Pervasive entertainment isn’t at all new in history, human being love to be entertained and have always made sure they had tons of entertainment available. We’ve had plays, and books, and minstrels, and story tellers, and jesters, and a long tradition of gathering together during or after meal time to be entertained (or entertaining). What’s different is how many people can watch the same thing at the same time, and therefore get to discuss it later. It used to be if your co-worker wasn’t at the same pub as you he couldn’t have seen the minstrel so you couldn’t really discuss much beyond “you should go to that pub tonight, he’s great”, now just because the two of you didn’t spend the evening together doesn’t mean you didn’t enjoy the same entertainment.
The human mind needs its relaxation time, it requires entertainment to maintain balance. It’s such a desperate need that the brain will make up its own in dreams. It’s no coincidence that when you get engrossed in a book, movie or TV show your brain enters the same alpha wave state as during a dream.
And we can have our entertainments and still deal with the world. It’s not either or, we’ve got 24 hours in a day to mess with. If you really want to get people more involved in the problems of the world don’t attack the entertainment our brain requires to function, attack the government and its tax rate that forces us to spend so much time earning money. We spend 9 hours a day at work (if we’re lucky), another hour or so getting there and back, plus another couple hours an basic biological needs other than sleep, 8 hours on sleep, and you begrudge people taking 3 hours to relax. Make our work day shorter by letting us keep our money, then you’ll see activism. By the time we’re done paying the government we’re exhausted.
You didn’t hit any nerves, you’re just showing yourself to be a bloviating ego booster. If you actually want to fix problems insulting people accomplishes nothing, it’s just you stroking your ego.
Until a few decades ago with the advent of television, radio, internet, etc, entertainment was a rarity. Now people are being entertained into a nonlife. There is a big difference between fun and entertainment. Active and passive. People are becoming more passive. Very convenient for the statists.
Yep, right, we all need to watch way more TV. Just as good as reading or meditating. If you have children, I hope they aren’t reading this. And any parent out there, please think critically about this before you give the kids carte blanche with the TV.