Interesting Little Question

Got a letter with an interesting question in the mail yesterday. The Smithsonian, for some unfathomable reason, thought they would like to solicit my opinion (!!!) on any number of things, so to that end, the darlings sent me a questionaire. Most of it was forgettable, and I did not trouble myself to do anything beyond drop it in the circular file. But one query from it has been on my mind today: What is the most significant invention of the 20th century? A.The airplane B.The automobile C.The television D.The computer

My opinion is the television, because before its advent, we didn't sit down for much of anything. People listened to the radio while doing something else; they didn't need to fixate on a screen lest they miss something. I think television was the first thing that got us to just "veg out" for any length of time. Of course, we have more time to sit in front of the tube. In the late 19th century "those damned communard trade unionists" who agitated for fair wages and safe working conditions also fought for and won the 8 hour day and the 40 hour week we enjoy. And in the 20th century, for perhaps the first time in history, we all didn't have to work from sun to sun to grow and hunt our own food. We just went down to the supermarket and there it was; "someone else" had done the growing, harvesting and packaging for our convenience. Also, the 20th century saw the advent of all those labor-saving devices. More leisure time, but what to do with it?

I'll grant you a certain right of hard-working, stressed-out people to our entertainment, but for so many people TV is a drug, a babysitter, a companion, a segue into an alpha state easily influenced by advertising and news- and entertainment-lite. It renders them mute, passive, less than present mentally and emotionally. I think that both watching so many hours of TV and the insane proliferation of channels spewing so much "infotainment", so little real substance, has left people numb and dumbed-down. Do we recognize quality entertainment anymore? Has the fantasy-violence and the constant reporting of real violence desensitized our society? Has the passive state of TV-viewing spilled over and made us reactive, rather than proactive in our real lives? I'd be interested to hear what you all think.

Good Vibes To All Of You,


Claudia