Just one question. Is that high horse comfortable at all?
First off, Irene, don't be shy because you're a newbie. I'm not challenging you personally, I just like a good discussion.
Secondly, don't be afraid of me, simply because I have 'moderator' standing below my name. I won't bite - I'll just ban you.
So I hope you do not mind me going into this a bit further. I'll limit myself to responding to your claims.
Have you ever noticed nothing kills a conversation quicker than turning on a TV?
Don't blame TV for the fact that you don't have anything decent to talk about - the fact that it gets turned on means that someone was bored enough to turn it on. It's a button which
you push, not the TV itself.
You can't read when it's on
I can.
trying to have a conversation becomes pointless when it's on.
As I said above, the fact that it is turned on proves that, at that moment, there was nothing worth talking about. Here's an idea, watch the news, and talk about that.
Suddenly everyone within it's sphere of influence seems to go into a somnambulistic stupor.
Even the big words do not convince me. You control yourself, not that little black box with nice images on it. And the fact that you're focused on it does not necessarily have to be a bad thing - I mean, are you not focused, and closed off from the world, when you read a book? I am.
And while they sit there transfixed by the flickering images on the box, think of all they aren't doing.
Yeah, and you aren't cooking when you're driving, and you're not building schools in third world countries when you're having a $50,- lunch. So?
Think of what's not being produced, created, contemplated, imagined, dreamed, and realized because so many people are sitting on their sofas glued to the box.
So, when you are not watching TV, which you never do, because you intensely hate it, you are either producing, creating, contemplating, imagining, dreaming or realising? Really?
My second point, and then I'll stop, is who controls the flickering images -- the government and a handful of very powerful corporations.
I take it you never drink Coca-Cola or go to a McDonalds, you build your own fire to cook, you clean your clothes in the creek behind the house, you get your internet access for free from the local, friendly, internetseller, and not from a large ISP, you weave your own clothes .. I could go on.
That computer you're sitting behind, how much did that cost?
a society of mindless consumers buying what they tell them to buy, believing what they tell them to believe, and thinking what they tell them to think.
Oh come on?! Do you have so little confidence in the human race - are we really that stupid? I hope not.
And that was it, really. I rarely so radically disagree with someone, so, thanks for that, Irene!
Cheers, Martin
