chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Newton Minow, shocked a broadcast industry audience when he called television a "vast wasteland". That was in 1961!
Had he not mellowed as a corporate lawyer with a lucrative practice, what would Newton Minow say today? What is the superlative of "vast wasteland"?
Television today-over the air and cable-with the usual exceptions, could empty the dictionary of disparaging adjectives. Some times slots-such as daily afternoon talk-entertainment shows-are so bad, so sadomasochistic and exploitive, that they escape the media critics. Why would Tom Shales-the insightful Washington Post critic who writes like a dream-want to apply his talented eye to shows that invoke the Latin phrase "res ipsa louitur": the thing speaks for itself?
On weekends, the shows swing from the slick infomercials, pushing cutlery and real estate wealth, to sports that become duller play by play-especially golf-to the Sunday morning news program where evasions of predictable questions run on and on.
Then there are the second-rate movie reruns, the insipid sitcom shows, so dependent on canned laughter, the dramas, so spilt-second violent that they eliminate any kind of memorable suspense.
The early and late local evening news needs psychoanalysts. Repetition may be economical for it requires fewer reporters.
The thirty minutes of the late local news is composed of roughly nine minutes of ads, four minutes of sports, four obsessive minutes of four weather segments, the usual openings with street crimes or fires, the customary animal story and half minute of contrived, spontaneous chit-chat between the anchors and the rest-the abbreviated rest-is what can be called news.
One local DC station once had the temerity to try vainly distinguishing itself from the sameness of its competitors by the slogan "no chit chat, no fluff".
So little time is left for news that most news is not covered-not in the neighborhoods, not in city hall or the courts, not in business, labor, schools, or civic activity or achievement.
Missing so much reality by allocating lots of time for local news and wasting so much of it takes the label of those "Reality Shows" to the level of ironic satire.
How much reality would there be without C-Span-that lonely tribute to the public intellect and engagement? Over ninety percent of television is entertainment or advertisements-mostly low grade even for those willing to inhabit bad taste.
I just saw an auto ad on the news for Kia with hamsters driving and occupying the front seat.
The public air waves belong to the people. They are the owners and the television stations are the tenants. Guess what? Since the beginning of television broadcasting, these lucrative stations have paid no rent. It is a rent free way to mint money under the guidance of a supine Federal Communications Commission and a Congress frightened of the power of the broadcast industry.
Gone are the regulatory expressions of the 1934 statutory standard-namely "the public interest, convenience and necessity"-binding television stations to a level of public responsibility.
Gone is the worthy requirement for each station to ascertain the public's information needs in an annual public report to the FCC. There is no more fairness doctrine or right of reply. FCC station license renewals proceedings are not as frequent as they were thirty years ago.
Some valuable shows manage to get through the "vast wasteland" and make money. Among them are 60 Minutes (CBS) and the Simpsons (FOX). Non-profit public television has the Bill Moyers Journal. The nature and history shows on some cable channels bear occasional attention.
By and large, however, getting through the noise, hoping to find snippets of interest in otherwise flat and formulaic programs, and having to endure the densely-packed relentless advertisements and product placements, and not knowing whether a news segment is canned from an industry consultant, invites a vacation from an already limited resort to my TV.
There are so many other things to do and learn and evoke than watching screens.
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148 Comments so far
Show AllSuppose for one beautiful moment that all commercial television in the United States were destroyed.
All of it...
Annihilated as if no such trash had ever existed!
What's the downside?
It would be evidence of the end our "our way of life". That way of life is very lucrative to those who have sold their souls to greed and wealth. That would be the downside.
The upside would be that our attention spans are no longer determined by someone else -- and then we find we actually have time to read a book!
Another upside is that our desires are determined more by our needs, rather than unrealistic, ad-driven wants and ideals.
These needs, being more realistic, are found to be easier to meet, making us happier; and they include satisfying our non-material (non-commercial?) moral and spiritual natures, which makes us happier still.
