Back at the beginning of time there were two; Adam and
Eve.
The story goes (obviously written
down by a man) like this: Eve was beguiled by a beautiful snake. The creature glistened in the sun light, slithered
sensuously around her and hissed its message in her ear.
“Eat of the Tree of Life and you shall know the truth. You will have the knowledge of good and evil,
you will know all the things that God does not want you to know. Eat….eat,” the snake whispered.
Now Eve, being the curious creature she was designed to be,
is reported to have fallen for this. I have a suspicion she may have been the worlds first blonde. Anyway, she ate the apple and the veil of innocence fell from her eyes. Realizing she was completely naked, and not
in the best shape, she grabbed some leaves and strategically placed them for
cover. Then she set out to find her mate…..and
you know the rest of that story.
Last night I sat watching the news. It's something I do infrequently
because, no matter what channel I watch, I am aware it is biased and self-serving
to the ownership. The truth is there is very little
truth in news….get over it.
Sitting there I had an epiphany; TV is the modern day version of that
snake in the Garden of Eden. 'Eat from
this fruit and you will know the truth'.
The unblinking eye is jam packed with all the things a kind and caring
deity would not want you subjected to.
Not because you should live in ignorance, but because some things are
just better left alone or taken in very small doses.
Each broadcast is a display case for human misery, ignorance
and insanity. The formula is simple. Lead
with the bloodiest, follow up with the saddest, end with a chuckle about
the local sports team. It is predictable,
insensitive and lucrative. How many
times do we need to see a microphone shoved into the face of a grieving parent
or a hurricane survivor?
The coverage of the latest mass murder has raised the killer
to cult worship status. To fill airtime
this event will be broadcast year after year on the anniversary of the tragedy;
thus giving every nut-case a time frame to construct his/her own nightmare.
The worst thing that ever happened to television is the 24
hour news channel, because you have to fill 24 hours with something. Over and over the horror of these events is
driven home with the ratings jackhammer.
You’re probably thinking, “Yes, but if we didn’t know about
things like the tsunami how could we raise money for aid?” Good question…and my rebuttal is, “How much
money did you send to tsunami victims and how many hours, days, weeks of the
death and destruction and horror did you see?”
In truth I think watching hours and hours of this kind of coverage may
be making us immune to the pain and suffering of others. Perhaps it is easier to step around a
homeless beggar when you’ve seen a whole country suffering.
I am fully aware that I will sound out of touch to a lot of people. I'm not promoting ignorance, and I am aware people need to
know what is going on. But you must remember that television is a business. Because
networks are dedicated to winning ratings wars we must have enough common sense to turn it off at some point. I am
simply suggesting we should all be as particular about what we watch (and how much we watch) on
television as we are about anything else that takes up time in our lives.
We can dress it up and call it anything we want but the
truth is at best every sitcom, every news cast and every talk show is simply
an advertising delivery system. The
programming is ‘flavoring’ to make the message go down more easily. Since human beings realized the crowd would
throw coins at dancers in the town square, or hand pennies to the town crier,
money has been the motivating factor in entertainment and news.
Do not be beguiled by the snake…
Life is Good
Life is Good
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