You may think there is, but ask yourself this: do you have access to the most potent communication tool of our age -- television? When we're forbidden public discourse via our own airwaves, it's time to rethink the contracts that comprise our society.
Upon signing the Magna Carta in 1215, King John rolled on the ground in a rage and chewed bits of wood. What will Ted Turner do when it's his turn?
Night after night, we sit for long hours in dark rooms. Identical images flow into our brains, homogenizing our perspectives, knowledge, tastes, desires. We spend more hours watching nature shows than experiencing the real thing; more time laughing at TV jokes than making jokes ourselves; more time experiencing TV sex than actually touching another human body. If we forego the role of participant in the real world, we become spectators in the flickering world of make-believe.
Twenty years ago the environmental movement shocked the world into realizing that our natural environment was dying. Now, our mental environment is similarly endangered: Micro-jolts of mind pollution flood into our brains at the rate of 3,000 marketing messages per day -- twelve billion display ads, three million radio ads and over 300,000 TV commercials are dumped into our collective unconscious like toxic sludge. Our attention spans are diminishing, our imaginations giving out, we are unable to remember the past.
TV Turnoff Week is April 24-30. It is a collective attempt to save our most precious resource: the clarity of our own minds. Why not rebel against the brain-drain? Why not unplug the box for a week? Drop us a line and let us know how it enriched (or impoverished?) your life.
I can also email you the file upon request.
They're great to put up anywhere (especially on your tv).
When we start spending time and energy on relationships with the people around us, instead of isolating ourselves from them, only then will we start to evolve into a functioning society.
Spread the word!
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