I agree with freefallen. Destroying commercial television would probably make life better for (almost) everybody except the weasels who use it to exploit the rest of us.
So...
How can we destroy commercial television?
What's the first step?
That *thing* has made millions of Americans so much stupider than they have to be, with mind-mangling "entertainment" and addictive fantasies based on greasy food, sugar-pop, beer, cheap clothes made in sweat-shops, minivans, and politics reduced to almost indistinguishable gangs of spokesmodels shrieking slogans.
Every network and every franchise of that goddamned thing should be annihilated.
"How can we destroy commercial television?
What's the first step?"
It's really easy: Kill your Television.
Get rid of it.
Think of all the thousands of hours you have let be sucked out of your life by that gaping maw of toxic mendacity!
Then read, write, draw, dance, garden, make love, and spend time with friends and family instead.
And it will still remain a societal problem.
But you'll have more time and a freer mind to come up with creative solutions.
Would you live free while others were still in the chains that you cast off?
Cut the lines, down the satellites, kill the power. watch the chaos ensue.
It is time to shake them awake from the nightmare.
Broadcast strategies to keep viewers watching might include a snippet of news to come but, "details after the break." They used to be commercials but are now called breaks.
Often half way through a very long commercial break the anchor desk appears for a few seconds as if to continue the news. This brings you back if you are straying - to the commercials that continue. Similar techniques are used during TV movie commercials where you are reminded of the movie you are watching for a second or two but the ads keep flowing.
The news teasers worsen for some of the popular topics that you might be waiting for. "Coming up: Doctor Shmocter gives important new health findings." He does come on after the break but not immediately. You gotta hang in there for 20 minutes and check out the advertisements.
The morning after civic elections in the Greater Vancouver district we watched the morning news for one hour wanting to see the results for the Mayor of our city. Each 10 minutes or so they would announce the elected mayor of 2-3 cities. In other words, watch the entire hour to get all the results. Exasperating!
To know what's going on locally news can usually be picked up briefly on the radio, public if available. BBC TV World News covers the globe and actually supplies significant information on current newsworthy events in other countries including here, in North America.
Broadcasters (and their employees) are in a difficult situation. There is a demand for quality local programming and it's important for communities and the stations need revenue to survive which is coming from advertising. So a familiar problem arises, one that is embedded in wide areas of our commerce dependent society. Too many are competing for the same money with too many things to sell. In that environment product or service quality is so often diluted to maintain acceptable profits.
I wonder how long can this continue and will a saturation point be reached where viewers will no longer wish to view.
I happen to think quality would sell, whether in print or on TV. But it is just not being tried. Too risky I guess. Or else the values of the powers that be are just too skewed.
Or, maybe, the goal is more than just profits. Is the ability (or wish or effort) to influence just as important?
Right on Ralph. I turned off my TV IV connection over two years ago. I do miss the Simpsons, but hey even that got old.
It is 1984, year after year. You cannot avoid the "screen." Go into any public place and there it is ,blaring it's insipid reality for every one to see, whether you want to see it or not.
Sioux Rose
MAD PEASANT: I gave up TV almost 3 years ago and do NOT miss it. I have a good supply of films if I really need to just veg and watch a movie.
As to the noise, blaring TVS everywhere... it's true. It's on at banks, at the airport, medical offices and once one turns theirs off, it's EXCRUCIATING to be forced to hear all the blather.
