[TheForge] [YAK] TV (Was: Shortcut Sword?)(OT)

[Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer]

I once pitched a TV down a flight of steps into the back yard  when it 
had lied to me once too often. It was very satisfing!
We have a tube hooked up to the VCR now and use it once in a while. If 
the quality of the programming was better we might reconsider.
But I neither read nor wrote when the thing was hooked to an 
antenna...it sucked , attention.
If one were to build a machine to hypnotize folks into buying  politics 
and products...you know just what it would look like.
This silly damn puter burns up enough time as it is.......................PF

Mike Spencer wrote:

>>Seems to me that TV is simply another tool.  
>>    
>>
>
>Heh. In a manner of speaking.  Like a can opener is a tool.  But if
>can openers were like a TV, the norm would be that if you own a can
>opener, canned beans, canned fruit, canned spaghetti, canned bread,
>canned milk etc. would all replace not only the un-canned varieties
>of those but most other food as well.
>
>Stop me if I've said this before... :-)
>
>We didn't have electricity until my kids were about 8 so the gift TV
>from the in-laws sat in the attic.  Then we got power and watched TV.
>I kvetched about it but I zombied, too.  To salve my conscience, I
>ranted about how destructive it was and tried to point out to the kids
>the ways in which the medium manipulates yr mind and creates a
>specious reality.
>
>When the boys were about 12, they dropped the TV down the stairs while
>we weren't at home and broke it.  After a hasty conference, they hit
>on a strategy.  When we came home, they announced that they had been
>thinking about my comments and had put it away in the attic.  It was
>several years later before there was something in the news (Reagan
>getting shot, maybe?) that merited digging out the TV and then the
>story came out.
>
>Just this year, my wife dragged home an "old" TV her (former) boss was
>disposing of.  (Hey, did you know you can have TV in *color* now?)  We
>use it once in a while to watch video tapes but otherwise it sits face
>to wall in a corner.  We go to the cinema to see a movie, then come
>home and rent the tape.  By plugging a set of computer speakers into
>the VCR, I can cuddle with my own personal speaker and can then hear
>the sound-track dialog that I missed in the cinema due to my hearing
>loss. (Um, right.  Wear those ear muffs during power hammering,
>recreational explosions, air and abrasive tool use etc.)
>
>- Mike
>
>  
>