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To: letters@suntimes.com From: Scott Sinnock ssinnock@netzero.com Subject: "Other Views" by Frazier Moore, March 11, 2012, page 19A Frazier Moore seems to believe some people don't watch TV because, from an elitist perspective, they think it stupid, banal, and as Newton Minnow put it, a "'vast wasteland". That too, of course, but I don't watch much TV, not because it is stupid or beneath me, but because I think it far too manipulative. It shouts at me incessantly "Be Selfish, Buy Me!", then yells through unceasing moral vignettes of comedy, drama, news, and even ads, "Be Unselfish, Help you neighbor, pay your taxes, and think right". With a book, newspaper, or the internet I can set the offensive information aside for a minute, say to myself "Now, hold on, that's not true", then reread the offending remark, consult other sources, and digest the proffered morality, perhaps change my mind, perhaps confirm it; but not with TV, it just keeps shouting. I got tired of hearing rehearsed, pretty people yell at me all the time about how I should live my life, structure my morals, borrow money to contribute to the economy, love babies and ga ys, and hate Iran and the Taliban, among numerous other moral proscriptions. TV, it seems to me, is the perfect tool of Big Brother, a pulpit of communal morality immune from dialog with the viewer (except though sales statistics following an advertising campaign), a tool that controls access to public discourse, an Orwellian technology of incredible power. The idea that TV is a harmless, banal, simple entertainment device is Newspeak and Doublespeak (language techniques of thought manipulation in Orwell's 1984). I just don't give such power much access to my brain anymore, a brain much too important to leave to others to shape so effectively. Its not TV's banality, it's its power and my weakness to resist that scare me away. Scott Sinnock 205 West Todd Avenue, Apt 201 Woodstock, IL 60098 815.206.0634 ssinnock@netzero.com |