Real genius takes quiet time. The philosophical mind requires quiet places in which to take thoughts out, the way the athlete stretches muscles, to expand upon them. This may qualify as another "conspiracy" theory, but as a contemplative person, all this noise entering into my "personal space" uninvited definitely thwarts the capacity for deep thought. It has occured to me that the noise machine is not just accidental, it is aimed at NOT letting people really think. Add this pervasive violation of the atmosphere to the loss of sacred places, quiet sanctuaries (now there will be guns in state parks, what fun!) and consider the a net impact. It likely assumes the form of a reciprocal loss of creative output and related endeavors. What does it cost a society to "be instant" or always ON, never pausing with the rest beat that night intends? Losing its capacity for reflection, there can be no learning, behavior becomes simply automatic. The media is equivalent to Pavlov's cheese, and the viewer, the mammal that moves endlessly through the maze to get to it. The spirit is trapped like an animal, while the soul languishes. The quiet desperation stems from an interior void generally reflexively filled with all manner of stuff or drugs or alcohol or diversions! Result: a population that disowns any capacity to feel, and this empathy deficit in turn feeds the MIC beast.
Ray Berthiaume
So true. Notice how the religious programs have preachers speaking non-stop with organ music constantly playing. We are not being taught, we are being caught.
try 30 years sioux rose............
life's even better.....................
You are absolutely right Sioux Rose.
Having a million disconnected facts thrown into the human brain is like poison.
Wisdom is not about filling your mind with one meaningless and out of context bit of information after another. I think this also contributes to memory problems - like you say the mind needs healthy exercize! Understanding the world requires processing information with deep thought and quiet reflection. I dropped-kicked the TV to the curb over a decade ago and never looked back! Now when I am in the same room with a TV - I feel sick. I won't sit in a medical office that has a TV blaring. I don't know how people can stand it. Television robs us of our minds and is soul loss as well.
There can be healthy TV that puts forth good shows and healthier ones too. The problem is with most cable and satellite providers, you have to buy their filth and pay more for Level X package to get to them. The Internet too is filled with good and bad. I have kicked the TV habit too but would advise you to not take it too hard on yourself when you approach a TV addict even if it's someone dear to you. We need to spread forth good TV and reduced TV watching via socializing and getting out.
Sioux Rose
R.G. I agree with you entirely. I have been dealing with a dental problem and the TV is blasting when I enter the waiting room. They let me sit and read in a conference room. I am particularly appalled when these public TV rants come from Fox! I also HATE when a restaurant uses a radio (all those advertisements!) instead of a C.D/music. I have actually left restaurants due to that. If they can't figure out a way to create ambiance through sound, and instead force me to hear commercials, I am not interested in spending a dollar. I dated a successful restaurant owner many years ago in Puerto Rico and he really understood this. He always had on Steely Dan or Sade or something that really made you want to BE there. I have noticed the laziness of employees in places where they'd rather just have the radio on, instead of periodically changing the C.D. I visit a health food store and like to eat lunch there and one day I made a comment about not wanting to hear the radio. Of course I am often perceived as rude because I see what comes into my mind as an equivalent of what comes into my body, and where I can control that "food for thought," I exercise necessary discernment. The "average" person is entirely clueless or so used to being bombarded that noise is just a "natural" background to them. However, I think original thinkers are most bothered by this, as opposed to those accustomed to having other devices (or persons) do their thinking for them.
Years ago I had an appointment at a client's home and was going to prepare a taped astrological reading. I could SENSE something literally impeding my thought process and asked if he had left on a subliminal tape. He had, and this really impressed him. It makes me understand why dolphins and whales beach themselves... these creatures are so finely tuned to sound and vibration and whenever the military conducts one of its low decibel "tests" in THEIR home environment, it probably blows their sockets creating the equivalent of dolphin-torture tactics.
Sound is powerful. That's why movie sound tracks are so important, as the sound sets mood and impacts the emotions of the audience. Notice it's used to create sleep deprivation and drive people crazy at Quantanimo. If I had to listen to Fox for more than 5 minutes, I'd qualify that as torture.
I think we're a little more sensitive than most people. Many of them have been desensitized by constant distraction since childhood. There used to be a great pub in town that now has become a sports bar with 10 TVs and it's a real shame. I take my business eslewhere when this happens. I especially hate it when banks play the radio because it takes longer for me to do the math and all I want to do is get outta there. When they finally put us in prison camps - they will play Fox! (just kidding, I'm not that paranoid!)
