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The entire purpose of all of television was to seduce millions of eyeballs to watch the screen so that corporations could sell their goods. Nothing much has changed, except that the commercials now consume about 60% of programming time instead of 40%, and we have become so dimwitted and brain?dead that we?ve agreed to PAY for cable service and STILL watch commercials. In fact, on Super Bowl Sunday, millions of Americans tune in for the SOLE PURPOSE of watching commercials.
Winky Dink and You was the beginning of the brainwashing that has now achieved its purpose. The new Americans do not read, do not WANT to read, choose Presidents on likeability, respond to imperialist warmongering by slapping cute ribbon magnets on their cars, badger doctors into prescribing unneeded drugs because the commercials are so effective, buy SUVs no matter what the price of gas, happily allow government to dictate what they may watch, think, and do, permit two or three (eventually it will be one) global conglomerates to manufacture and sell all of our medicine, food, and entertainment, cheerfully reduce several thousand years of complex religious ideas to a Disney?esque cartoon version of Faith, wave bye?bye to art and music programs in schools, and excitedly tune in to watch buff, silicone?enhanced twits sabotage each other for prizes. Talent?deprived nincompoops evoke orgasmic screams on the red carpet. We become as mindlessly excited about choosing the next American Idol as we do about choosing a new Pope (and there is no longer much difference). We are, at last, the willing, thrilled slaves of the oligarchs, the brain?dead consumers of whatever They want to sell us. We torture ourselves with every new diet, gobble up every new recipe, and reduce the English language?once the glory of the world?to an average working vocabulary of about 300 words. We can express no ideas. We have no ideas.
Perhaps there is still hope for you, eh?
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(...)in 1953 (...) TV was available from about 6:00 AM to about 11:00 PM
That's kinda funny, over here, until the early to mid 70s, TV was available only from 6pm to midnight, and usually unavailable on weekends. The mentality back then was that kids are in school all day, then they get back and do homework, and go play with their friends outside... Adults are either working, or, if they are at their homes, they are usually doing something like cleaning or doing laundry or cooking and not actually wasting their mornings and afternoons on TV. There was no crude, toilet humor, no reality TV, no sex, almost no violence, the programs did not insult people's inteligence... I must say that people back then had a very good vocabulary, there were absolutely no cases of obese children (only if they were born that way), children read a LOT back then... We simply did not have TV in our culture! Cable TV was not available here until 1990, because the concept of paying to watch TV was absolutely ridiculous to us, no one wanted it. Yet, slowly, TV became a major part of our way of life... And I must say, suddenly a whole generation of IDIOTS who cannot think for themselves appeared. And still, when I mention "TV turnoff", people look at me as if I'm some sort of a nut, or some sort of communist liberal wacko...