"The closest analogy to TV is Heroin"

I am watching the first Formula 1 qualifying session of this season. Other than that I refuse to watch television; I hate "teevee" with a vengeance. Unfortunately, the F1 races are shown on ITV which is commercial and thus full of adverts.

I'm listening to the advertisements that split up the programme with a mixture of impatience and mirth. The world is rapidly headed up shit creek and huge amounts of creative effort are spent to market razor blades that do exactly the same as they did 50 years ago..."triple blades for the closest shave ever"...erm hello...isn't this a tad pointless? I remember when twin blade razors came out...now we have three...WOW! No doubt we'll eventually get to thirty blade razors in the search for an even closer shave. I can't wait...I spend soooo much time choosing razor blades...sigh.

This is typical of the shit that bombards people for several hours a day. If one looks at teevee ads critically it is frightening to see what they are peddling...lifestyles rather than products...imagery rather than substance. Here we have a captive audience being fed a manufactured lifestyle..."this is you and by buying the product you will reinforce this persona". Ever notice how certain products are sold using particular accents to reinforce the message? Power tools are sold using regional accents; fancy cars with a sexually charged, and sophisticated, female voiceover. And don't get me started on washing powder ads...or brown fizzy drinks...or breakfast cereals...or shitty soap operas...or gormless game shows...or MTV...you probably get the picture.

It's even more worrying when one considers this...

"Most unsettling of all is this: We are confronted with an addictive and all-pervasive drug that delivers an experience whose message is whatever those who deal the drug wish it to be. The content of television is not a (mystical or imaginary) vision but a manufactured data stream that can be sanitized to 'protect' or impose cultural values. Could anything provide a more fertile ground for fostering fascism and totalitarianism than this?...no drug in history has so quickly or completely isolated the entire culture of its users from contact with reality. And no drug in history has so completely succeeded in remaking in its own image the values of the culture that it has infected... Television is by nature the dominator drug par excellence. Control of content, uniformity of content, repeatability of content make it inevitably a tool of coercion, brainwashing, and manipulation. Television induces a trance state in the viewer that is the necessary precondition for brainwashing... The closest analogy to TV is Heroin. It flattens the image… things are neither hot nor cold. The junkie looks out that the world, certain that nothing matters. It gives an illusion of knowing and control. Television allows the viewer to blot out the real world and enter a passive and pleasurable state…viewers routinely overestimate their control over watching… It weakens relationships by eliminating opportunities for communication."

Terence McKenna "Food of the Gods"

"Everybody’s got values... The thing that frightens me is the way that an eroding public school system . . . and television on all over the place is leading to a steady dumbing down of the American public and a corrosion of basic critical thinking in the population."

Jamie Raskin, law professor, November 2004 on Democracy Now!

I haven't watched much TV for the better part of the last ten years. It has replaced religion as "the opiate of the masses."

..... to his players. That thing will suck the brain right out of your head.

the most basic, basic channels. Where I live I can only get one channel decently with an antenna so I'm kinda stuck. Anyway, I feel kinda liberated and I don't miss all the channels I never watched. Now I spend that time reading, listening and playing music and generally making my time more benficial rather than channel surfing.

Now that Netflix et al allows people to bring feature movies into their own homes I know of individuals who are engaged in marathon movie watching on their home tvs. The addictive characteristics are there as far as I am concerned no matter what is on the screen: obsessive consumption of one movie to the next, the fixation and obvious pleasure from involvement with whatever is going on on screen etc., etc.

Whether people are watching tv programs or movies, the consequences alluded to by
Mckenna and Raskin are the same. The frightening part is that children are now the target of this addiction. The proud center of many homes today is the so-called "home theater" and families think nothing about siting aroiund for hours watching for the most part really stupid movies that are generally considered suitable for the younger set.

Ever tried to tear a teen away from their novel?
Obsessive consumption of one volume to the next, fixation and obvious pleasure from involvement with whatever is going on in them pages...

Watch out! DARE to keep your teens off books!
:tinfoilhat:

Arguments for the Elimination of Television" by Jerry Mander. It's available on Amazon, and probably in bookstores. It's at least 20 years old, but Mander is a former ad executive who lays out the whole deal with TV. Nails it completely. He saw this all coming -- the dumbing-down, the inability to reason, the short attention spans, all of it. A very prescient book.

Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, the Drug of the nation (1991?)

one nation
under God
has turned into
one nation under the influence
of one drug


Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(2x)

T.V., it
satellite links
our United States of Unconsciousness
Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive
The methadone metronome pumping out
150 channels 24 hours a day
you can flip through all of them
and still there's nothing worth watching
T.V. is the reason why less than 10 per cent of our
Nation reads books daily
Why most people think Central Amerika
means Kansas
Socialism means unamerican
and Apartheid is a new headache remedy
absorbed in it's world it's so hard to find us
It shapes our mind the most
maybe the mother of our Nation
should remind us
that we're sitting too close to...


Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(2x)

T.V. is
the stomping ground for political candidates
Where bears in the woods
are chased by Grecian Formula'd
bald eagles
T.V. is mechanized politic's
remote control over the masses
co-sponsored by environmentally safe gases
watch for the PBS special
It's the perpetuation of the two party system
where image takes precedence over wisdom
Where sound bite politics are served to
the fastfood culture
Where straight teeth in your mouth
are more important than the words
that come out of it
Race baiting is the way to get selected
Willie Horton or
Will he not get elected on...


Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(2x)

T.V., is it the reflector or the director?
Does it imitate us
or do we imitate it
because a child watches 1500 murders before he's
twelve years old and we wonder why we've created
a Jason generation that learns to laugh
rather than to abhor the horror
T.V. is the place where
armchair generals and quarterbacks can
experience first hand
the excitement of warfare
as the theme song is sung in the background
Sugar sweet sitcoms
that leave us with a bad actor taste while
pop stars metamorphosize into soda pop stars
You saw the video
You heard the soundtrack
Well now go buy the soft drink
Well, the onla cola that I support
would be a union C.O.L.A.(Cost Of Living Allowance)
On television


Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(2x)

Back again, "New and improved"
We return to our irregularly programmed schedule
hidden cleverly between heavy breasted
beer and car commercials
CNNESPNABCTNT but mostly B.S.
Where oxymoronic language like
"virtually spotless", "fresh frozen"
"light yet filling" and "military intelligence"
have become standard
T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined
like "recession" to "necessary downturn"
"Crude oil" on a beach to "mousse"
"Civilian death" to "collateral damages"
and being killed by your own Army
is now called "friendly fire"
T.V. is the place where the pursuit
of happiness has become the pursuit of
trivia
Where toothpaste and cars have become
sex objects
Where imagination is sucked out of children
by a cathode ray nipple
T.V. is the only wet nurse
that would create a cripple


Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(4x)

http://www.samulilintula.net/netti/tv.html

I agree 100%, since I stopped watching 2 years ago, I've noticed that my thinking processes are much purer,an increased attention span and anability to carry on real conversations with people, among other things.

Like the original poster, when I do watch football games, I find myself enthralled by the commercials. Which is ironic, if the advertisers knew that watching less TV makes one pay more attention to the ads.....I find it interesting how our culture becomes defined by the idiot box.

If Americans would put down the remote control and stay out of drive-thrus, our society would improve.

Television is very soothing. It makes you think you're connected to the great big exciting world, that you're part of it, that you matter.

But it's an illusion. You forget about your loneliness and your meaninglessness for a while, but they're still there. Plus it teaches terrible values and a disregard for history and logic. I LOVE many television programs, but I haven't watched TV for a decade or more now -- I just hate the medium.

I think the screen in an of itself is part of the problem too: the flickering does something to your brain activity. Computer screens do it too -- I say this an internet addict (but this thread is making me think about going on the wagon again...).

I think of the tv more as the delivery system and the shows as the drug. All drugs have delivery systems. With nicotine, the delivery systems are: the patch, gum, chewing tobacco or smokes. With heroin, there powder, snortable types, pills, and the liquid injectable form.

Mood altering drugs have similiar effects on the brain as do televison shows & commercials: A decrease in brain wave activity, a slowing down of synapse frequencies & suppressed cognitive skills.

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. (quote from JohnyCanuck's post)

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.

That statement resonated with me because on the day of 9/11 and in the days following when I saw how on just about every major network channel they kept showing the collapse of the towers over and over again interspersed with an incessant chatter by the talking heads about Osama and Al Quaida the thought that came to my mind was not, "What a bunch of evil doers these terrorists are!" but rather, "This seems like some type of Orwellian mind control exercises. They almost seem to be using the repeated showing of the WTC buildings collapsing as some type of tool to mentally break down the viewers' sense of security and safety."

From TV and the hive mind:
It was the night before Halloween, 1938. At 8 p.m. CST, the Mercury Radio on the Air began broadcasting Orson Welles' radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds. As is now well known, the story was presented as if it were breaking news, with bulletins so realistic that an estimated one million people believed the world was actually under attack by Martians. Of that number, thousands succumbed to outright panic, not waiting to hear Welles' explanation at the end of the program that it had all been a Halloween prank, but fleeing into the night to escape the alien invaders.

Later, psychologist Hadley Cantril conducted a study of the effects of the broadcast and published his findings in a book, The Invasion from Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic. This study explored the power of broadcast media, particularly as it relates to the suggestibility of human beings under the influence of fear. Cantril was affiliated with Princeton University's Radio Research Project, which was funded in 1937 by the Rockefeller Foundation. Also affiliated with the Project was Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member and Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) executive Frank Stanton, whose network had broadcast the program. Stanton would later go on to head the news division of CBS, and in time would become president of the network, as well as chairman of the board of the RAND Corporation, the influential think tank which has done groundbreaking research on, among other things, mass brainwashing. (emphasis mine /jc)

www.mackwhite.com/tv.html

From Brainwashing America by Dr. Norman Livergood:

Americans are being brainwashed to ask only the questions the Bushites allow and they are programmed to see everything the Bush junta does as unquestionably correct. The brainwashing has gone so far that Americans no longer see what has happened to our country.