PS: Thanks for telling us the name of your book in one of your posts here, I'm looking forward to it.
Sioux Rose
REVENGE GIRL: Thank you for your reply and interest.
I'm working on eight years now without mine. Don't even have one in the house. Don't miss it.
Sold mine last year after it collected dust for five.
I recently decided to discontinue my cable TV service. Now I have noticed that my converter box makes a high-pitched noise and I am just not sure my having digital TV reception is worth disturbung the dogs in the neighborhood. Already, I am doing more reading than I have in years.
Oregoncharles
You can rent The Simpsons on video!
madpeasant, you are correct - it is 1984. Everywhere you go there are tv screens in Our faces and cameras surveilling Us.
Mr. Nader you are a great example of a public lawyer. You continue to say and do what is good for this nation.
I am proud to have given money to your campaign.
Mr. Nader,
Your attack should be directed at the few progressive voices on radio and t.v. who do not support re-instatement of a new and improved fairness doctrine or who refuse to talk about it.
I speak of Thom Hartmann, Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann and Rachael Maddow.
How can we ever take back our airwaves if our loudest voices don't even support it or care enough to mention it?
They should be advocating a 1-2 punch of a new and improved Fairness Doctrine and breaking up of the media monopolies.
There will be no taking back of our country without first reclaiming our media. It will not, it cannot happen.
We'll have more unnecessary wars, trillion dollar bailouts and breaches of the constitution because the public is being skillfully and intentionally misinformed, disinformed and underinformed.
Control of the media is the most powerful weapon the fascists have. Without it, they'd be dust. And they know it.
Whoever controls the media controls the country. Period.
Sincerely, CX-1
Cygnus-...
Very well said. The irony is that while there are many more selections and choices that are now available on satellite and cable those choices are the equivalent of junk food-empty calories. It seems as if at least once a week if not once a day one can see the movies Die Hard and their sequels along with Alien and its mutations grace the screen. On the weekend a program entitled Bridezilla, which seems aimed at those who are masochists, comes on the airwaves in order to satisfy their desire to see who behaves the most outrageously and gets humiliated the most, the expectant bride or the groom. There is even a Military channel with the intent of glorifying the war machine. In the beginning it was the fear of a communist hiding under the bed of every American. That now has been replaced by the propaganda embraced by so many Americans and endorsed by the media that a terrorist [foreign and from the Middle East, of course] is ready to do harm to every man, woman and child living in the United States.
Susan Jacoby explores how television has made mush of peoples' brains in her excellent book The Age of American Unreason. With Americans becoming increasingly reliant upon television for their entertainment and news, it is little wonder that the dumbing down of America continues anew with little signs of abatement on the horizon.
"There is even a Military channel with the intent of glorifying the war machine."
Do they even NEED a military channel, when the "news" and the rest of the crap on the boob tube does such a good job of glorifying the war machine?
Sioux Rose
CYGNUS: Absolutely spot-on!
Television is nearly as dead as AM radio. Thinking people no longer depend on either for anything serious. I repaired TV sets starting in 1963 and ending, more or less, last year. I stopped watching TV in 1974. The startling change during this period was in the customer base. In the beginning, TV viewers were mainstream. No more. Other than hotel owners, who must provide idiot boxes for the gas-head (fossil fuel wasting) tourists, TV owners have gotten stupider and less sophisticated, partially because the cost of TV sets dropped dramatically, but mostly because addictively watching the crap really destroys the brain. Now they are the dregs of humanity. They are the Fox believing, lock-step, corporation and wealth worshiping greed-heads that jealously run our non-sustainable system for the benefit of the super wealthy. They are the economic self-defeating voting, hate-filled commercial media programmed conservatives. I think it is a good sign that the real mainstream medium, the internet, is now where truly mainstream folks communicate. We have become used to two way interchanges and time shifting. Let old, user unfriendly, unidirectional TV and AM radio die, and FM become a music medium. The public has evolved beyond them. The old media and its quaint audience have not been selected for continuation.
