Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

The Twilight Zone (TOS): “The Old Man in the Cave”

In the far-off year of 1974(!), a small group of people who somehow managed to survive a nuclear war were dependent on the word of a mysterious old man in a cave who had never been seen by anyone. The old man gave them advice that permitted the people to survive but not necessarily thrive.

One day a self-styled military man who claimed to represent a new central government came by and persuaded the people to ignore the old man's advice. As a result, everyone save the one holdout who still obeyed the old man ended up dying horribly as a result of ingesting contaminated food.

As usual, it can be assumed that the morale of this story is in no way applicable to today's events. In no way, I say. And not just because none of our current authority figures look anything like James Coburn...

Movie Quote of the Week

Television can control public opinion more effectively than armies of secret police, because television is entirely voluntary. The American government forces our children to attend school, but nobody forces them to watch T.V. Americans of all ages submit to television. Television is the American ideal. Persuasion without coercion. Nobody makes us watch. Who could have predicted that a free people would voluntarily spend one fifth of their lives sitting in front of a box with pictures? Fifteen years sitting in prison is punishment. But 15 years sitting in front of a television set is entertainment. And the average American now spends more than one and a half years of his life just watching television commercials. Fifty minutes, every day of his life, watching commercials. Now, that’s power.
--James Coburn, Looker (1981)