Marx didn't have to be a worker to capture the essence of the alienated mentality of workers. We don't have to be televisionees to understand the essence of television mind. To analyze church mentality , you don't have to go to church as much as a churchgoer.
Not only that, if you watch it too much it affects you. If you watch the news too much, you tend to think of political economic events in their categories. Your mind can get gripped by tv ideas.
Not watching it much gives a distance that is necessary for objective analysis of what it is doing to people.
The revolution will not be televised.
Charles Brown
>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 02/25/99 04:36PM >>>
Apsken at aol.com wrote:
>Doug wrote,
>
>"How can you understand American society without a TV? Assuming you have any
>interest in understanding American society, of course."
>
>I don't have a television, but I have never felt out of touch with American
>society. On the other hand, plenty of what I read on the Internet makes me
>wonder where the on-line world connects with reality.
>
>I'm particularly surprised to see this from Doug, since he added a dose of
>reality when others were urging him to be our Marxist savior via tube
>appearances.
I don't remember the exact numbers, but the average American watches 4-8 hours of TV a day, and something like 98% of U.S. households (including around 90% of poor households) have TVs. It's the way most people get their news. It's a major way fashion and popular culture are disseminated. Phrases from ads enter the language, and ads themselves do a lot to fetishize the commodity. As the old man said, when an ideology grips the mind of the masses it becomes a material force, and TV has a lot to do with the process. This all seems painfully obvious to me - am I missing something?
Doug