Addendum Issue 099

eZine lover (@eZine)

Published in 

Addendum

 · 5 years ago

  

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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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