Ihe internet, whose users are skewed toward the upper middle class and rich, is a NO substitute for broadcast and broadsheet media. All the internet has done is isolate and scatter dissent into a multitude of little self-selected, choir preaching, soundproof rooms like this one.
The extreme-advocate of the military wing of neoliberalism, Army War College "scholar", Col. Ralph Peters. in his paper "Constant Conflict", praised this the internet - predicting it would have exactly this effect all the way back in 1997.
We need a strong broadcast media backed by a strong fairness doctrine, and a re- invigoration of the journalist ethic of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.
And your tangential remark about the poor being stupid was out of line - you should retract it.
Sioux Rose
ACEMOAB: Excellent analysis. I have one friend, she happens to be a Gemini (sign of the twins) and when I visit, she has not one but TWO TVS on. If I go outside (she lives in the woods) and do Yoga, and start to really open my senses and then enter her house, she thinks I am rude when I ask to turn down the volume on a T.V.
I have another friend who never does not have The Weather Channel on. I thought it would be funny to write a stage play where that element is the omnipresent prop ever establishing "background atmosphere."
My best friend in the Florida Keys has a four bedroom home and generally at least four TVS are on at any given time. (One is in the den.) There is a fish tank that has a loud motor, the AC has a very loud motor, and her phone is always ringing, and/or the washing machine or dishwasher are always going. Her husband doesn't like the windows open so even in winter when it's sixty five degrees out at night, they keep the AC pumping.
My point is that I can't hang out with people into typical things like TV as numbing media, bars, macho sports, or right wing churches and therefore my circle of contacts compresses. Those people I can relate to (as noted above), are still addicted to TV, they all eat meat, they all drive SUVS, in short, they are spiritually more aware than most, but refuse to give up their habits. And I think this is largely due to the way television NORMALIZES these behaviors. Where is there any message for conservation or realizing that water is a SACRED resource? Even spirituality became abducted by what I term "Republican spirituality" as it pushed the agenda of prosperity, "you can have it all," as if under some new Calvinist resurrection. (The Calvinist belief being that if you are ostensibly successful, then God has blessed you. And therefore if you are struggling, you have angered "the big guy." Note how this belief negates any intelligent political connection between actual policies being enacted on the part of government and the fiscal fruits of one's personal experience. Nafta being a prime example.)
>>>Sioux Rose wrote: ...so even in winter when it's sixty five degrees out at night, they keep the AC pumping.
This is the kind of mindless behavior that really bothers me, and makes me wonder, what would it take for such folks to become more sensitive towards nature? Sorry to comment on your best friend :)
Sioux Rose
ALCYON: Since I rely on their generosity when I spend time in the Keys, I can't really say anything. When my friend leaves the water running I sometimes get up and shut it off and she finds this mildly insulting, but the shaman in me goes MAD when I see THAT particular sacred resource wasted. So many only consider the cost (their monthly bill) and water is still cheap in the U.S. However, as it becomes more difficult to obtain, persons will soon find that the dollar amount is meaningless if there's nothing on tap.
My grandson wanted to see a train so much and whenever I'd drive East about 30 miles to run necessary errands with him, I'd hope we'd see one. Seems they mostly come after 7 PM. Coal cart after coal cart, makes me think of the jazz musician John Coltraine... wonder if he made up that name coal-train style? In any case, if more people adjusted their thermostats or did without, the ecological footprint that America has CARVED out of the world would be less, and perhaps the rapid destabilization of climate would not be as terrifying as it it, or ought to be. Of course the right wing corporate think tanks are busy muddying the water to present their versions of "reasonable" doubt to cause the "jury" (public) to remain in a stalemate as precious time for remedial action is lost.
