On drive home from Philly and the hot disappointment that was Live8 I swore I would remove all of the big media crap in my life. As a first step I resolved to stop watching TV.
Ever since I can remember I have loved the machine called the television. I’ve been physically memorized, dare I say controlled by it for twenty plus years. In college I realized it wasn’t the CONTENT of the programming that compelled me to watch it but the cathode ray tube and its super fast flickering that held me. Persistence of Vision tricked my unconscious some how. Ever see the movie A Clockwork Orange? Remember that scene where Alex is forced to watch images with his eyelids forced open?
The machines the television and the film projector have influenced my creative life significantly. They have been the canvas of my moving paintings. But now the damage that big media has done to global culture is just too great for me to ignore. I can no longer consume them. I fear to use them as tools for art.
I will not support the massive, marketing, money making, media jugernaught that climbs on the backs of Africans to make a buck. They can claim all they want that Live8 was about stopping poverty in Africa, but in the end the rich just get richer off of the suffering of the poor. Now they don’t need to put the poor to work they just speak the names of those who suffer and money appears in the twenty first century robber barons bank accounts. Not to mention all the political power that is gained by a few media stars.
The withdrawal process is going to be hard for me. TVs are everywhere. In bars, in airports, in shopping centers, and on public streets. But I recognize this has to stop somewhere. If my brain’s power can’t be completely recovered from the effects of the TV maybe my future children will not be addicted at an early age. Live 8
Not having a TV helps. Though I just signed up for Netflix to take the edge off of being brand new in a new place. I’m not sure if I regret the decision already or not. I’ll be watching independent films, documentaries, and foreign flicks on my laptop for a while.
When I was 10, the family TV exploded as my father joked about the pope (so the family story goes), and for years after, our homes didn’t have a TV. Greatest decision my parents made, and one I wish I could make, though we don’t watch much of the tube here because Anna is always watching old episodes of Little House on the Prairie.