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Addendum Issue 099

eZine's profile picture
Published in 
Addendum
 · 25 Apr 2019

  

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#99 : Monday 24 July 2003 : http://addendumtextfiles.org
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Television, By Steak
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We welcome you to this special channel forty-two exclusive Addendum
broadcast, brought to you (in part) by the people who deliver twenty-
four-hour-a-day entertainment and media information. Stay tuned for
this awe-inspiring action packed transmission of unbelievable clarity,
which promises to amuse with its fun-for-the-whole-family-to-watch
approach to modern day living and free-to-air distraction.

It’s a diversion from the world around you, a way for you to unwind
and escape from the trivial pursuits of what you pretend to do all
day. So shut off reality, ignore the screaming kids, divorce the
husband, put your feet up, grab the remote, press the button and let
yourself be completely engulfed by our all surrounding, all singing,
all dancing continual fantasy that we create here in our studios and
pipe, free of charge straight into your homes and brains through an
unintrusive cable plugged into your set.

And now a message from our sponsors:
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Walk into any household with children in any developed country at
quater to four on any weekday and I bet you any money that those
children will not be reading, playing, talking or otherwise expanding
their minds but will instead be sitting, open mouthed, doe-eyed,
staring blankly at a black plastic box emitting pictures and sounds,
emotion only registering and executing when it’s told to do so.

Imagine how many houses there are in your street, maybe ten to twenty?
Then imagine how many there are in your block, maybe fifty to a
hundred? Then in your suburb, maybe a thousand? Then in your city,
maybe a hundred thousand? Then imagine how many there are in your
country, and then add to that the rest of the developed world,
streets, blocks, suburbs, cities, states and countries all with
millions of households. In each and every one of these homes a perfect
clone of the situation I described above is being played out daily.

How did you feel when you missed that all-important show? I remember
when I used to miss shows I wanted to watch, I’d feel like shit, I’d
want to kick myself, I’d want to go back in time and press the record
button, I’d even consider phoning up the television station and asking
them if they perhaps had a spare copy of the show I missed on video
that I could borrow.

Doesn’t it ring true that perhaps this is just a little obsessive?
Doesn’t it seem that maybe some people are getting just a little bit
too much ‘into’ the television? It defiantly does to me; in fact I
would go as far to say that the world today depends on television to
relax in the same way that potheads depend on their drug to do the
same thing.

Television, on its arrival was hailed as an amazing entertainment
vehicle and a worthwhile medium to bring education to the masses. But
instead we have seen it completely commercialised and metamorphosed
beyond recognition into a decedent force that is evidently just
destroying our creativity, individualism and potential for artistic
expression and appreciation. If a program fails to entertain us for a
space longer than two minutes it’s declared ‘boring’ and ‘crap’ and is
usually cancelled. - It comes as no surprise that you never see films
like ‘2001 a space odyssey’ on the television, no one would bother to
stick around until the end.

But I’m no Luddite. I’ve watched my fair share of television in my
lifetime so I’m not innocent. However during the last few years I have
managed to block out television from my life completely. It’s so easy;
just force yourself not to watch it for a month, don’t even record
your ‘favourite’ shows and I promise you before you know it you won’t
even remember what it was you used to see in that box.

Don’t get bored, force yourself to do other things, take up a hobby,
read a book, I know it sounds so unappealing to work your ass off to
find something your interested in when you can just flick that switch
and let the box put in the effort for you, but trust me it’s so much
more fulfilling when you exert the energy yourself.

You can quite easily watch movies from the video store, cinema is an
art form and one that has just as much creativity involved in it as
any painting or prose. Also with cinema what you watch is based less
on how many S.U.V’s and crappy computers are going to be ultimately
traded for your hard earned dollars.

Imagine how much advertising you are seeing in every single day, how
many companies are being given the chance to mentally control you and
subliminally brainwash you into choosing their products over another
(possibly more deserving) company.

Bigger corporations with bigger advertising budgets are pushing the
smaller companies out of the market place, the reason we have the
bigger companies holding the monopolies these days is because these
are the companies that can afford to advertise on television.

Lets just take Safeway as an example, not for any reason other than
it’s the first company that comes to mind (the door swings both ways
suckers). Why is it that most people choose to shop there as apposed
to other stores? I’ll tell you why; it’s because of their image as a
no-nonsense, clean, friendly supermarket. This image hasn’t been
earned; it’s been manufactured, by a team of pencil-neck-fat-cats
sitting around a big brown table that costs more than the computer I’m
writing this on.

I know your thinking "but I don’t watch the ads, I only watch the
programs" But I know people who say that, and I watch them staring
blankly at the advertisements the same way they do the television
programs. They know it’s a commercial, they know they are being
subjected to a torrent of jingles and slogans but they are so
frightened of missing even the first five minutes of their show that
they don’t want to risk turning off the ads or even muting the sound.

Because of all of this, because of all these advertisements and candy-
pop media floating around the households of the world, children as
young as two are developing a brand loyalty. That’s sick, fucking
sick.

So the question is whose fault is it that this problem is destroying
the minds and spirits of not only our children but also the population
as a whole? It’s easy to blame the big corporations, the advertisers,
the fat cats, commercialism or just capitalism as a whole; they are
big, inhuman, and faceless. They are the standard easy target and the
standard scapegoat for most things these days, and although they are
beyond help, beyond salvation and will most surely be the first up
against the wall when the revolution comes, screaming at them until we
are blue in the face will not help in the slightest, they are doing
what they do best, finding a niche and exploiting it.

You see they are just taking advantage of something we are giving
them, exactly what they want - our undivided attention. The only way
we are ever going to show them that we are better than that and that
the human spirit for fun and adventure will always prevail over apathy
and laziness is to turn off our TVs and show them that we have other
things to do than be inundated with mindless crap.

If after all that you still want the mindless crap, or argue that the
crap they provide you with isn’t even mindless then perhaps you to are
too far beyond help. I am holding up a mirror pointed at your lives
and saying ‘look at this, it’s wrong, here’s the way out’ whether or
not you take my advice is up to you.

Next time when your thinking about pushing that big friendly button
marked ‘power’ think to yourself ‘isn’t there something more
worthwhile I could be doing with my time?’ If there isn’t then you
have a problem, and I think you should devote some time to fixing it.

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Disclamer -
This content of this issue of Addendum is copyrighted the respective
author whose name or handle should appear at the top of this page.
You may copy this textfile but please keep it in its original
configuration. Please note that the views expressed in this piece do
not necessarily reflect the views of addendum as a whole. Thankyou.
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