Switch It Off And Switch On

Ever since I came to live in modern England, some thirty odd years ago, I have never owned a television. Of course, now with the internet, I can view programmes and news bulletins online, at any time. By not having a television, I am, as my friend Ahmed puts it, 'keeping the Devil out of the door.' Unfortunately, with the internet, I sometimes fear that he has slipped in through an open window.
So why not have a television?
Firstly, it corrupts social values;
On television, the implicit values in relationships between people are those of consumer and consumed. There is little social solidarity. The overwhelming concept of 'love' is romantic love, which is, in essence, a narcissistic self absorbing feeling - no more. Love is degraded.
Secondly, submission to power is presented as the natural and beneficial order of mankind. Natural authority, particularly in family and locality is presented as potentially, and   probably, abusive. Power is almost universally presented as good. Policemen are good. Ordinary folks are frequently stupid and bigoted, clearly in need of punishment or education.
Thirdly, television leads us to a passive and voyeuristic lifestyle. Instead of doing, we watch. It is very easy just to switch on and slob out at the end of a days drudgery, but television has to be seen as a mind bending drug - it may give temporary relief, but eventually it will destroy you.
Television is noisy and intrusive. It is anti social. The old community of family and neighbourhood are destroyed.
With a television in the house, understanding is no longer come to through thought and debate, but passively received, picked off the peg, manufactured by the elite. Values are not passed down through the generations.
By watching television you are allowing yourself to be controlled by the political and bureaucratic elite. You are allowing yourself and your children to be destroyed by slave values, by images of the world as a sordid struggle for domination and consumption, of violence, not strength, of sex, not love, of pleasure, not beauty, of passivity, not full throttle living.
So, switch it off, and switch on!