Mass Media Illusion
The people I know who are still sound asleep don't see anything going wrong. They are content and distracted, completely disconnected from the world that sustains them. They have no understanding of this. They think their state of disconnection is actually being connected. What are they connected to? The mass media.
Some folks sit in front of a television set for hours every day. They will turn on the TV in the morning and leave it on all day whether they're watching it or not. The TV is the last thing that gets turned off at night. When they do sit down to watch it, their favorite shows are interrupted every few minutes with groups of advertisements trying to sell products of every conceivable kind. The ads don't just play once but are shown over and over and over again. The constant interruptions are outrageous and insulting but they don't mind. They don't feel the insult of it and won't refuse to put up with it. They would never say "Enough is enough", pull the plug on the TV set and cancel the cable TV account. It would never occur to them to phone the cable company and say they are no longer willing to be abused and exploited by people who want their money and that they're closing their account and won't be back until the commercials are gone. They will probably never just walk away from it all and go do something else instead. No. For the rest of their lives and their children's lives they will sit in front of the TV set for hours each day and night and intake the commercials as if the commercials are a part of the show. As if commercials naturally belong there like unavoidable thorns on a long stemmed rose. As if commercials are a natural part of television. It's a trade off they have come to perceive as normal and expected. read on...
Some folks sit in front of a television set for hours every day. They will turn on the TV in the morning and leave it on all day whether they're watching it or not. The TV is the last thing that gets turned off at night. When they do sit down to watch it, their favorite shows are interrupted every few minutes with groups of advertisements trying to sell products of every conceivable kind. The ads don't just play once but are shown over and over and over again. The constant interruptions are outrageous and insulting but they don't mind. They don't feel the insult of it and won't refuse to put up with it. They would never say "Enough is enough", pull the plug on the TV set and cancel the cable TV account. It would never occur to them to phone the cable company and say they are no longer willing to be abused and exploited by people who want their money and that they're closing their account and won't be back until the commercials are gone. They will probably never just walk away from it all and go do something else instead. No. For the rest of their lives and their children's lives they will sit in front of the TV set for hours each day and night and intake the commercials as if the commercials are a part of the show. As if commercials naturally belong there like unavoidable thorns on a long stemmed rose. As if commercials are a natural part of television. It's a trade off they have come to perceive as normal and expected. read on...
No comments:
Post a Comment