Posted on 12/10/2006 11:40:56 AM PST by lowbridge
Go for a year without television and report back. Unless you've experienced it for yourself, you have no idea what you're talking about.
We have "enjoyed" them for years, in hotel rooms and during stays in at the homes of relatives. We have enjoyed their programs on DVD and video, on our own terms. I don't judge people who make it a daily habit to watch hours and hours of television -- but I will certainly and quickly flock to and identify with the rare folks who have experineced what I have -- life in America without TV -- not for a week, not for a month, but for YEARS. It is simply amazing and indescribable how it enriches your life. That is, simply, the way it is. I sincerely, passionately recommend it to any thinking person or family.
Anything you can learn on the History or Discover channel, you can learn BETTER by reading books or taking classes. More important, you can TAILOR IT to your individuality. Sure, "... if one uses their time learning and enjoying other things," as you way, but the thing is, when you can sit passively and have pre-packaged edu-tainment delivered for the cost of cable per month, you will never desire to use that time learning and enjoying other things on your own unique terms.
The thing that happens is that touchy people immediately take offense when people like me talk about how great life is without TV. Touchy people immediately assume I'm taking an "elitist moral high-ground." I say, that's their problem, their perception, their choice to be offended.
I hated Miller on Monday Night Football, but he's great as a political commentator. The best part of his segments is the sour look on commie colmes' face when Miller finishes.
bttt
There's no valid excuse for not having a working television in your home today.
It's medieval.
Rather, I am amused.
I've lived BOTH ways. You've only lived one way. Your pronoucement that living without TV is "medieval" reveals self-imposed intellectual limitations. The fact that you seem to think that being without TV will harm you in some way is ... not worthy of you, my friend!
I'm saying that I can watch a great program on the stars and sun while cooking dinner and eating, cleaning house.
You can't multi-task very well reading the same information.
You seem to have a mental picture of people sitting in a darkened room...one hand on a remote and the other inside the waist of their pants...ala Al Bundy.
And for all you television challenged out there....that's a character in a sit com, Married with Children.
??????????????
So how do you watch the NFL? Go to a local bar? LOL!
Hard to imagine a person without at least a small 13" tv in the house but I suppose on some days when I feel like throwing my shoe through the screen it may not be a bad idea. But still....
You know what's really funny, is that in my past 30 years of experience, successful entrepreneurs and self-employed people who make their livings in creative endeavors and work they love, don't care much about television, for the most part. If they had to go without, they wouldn't particularly miss it, and they certainly do not view it as a neccessity for getting by in the modern world!
In my experience, people who think TV is neccssary to modern life are those with unchallenging boring work; folks who work under the thumbs of other people; folks who come to our eccentric little house and marvel at what a cool place it is (the reason they don't invite people to their own places is because they spend all their time sitting on their asses "being educated" in front of the TV instead of making and doing neat things for themselves); folks who have never experienced the enrichment that life without TV can give them -- in short, people who have no idea of the productive and creative energy they have within themselves, folks with no idea of the really super-cool things they're capable of, because from the time they were children, they have invested the majority of their leisure TIME in watching TV.
Honestly, Patriot, what have you got to lose? One lousy year!!! Of what???? *sheesh!!!* While what you potentially have to gain -- is immeasurable. It is ridiculous to write it off so cavalierly as you do.
When is this on? I miss his old show and caught him on Jay recently where it's obvious he's lost none of his wit ... Fridays at what time?
Thanks for the info in advance.
Once you watch a baseball playoff game in hi-def, all bets are off. ;^)
Radio or radio drama/comedy tapes are my choice. TV is made for watching -- because I love good film as much as anybody, I sometimes cook and iron and do housework with a documentary on the VCR/DVD in much the say way you're talking about here -- but I am aware that it doesn't challenge my imagination the way that listening to the radio or music or a tape does. Really, again, the only thing I can say is, you have to experience the alternative long-term, like a year, to appreciate the profound but subtle difference. Audio, like reading, invites you to imagine your own imagery; TV doesn't invite you to do that -- it invites you to pause what you're doing and look at the screen. Listening to TV without watching is like tasting wine without swallowing. If you didn't have TV, you'd have to find alternatives -- listen to some unexpected radio (AM radio is simply wonderful, enlightening, and the immense variety on a long-distance radio receiver is incredibly entertaining and enlightening), or radio drama on tape, or music. I've been there -- I know the difference.
You got me there ... I do love the World Series often enough.
I was more ahead of the curve. It was go-time back in 79, when the took over the embassy.
Sorry for assuming you were male...(my use of 'buddy') ;^)
My son has no TV in his house in Seattle. Of course, he's just 1/2 a mile from Duke's Clam Chowder Emporium...
I havent the slightest idea. I havent got cable tv, so IU dont even know what channel he is on, much less when.
Well, the graphic attached to the article says "Fox News" so I'm guessing we have the channel nailed down. :)
I always though that he went by train. History really is something!
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