A lot of people I can relate to because at least they are open-minded about politics and spirituality are also too often ridiculously wasteful with all kinds of resources. It's painful to mention this... and painful not to. Truth is considered rude these days, too. We're all supposed to act like Prosac-robots regardless of the screams in our souls for the depraved actions taking place everywhere around us. Nature is MY home and I feel HER pain; but of course, it's not polite to speak of that. Just get in line and shut up or maybe some dossier will be made in your name and kept until needed...
Siouxrose, I've just started reading the book "Adapting to the End of Oil: Toward an Earth-Centered Spirituality" by Maynard Kaufman. In fact, I'm on Chapter II, which is "Cultural Roots of Our Denial of Limits", 'limits' here of course referring to limits on resources. Seeing how there's such a deep, historical basis to the current psyche (which has produced the current lifestyle and values), on the one hand it's disheartening. But on the other hand, seeing that despite this same cultural background there are voices all around calling for change, there's hope. BTW, I STILL love watching trains - maybe not coal trains, but trains in general. Compared to a highway full of cars and SUVs, trains somehow seem beautiful and majestic - it's probably my own kink :)
The barges that ply the three rivers where I live are even more energy efficient and majestic. But what are they nearly always carrying? Coal or oil. Not until you get most of the way down the Ohio do corn and wheat barges begin to outnumber them. Passenger riverboats are strictly for local entertainment.
Hey! Madpeasant stole my post! Seriously, I did the same, turned it off 2 years ago & still get it thrown in my face in public places. But it's less effective if you're not watching it. MP, did you notice a gradual change over the next few months as the toxic effects wore off? I notice now how people can't maintain a conversation, cutting off the other person, meandering on after they've made their point, etc. And, most important, simply echoing phrases they've been fed over and over, evidently thinking that they really thought of it themselves, less conversation than "cut and paste". [see Orwell, "Politics and the English Language"... also Huxley's "Brave New World"] TV puts your brain into a receptive "alpha wave" state... like a baby nursing. 75% of it is produced by America's 100 biggest corporations. Read Neal Postman's classic "Amusing ourselves to Death". Some good commentary on youtube also.
Sioux Rose
RUDY: That's so true. I like the way you put it!
if i can parse ralph's piece in an indelicate manner to which he would never swoop:
television is shit personified
made of scabs and puss that as frank zappa opined "i'm the slime oozing out of your tv set"
tv is obnoxious, cheap, phony, disrespectful, misleading, mind numbing, boring, and so on.......
most of us agree on that, not exactly insightful on my part to point this out
the role of tv is to provide an illusory alternate take on the real wold and real world events
it keeps us from the truth and it keeps us from each other
numbs the soul
tries to make us accept a panorama of bullshit without questioning anything
tv's role in the build up to the bullshit war on "terror" was nothing less than a pr campaign
now that we are in the digital age we face an entirely new level of threat
digital boxes are perfect for broadcasting all kinds of frequencies - not all of them tv related
our controllers will be able to send in frequencies to you house that will affect your state of mind, your mood, your sense of self, and your anxiety levels
all of those frequencies required to do this are in the digital spectrum
they can zap you with these frequencies even when the tv is off
analog tv created a generation of automatons passively sitting on the couch and consuming shit 8 hours a day
digital tv will begin a new control phase of these automatons
dictating their wellness through frequency modulation
where will that leave us
who knows, we've never had that conversation
i.m with raplh
turn the fucking thing off
its not like you are going to miss much
Sioux Rose
MA G: Ten years ago a post like yours would have qualified as a case of paranoid Schizophrenia... but in this time period where the military (DARPA) is figuring out how to create insect robotic armies, and unmanned drones bomb villages as directed from kids with joysticks thousands of miles away, and tasers are used as a means of crowd control, and laws are retroactively altered to create legitimacy AFTER crimes are committed, what you say makes absolute sense! But I wish it was only the rantings of a paranoid mind. You gave me another reason to keep the TV disabled. Thanks (?)
Let's hear it for the paranoids!
