Break your T.V.!
posted by Edutainment | February 16, 2010
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IcerocketHas anyone ever done this? I never have but I've been really wanting to just freak out and just smash this thing lately. Like a sword pointing in every direction I've wanted to dismantle the infrastructure which poisons the mind space of every being who is in contact with it. I mean, commercials? Come on! I've had it! You can have your cognitive terrain predation! Phhht!
I've had enough and it's about time we do something about it. Can anyone give me one good reason not to throw my television out my window this very minute? Didn't think so. I'm even convinced at this point that there's not one good movie I could watch that could convince me otherwise. I mean I think I saw a Pepsi ad in Avatar. How is that even REAL!?
I dunno though, I'm thinking I'll just take a deep breath and sit on this before reacting to harshly. It's really been a while since I took a look at the source of these outbursts and really internalized them to the point that I understand fully why it is I'm so upset.
What if it's not my T.V. that I want to destroy? What if it's just that I'm feeling a huge amount of resentment for allowing myself to be so easily persuaded by these corporate elites? And instead of looking at that and seeing that maybe I'm just lashing out at myself for being so easily manipulated instead I'm just avoiding these emotions and falsely accusing someone else for my own short comings.
Nah... T.V. sucks and I'm just phishing for groks. Seriously, breaking that imagination killing piece of trash. Then recycle it so I don't feel bad suggesting you destroy something valuable... Whoops, there I go again.
Peace of us piece of me
Comments
My TV broke on it's own, I
— Feb 17, 2010
My TV broke on it's own, I do not even remember how many months ago...
I have not missed it one bit.
It amazes me how people, as broke as they are, still manage to pay for TV. Where I live if you don't pay for it you don't get anything off an antenna.
When I do see TV at a friend's house I feel so...assaulted by it. Not just insulting my intelligence, but assaulting my senses. It is almost painful. I have a two year and I am sooooooo happy that he does not get to watch all the nonsense. He has a TV in his room and he does watch DVDs, he loves Scooby-Doo. That is the only thing a TV is useful for are those educational DVDs and getting my hands free to prepare a meal or something.
I love life without the TV. Playing music is much better, we get to move to it.
sounds like a plan
— Feb 17, 2010
what is stopping you? no need for violence, just get rid of it
i was wandering around the Yucatan years ago and i was amazed at seeing concrete block huts with no glass in the windows with the blue glow of a tv flickering at night...
mine disappeared 6 years ago and did not return...
Pulling the plug on Big Brother
— Feb 18, 2010
My wife and I were watching less and less TV, so after talking with her about it, I called and canceled the cable subscription and kept the modem. Now we watch Netflix instant about 30 minutes every other day and the occasional DVD.
I feel so much better now!
not sure if this is
— Feb 18, 2010
not sure if this is pseudo-scientific nonsense, but it seems to make sense, albeit in a pretty simplistic way.
I read on an anti-tv website a while ago that because we sit still to watch tv, which - especially nowadays - involves high speed transitions between shots, and impressively realistic action sequences or violence, our 'lower brain', detecting no corresponding movements in the body, and not understanding as we do consciously that the images are not real, gets confused and starts to panic.
I do find that after watching tv, I feel less able to meditate, less calm, more irritable, and socially avoidant - so there could be some validity to this theory
Even if there isn't, i think you should destroy your tv in the most violent way possible. take a sledgehammer to it or something - or would this be dangerous? do they actually explode?
They don't violently
— Feb 18, 2010
They don't violently explode. There is a notable 'pop' with the breaking of a CRT and I think this is because there is a vacuum in CRT models...? If I were to smash a TV today I would wear eye protection for fear of glass.
I honestly didn't expect this blog, of the two that I posted, to be the most carefully observed and stimulate the most response.
This certainly reveals a bit of immaturity on my part as a writer/communicator.
Throughout my journey to find serenity in this mote of reality I inhabit I have found that contention with others is a necessary cognitive function. Yet I still feel awkward when consciously wielding it. When cleaving away at realities I vainly wish the situation could be less... What's the word? Ugly.
I'll make note that initiating a dialogue with conflict makes for a most stimulating and tractive co-respondance. That note, however, will likely comfort me no more than a doctor telling me how many 'months I have left', nor will it be anymore affective in 'moving the rabbit'. Sorry for the poetics, it's short hand and lazy, I know.
as good as it would feel...
— Feb 19, 2010
I can not recommend you break your television due to the many thing that go in to a television which are not good to come into contact with.. There is a lot of heavy meatles in there... plus the glass dust from smashing the screen is bad...
If you are it would be good to do it in a place where you can be sure everything can be cleaned up and I would wear a dusk mask... eye protection goes with out saying.
All that aside... I'm all for launching that evil little box into space or what ever.
KILL YOUR TV! Before it Kills YOU!
Pain pain pain
— Feb 19, 2010
I significantly reduced the amount of television I watched about two years ago, and then cut it out almost entirely a year or so ago -- occasionally I will watch 30 minutes of an interesting show on discovery/history/national geographic/travel channel etc., and just mute the commercials; for indeed, it is the commercials that are the most assaulting on the mind. My roommates watch more television than I believe is healthy, and just hearing the commercials from the other room totally alters my mood. And OH! If I catch any single bit of an advertisement jingle in my head later, consider my day ruined. I find it incredible that people can sit through five solid minutes of commercials without even diverting their eyes from the screen, it is ABSURD! Well, I am undoubtedly preaching to the choir here, so I will cut this rant short.
As far as whether or not to destroy your television, perhaps simply punching (not with your fist) a single hole through the screen and leaving it on the doorstep in front of your local news station with some type of 'victory flag' raising up from the screen-wound would send a message of sorts. I'm sure you could come up with a clever and/or accusatory note to include on the corpse of your fresh kill -- y'know, a "change your ways or we shall kill more of your messengers" type thing? :D
Peace!
Brainwashing
— Feb 19, 2010
It really is sad how easy it is to become transfixed, ESPECIALLY by commercials. I have found that the the subliminal brainwashing is not even limited to the television. I was camping in the woods with a large group of friends this past summer and we had the radio playing. There were many conversations taking place all around me about all sorts of "real" things such as art, music, children, etc. I wasn't feeling chatty and so I was letting my consciousness drift from one conversation to the next. After the commercial break had been playing for a minute or two, I suddenly realized that all of the conversations had changed. One group was talking about Target. Another was discussing Walmart. I don't think any of the participants were aware of what had happened. It was a seamless transition. It made me both sad and yet sickly impressed by how manipulative commercials had become. There didn't even need to be images present in order for this to happen.
It's not just television or even radio. It's billboards too. It's walking down the aisle in a supermarket and being eye-level with all of the products that are the worst possible things for you, while the "real" food is sitting on the periphery, lonely and forgotten.
Breaking our T.V.s is only a start. Break our easily manipulated minds and from them, hatch the ability to think for ourselves. To stop and ask, "Is this really what's best? Or am I just following along because it's easier?"
Watching T.V. is easy. Like microwave pizza.
Reading a book is healthy. Like a piece of fruit.
Break your brainwashing...and your T.V.