Personality Profiling and Simulation


In an earlier article, I reviewed the varied aspects of personality profiling and simulation. While serving as Head of the Artificial Intelligence Department at the U.S. Army War College, 1993-1995, I conducted studies on profiling, psychological programming, and brainwashing. I explored and developed personality simulation systems, an advanced technology used in military war games, FBI profiling, political campaigning, and advertising. Part of my discovery was that:

* unenlightened human minds are combinations of infantile beliefs and emotional patterns

* these patterns can be simulated in profiling systems

* these profiling systems can be used to program and control people

Personality simulation systems are being used to create political campaigns that apply voter profiles to control their voting behavior. TV commercials and programs use personality simulation to profile viewers to control their purchasing and viewing behaviors. And sophisticated propaganda and brainwashing techniques are being used by the Bush junta to keep American citizens under control.

www.new-enlightenment.com/brainwash1.htm

nt

That's right. You can do it.
People will want to share the latest things they've seen on the box and you can say "I don't have TV.
Instead you can speak to people you like.
Learn to whittle.
Play the saxophone.
Of course there's lots and lots of books,
and ways to serve the tribe.
We unplugged 10 or so years ago and survive elegantly, thankyou.

If people arent taught to think critically, they will succumb to any form of control. People were easy to control long before television.

I watch alot of television, its not evil. Its a bunch of people making shows, and yes, it does everything you mention, but that isnt the problem. The problem is the structure of society. The problem is that we have winners and losers, have's and have nots. The problem isnt television its that powerful people and organizations own television just like they own almost everything else.

This particular technology is not, in my opinion, inherently a problem, I think that the problem is that we still live in a horiffically unjust society because we have persisting class and power structures.

If TV is truly that addictive then how were you able to turn it off after Montoya's lap?

In the same way that slowly nursing a well-brewed beer or sipping a fine wine can enrich one's life and benefit one's health, watching quality TV in moderation can be a good thing. Am I really rotting my mind if I sit on the couch and watch a "Frontline" documentary on PBS? I'm too poor to fly to Melbourne, so like you, the only way I can catch the grand prix is to watch it on TV. It's an amazing spectacle and despite the obnoxious ads, I'm glad I can watch it.

On the other hand watching shit TV for hours on end is like drinking crappy beer or cheap booze to the point of blacking out. It is anti-social and does numb the mind. But like alcohol and unlike heroin, there is nothing inherent in the medium of television that requires this sort of destructive overconsumption. The viewer can make the simple decision to turn the damn thing off.

it's what you choose to watch that's the problem. Maybe it's easier to say where I live (Melbourne) because we've got two publically funded brodcasters that generally do a pretty good job of providing intelligent news/drama/current affairs and comedy that isn't 100% ratings driven.

I honestly don't think the general IQ of the populace would rise if TV were suddenly banished, there's always another way for those who benefit from it, spreading propaganda

BTW - I would have gladly swapped houses with any US formula one fans this weekend!

Even before that November, I kept turning the thing off because everytime I saw *'s face I'd start swearing and throwing things. It just wasn't healthy for me or small objects. TV programming was getting increasingly unwatchable for me anyway.

Now I live more in cyberspace than TVland. Isn't it also a 'reality bubble'? Most assuredly but at least it is not YET completely controlled by the two fists of fascism: corporatism and federalism.

When this is gone, what shall we do?



typo

I feel so much better since I started turning off the mind-sucking box in my family room (especially Fox News and CNN) and instead spend my time on the DU....

The DU has saved me....but, like any "addiction", I need to watch that one too....My husband has gotten frustrated with me at times seeing me typing away furiously on the keyboard as I post something on the DU...I guess if he tried DU, he'd understand... :hi:

channels have a pretty interesting movie selection. We record them with our digital cable box and watch them when we want. Last year we subscribed to hockey (so much for that).

I canceled my basic cable last year and don't miss it one bit. I just don't have the patience for television anymore; the vast majority of programming is simply far too inane. I have Netflix now, and one movie a day is more than enough.

One problem for the television free, though-there's very few of us. Once the glass teat is removed, one begins to feel isolated from the rest of society. Most people have little use for conversation anymore, and often what they do converse about is what they watched on TV last night. I can't count the number of times I've phoned friends or family members and been asked "can I call you tomorrow? My show is about to come on". It's damned depressing sometimes.

:kick:

Are you unhappy? Has the life you've bought into suddenly feel vacuous? Is their a swelling malaise growing in your unexamined life? Do you ever feel like there is something just below the surface of your existance that's telling you that something is just not right? Have you ever thought that there might be a universal moral sensibility in all humans that senses and rejects things which they know to be wrong and when left to fester, will manifest itself in desparate, irrational behaviour such as conspicuous consumption?

No? FANTASTIC! Then you should buy our new and improved shiny piece of shit which is sure to satiate your desire to feel like a person of worth and value who belongs to a community of people just as fuct up and unimaginative as you!

ok, I admit it. I am an unimaginative bastard, who rarely watches TV, since I ripped this off from a poster on another board. But, it is damn funny :)