Also, the constant switch from the program to the (dozen or so) ads correlates with the idea that workers and soldiers should "multi-task". In other words - be able to do ten things at once but not think about any of them very much.
"digital boxes are perfect for broadcasting all kinds of frequencies - not all of them tv related
our controllers will be able to send in frequencies to you house that will affect your state of mind, your mood, your sense of self, and your anxiety levels
all of those frequencies required to do this are in the digital spectrum
they can zap you with these frequencies even when the tv is off
analog tv created a generation of automatons passively sitting on the couch and consuming shit 8 hours a day
digital tv will begin a new control phase of these automatons
dictating their wellness through frequency modulation"
LOL! I agree that TV in general is a load of manure... but I think you can take the tin foil helmet off now. ;)
hey dolphin maybe you should get some sheet metal for your protective cap - thick heads need the extra coverage
meanwhile, here is the medical paper submitted to the president outlinging the health risks of digital tv rollout in germany, anther nwo bastion:
"The impact of mostly pulsed or ELF modulated RF radiation on cell metabolism, for example, counts among them. It has been observed that the efflux of certain ions (e.g. calcium) from a cell increases during exposure to such fields. The occurrence of this effect is described almost completely independent of the actual field strength. It can be found at extremely low absorption levels.…With all the currently available scientific findings, there remain some crucial questions unanswered. …There are gaps in the so‐called body of evidence. That means that the biological effects, for example, have only been investigated for individual frequencies. Data (e.g. effect thresholds) on the various biological effects across the entire frequency spectrum are not available.
The exposure limits, therefore, are based on an approach that greatly simplifies the very complex reality whose details are unfathomable. It should also be noted that concrete data on possible effects of long‐term exposures are mostly lacking.” Real life teaches us that it was wrong to simplify. In Germany, we see strong evidence of a direct temporal association between the start‐up of terrestrial digital broadcast television and the occurrence of severe health symptoms. Dr.‐Ing. W. Volkrodt, former R&D engineer at Siemens, recognized the danger of electromagnetic fields for humans, animals, and plants. He pinned his hopes on policymakers who would listen to reason when he wrote in 1987: “Future historians will refer to the RF dilemma during the period from around 1975 to 1990 as a short, time‐limited ‘technical incident.’ Owing to the introduction of fiber optic technology, this incident could be remediated quickly and effectively.“ Satellites and cable provide the US population with television services. By contrast, the risk associated with terrestrial digital broadcast television transmitters is unacceptable.
We, therefore, ask you, dear Mr. President, who has the wellbeing of his citizens at heart, to stop the scheduled introduction of this new technology in the United States of America and to save the people from the negative health consequences that have occurred in our country.
Dr. med. Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam
Dr. med. Christine Aschermann
Dr. med. Markus Kern
http://d.scribd.com/docs/1a34bitqwcergnuko29s.txt
Dr. med. Cornelia Waldmann‐Selsam
Founding Member of the Bamberg Appeal
Dr. med. Christine Aschermann
Neurologist‐Psychotherapy
Founding Member of the Freiburg Appeal
Dr. med. Markus Kern
Psychosomatic Medizin
Founding Member of the Physicians Appeal Allgäu‐Bodensee‐Oberschwaben"
gotta go now - i'm getting a signal in my tin foil cap.........
ma g,
That was a great! (Okay I had it coming for the tin cap jibe. Though I would make my helmet of composites instead of sheet metal. Much lighter to wear.) I read the entire document and it makes an interesting argument, but it is lacking on any hard data and they (the doctors who wrote this appeal)are the first to admit it.
In my time with broadcast equipment I haven't encountered any devices that "embed" mind controlling signals to control the masses. It's much easier to edit a commercial to accomplish the same thing. So relax, if you're watching it (or not), and you are not buying into everything that Billy Mays is trying to sell you, it won't control your life.
Have a nice day!
