Something to keep in mind. Very well said. > > > > > "So, you listen to me! Listen to me! Television is not the > truth. Television is a god-damned amusement park. Television > is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, story > tellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion > tamers and football players. We're in the boredom-killing > business. So if you want the truth, go to your God, go to your > gurus, go to yourselves because that's the only place > you're ever gonna find any real truth. But man, you're never > gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want > to hear. We lie like hell! We'll tell you that Kojack > always gets the killer, and nobody ever gets cancer in Archie > Bunker's house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is > in, don't worry. Just look at your watch - at the end of the hour, > he's gonna win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We > deal in illusions, man. None of it is true! But you people sit there > day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds - we're all > you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning > here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that > your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You > dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children > like the tube. You even think like the tube. This is mass madness. > You maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing. We > are the illusion. " > > "So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off > right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in > the middle of this sentence I am speaking to you now. > Turn them off!"

-- justme (justme@justme.net), October 20, 1999

Answers

get a life>> get a life >> get a fucking life

-- D E F (eattherich@mailcity.com), October 20, 1999.

Strangely put, but essentially good advice. In my house, the toob is a news and weather tool. And the news is believed less every day. The weather is beginning to be suspect as well.

Our kids are limited to 1 hour a week, our choice, not theirs. Since doing that, they've lifted their grades 2 letters.

MFU

-- Man From Uncle 1999 (mfu1999@hotmail.com), October 20, 1999.

Never in my life have I thought of Television as real life. Never. Not even when I was watching cartoons and they had the cool toy commercials on...! I knew the toys would never perform the way they showed them. I guess I was born a skeptic, married an even bigger skeptic and we pretty much question everything.

The most damaging part of Televison is not the entertainment, but the news. Has anyone read Neil Postmans "Amusing Ourselves To Death?" Great book on television. Well worth the read.

But please, don't take away the nightly sitcoms, at the end of the day, I really need to veg out and just laugh. (smile!)

-- mar (derigueur2@aol.com), October 20, 1999.

Some people are addicted to television.

Hard to believe but true.

-- no talking please (breadlines@soupkitchen.gov), October 20, 1999.

There are over 7,000 articles in the medical literature demonstrating a relationship between television viewing and impaired neurologic growth and development, and behavioral problems. That alone is enough to limit television viewing in our mudhut. As Jerry Mander, a former advertising executive, has ably showed in his book "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television," the very nature of the medium makes it a perfect indoctrination/propaganda tool in the hands of our Managers. They want us to be perfect consumers, and by and large we are. The government knows that information management is the MOST important ingredient in ruling the industrial democracies, and they play the game better than Goebbel's ever dreamed. "Get a life? Get real?" Most people spend most of their free time watching illusions on TV and the movies: they are the ones who should 'get real.' "Life is short--watch TV" was a recent ABC ad theme: I can't imagine a more twisted message to send over the 'public airwaves.' Teach your children well: When the TV is on your brain is OFF.

-- Spidey (in@jam.wonderland), October 20, 1999.

God's last name is not damn.

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), October 20, 1999.

Hey, I just saw an advertisement for the Bill Cosby show on CBS for tonight. Bill Cosby's family says the Lights will go out for Y2K and Bill Cosby says they won't. Is CBS controlled by our lovely govt? Humm...

-- Debi (LongTimeLurker@shy.com), October 20, 1999.