TV or not TV
the late late show has mated
with the early early news
but fiddling with my color knob
can’t rid me of the blues
tho I make the picture rosy
or turn the faces green
only authorised reality
is allowed to grace the screen
from the cathode ray tube
pat patterns reach my eyes
sometimes six-two-five lines
convey as many lies
‘the medium is the message’
& it’s written on the air
in black & white or color
so simply sit & stare
Communications Satellites
send images from space
electronically linking me
with the rest of the human race
thru the magic window
the wonders of creation
are beamed to avid viewers
throughout this lucky nation
our thanks must go to Logie-Baird
who could never have foreseen
what his visionary invention
would one day come to mean
this all-wise one-eyed idol
like a mirror that distorts
is oracle to millions
& controls our very thoughts
so much sex a saint would goggle
& such sadistic violent scenes
my mind begins to boggle
record your favourite programme
on video cassette
& look at action-replays
for fear you should forget
if you don’t believe the adverts
why not switch to 
you may as well get your money’s worth
you pay a licence fee
we watch TV at breakfast
then feast on it till night
as if entirely mesmerised
by moving lines of light
when birds perched on the aerials
twitter at dawn you know
the late late news has mated
with the early early show
[Hang around long enough (292KB) with your sound turned on & you'll hear a rendition of the above performed by Davy King LIVE (Calton Hill, Edinburgh Festival,1983) recorded & electronically treated by Mark Farrar.]
*
"The nearest analogy to the addictive power of television and the transformation of values that is wrought in the life of the heavy user is probably heroin. Heroin flattens the image; with heroin, things are neither hot nor cold; the junkie looks out at the world certain that what ever it is, it does not matter. The illusion of knowing and of control that heroin engenders is analogous to the unconscious assumption of the television consumer that what is seen is 'real' somewhere in the world. In fact, what is seen are the cosmetically enhanced surfaces of products. Television, while chemically non-invasive, nevertheless is every bit as addicting and physiologically damaging as any other drug.
"Most unsettling of all is this: the content of television is not a vision but a manufactured data stream that can be sanitized to 'protect' or impose cultural values. Thus we are confronted with an addictive and all-pervasive drug that delivers an experience whose message is whatever those who deal the drug wish it to be. Could anything provide a more fertile ground for fostering fascism and totalitarianism than this? In the United States, there are many more televisions than households, the average television set is on six hours a day, and the average person watches more than five hours a day—nearly one-third of their waking time. Aware as we all are of these simple facts, we seem unable to react to their implications. Serious study of the effects of television on health and culture has only begun recently. Yet no drug in history has so quickly or completely isolated the entire culture of its users from contact with reality. And no drug in history has so completely succeeded in remaking in its own image the values of the culture that it has infected.
"Television is by nature the dominator drug par excellence. Control of content, uniformity of content, repeatability of content make it inevitably a tool of coercion, brainwashing, and manipulation. Television induces a trance state in the viewer that is the necessary precondition for brainwashing. As with all other drugs and technologies, television's basic character cannot be changed; television is no more reformable than is the technology that produces automatic assault rifles."
[p.p. 218-220, Terence McKenna, FOOD OF THE GODS; Bantam, 1992. ISBN 0-553-37130-4]
"When the world crashes in into my living room
Television man made me what I am
People like to put the television down
But we are just good friends
(I'm a) television man"Talking Heads: 'Television Man'
& Remember:
| Ventriloquist's Dummy's Head used for Baird's first television broadcast experiment. Who are the dummies now? |  |
'the Revolution will not
be televised'
(Gil Scott-Heron)
a site 4 saw I's...
davyking.com |