I have now been without a TV for over three months. Freedom from slowness! I had forgotten at what a snail’s pace information is imparted by TV. A few seconds of reading provides as much information as a couple of minutes of TV “news”.
As a result of my detubification, I have been able to read voluminously, devouring almost the entirety of Washington Irving’s writings, among a lot of other things.
At first, I did miss it. Watching TV was like taking a vacation from thinking. The problem was, it kept me from getting the brain back to work. Now, with no TV, my mind feels like my body did soon after stopping smoking (for the fifth or sixth time) back in April.
On reflection, I understand that television is addictive on some sort of “wavelength level”. Our mind becomes , for all practical purposes, addicted to bright lights, pretty faces, impassioned speech, spinning logos, beautiful sets, taking a vicarious part in the conversations of others’, and getting to like the slow, ponderous rate at which meaningful information is broadcast. It’s so relaxing that most of us become too relaxed to wonder, “Is this really the best way to spend my time?”
It’s wonderful not having to hear so many lies and so many commercials. Most of the time, the commercials were more truthful than the “news”, which was usually devoted to alarming us with whatever imaginary problems were being pushed that day.
TV was lies, lies, lies, all day long. There were global warming lies, childhood obesity lies, ozone hole lies (yes, they were coming back!), running-out-of-water lies, island nations-about-to-be-washed-away-by-too-much-water lies, Moslems-are-our-friends lies, we-need-higher-taxes lies, and and endless number of “_____ is a danger to us all!” lies.”, each of which represented a considerable outlay of PR money on behalf of some very special interest.
Of all those and countless other lies, I’ve been spared by these few, happy months of detubification.
O, the joy!