Hmmm, I like TV. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I learn, sometimes I'm reminded that there are people just like me out in the world. Most times I feel like doing something different, the choice is mine. I like having choice.
the illusion of choice is yours
you sound like someone who is completely deluded and taken in
remind yourself of this: tv exists not to show you interesting things in the world that may be of interest to you - oh no my happy with tv poster
tv exists to sell you overpriced and chemical laden toothpaste and shampoo and to always remind you your breath stinks
as chomsky says: the purpose of advertising is to confuse not make clear
you write: "sometimes I'm reminded that there are people just like me"
there are lots - too many i suspect
admit it, be honest for a moment: you watch tv because if you didn't you wouldn't know what the fuck to do with yourself
there are lots of you all out there
I think you and Ralph both watch too much TV.
TV is like a hammer. Please, don't blame the tool. Blame the elites. They command the tv programming, all the media content, the school curricula, the preacher's sermon. The film entertainment must send the message too, that we all need a 6000 sqft mansion for a "sharper image". Ultimately this is about an errant sector of society, the elites, not getting their comeuppance. They fail their obligations. They oppress the people, driven by evil impulse, and yet liberalism, the ideology of Saintly O'Bamba and his party has a motto: Live and let smash. And blame the tool.
"the illusion of choice is yours"
All choice is an illusion for that matter. We are born into certain boundaries established by our cultures. The choice is to make those boundaries work for you.
Like I told my autistic daughter when she was throwing a fit that a small toy was not doing what she wanted, and she was complaining it was making her mad- "It is an object, it is incapable of doing anything to you that you do not decide to do". I feel this way about my TV, I pay for it, I enjoy it, same as my books.
"you sound like someone who is completely deluded and taken in"
If you want to peg someone so quickly you know so little about, go ahead, doesn't bother me.
"remind yourself of this: tv exists not to show you interesting things in the world that may be of interest to you - oh no my happy with tv poster"
Hmmm, many things exist because they were invented for a specific purpose, even those to make a profit. It is merely a tool. Sometimes when I can't find a hammer, I pound a nail in with my shoe or a giant ratchet hanging out in my junk drawer. I didn't realize that there is some law that everything must be used for it's intended purpose. If there's one thing I've learned from that little autistic in my household, it's never to limit how I view anything in this world. It's all amazing, and it's always new, even TV.
"tv exists to sell you overpriced and chemical laden toothpaste and shampoo and to always remind you your breath stinks"
Thank goodness I'm self-aware enough to realize that, however TV has on occasion led me to a really great product, or new way of doing something. I won't make anyone very much money I am incredibly frugal, and my breath doesn't smell.
"as chomsky says: the purpose of advertising is to confuse not make clear"
I love advertising, it gives such an interesting window into the psyche of human beings, it has sparked much discussion in my household.
I wrote: "sometimes I'm reminded that there are people just like me"
"there are lots - too many i suspect"
I like even those, people are my hobby. TV gives me one more exposure to them.
"admit it, be honest for a moment: you watch tv because if you didn't you wouldn't know what the fuck to do with yourself"
Why so angry ? I have an autistic child (who by the way knows that when you use "Fuck" in a sentence out of anger it is an ugly word). TV has been a godsend as she needs to be exposed to as many social situations as she can, especially as an only child. I watch American Idol with my husband on cold MN winter nights because we are both passionate about music, and like the excuse to cuddle (Sometimes I even skip my folk-dance class to watch it). Friday nights when I'm at home with my child, and my husband works, I put away laundry and clean my room while I have a TLC marathon and time to myself. I look forward to it all week when I'm working at the hospital. I've got plenty to do with myself, TV is just an enjoyable sliver.
ma g -
Have we degenerated into such lazy creatures on the innurwebs that we don't use any caps or punctuation at all, not even for personal pronouns or proper names? Is it so hard to hit the 'period' key?
Hell, why bother to even separate your "sentences" or words with a space any more? whynotjustrunthemalltogetherlikethisandbereallykewl
?
Here's a good use for the word "fuck": lazy fucking moron.