Television is being put to a wrong use!
Without realizing it, YOU could be ensnared by a powerful habit-forming CURSE!
You ARE LIVING in the age of the terrible one-eyed monster — television! Television, especially in America, is the greatest mass medium of communication ever known to man.
Actual surveys have proved that TV sets are found in about 88% of American homes, while only 85% of these homes had hot or cold running water, indoor toilets or bathtubs!
The Census Director, Mr. Richard Scammon, accounted for the strange fact by saying, "I think more people want to watch television than take a bath." But are all these television sets being put to a right use? What is television doing to the average viewer? What about your children?
This Paradoxical Society
Statesmen admit you live in a world gone mad! World leaders, scientists, top military advisors are frankly frightened! They KNOW, and know in technical detail much more thoroughly than the average layman, the monstrous technological developments which threaten the annihilation of the human race. They know better, by far, than the average man on the street that there are MAD-men in seats of power who could bring about the sudden destruction of this earth!
Former President Eisenhower said the very existence of hydrogen and atomic bombs, "colors everything we say and do."
But the average citizen is tired of hearing these staggering facts. He is fed up to the teeth with impending disaster. He has lived in a state of perpetual crisis for most of his life!
For example, an issue of TV Guide said, "Who is to tell the American public what it should watch on TV? Shall a handful of eggheads tell the public that they should watch only bumbling old men on interview shows discuss what's wrong with the world? . . . In the quiet of the evening, in our own homes, we want to close the door on the world of reality. We want to relax. We want to be entertained. The Western TV show is the favorite entertainment of Americans. That has been proved each and every week.
"If the world is going to come to an end, let it come while we're watching 'Gunsmoke, "The Rifleman,' 'Tales of Wells Fargo,' and 'Shotgun Slade' " (TV Guide, emphasis mine).
Yes, what a paradox!
In the face of the awesome possibilities of total WAR, our peoples are going to sleep! The lethargic, self indulgent, drowsy, phlegmatic spirit of SLUMBER that is DRUGGING the minds of millions makes them utterly oblivious to the stark, terrifying dangers of the times in which they live!
Edward R. Murrow told the Radio and Television News Directors Association in Chicago, "we must get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us" (TIME, October 27, 1958).
But why should this be so surprising? Perhaps it's true in YOUR home. How many hours, for example, do YOU spend watching television?
The Passing Hours
For the average American family, it is an average weekly minimum of 20 hours! Statistics published in the New York World Telegram and Sun in 1962, showed the average adult watches television 1,040 hours per year and, at that time, had spent TWELVE THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY long hours in front of his glaring one-eyed monster during the previous decade!
Other surveys have shown, especially in large urban areas, that average families have spent up to 35 hours and more in front of their television sets, per week!
THINK OF IT!
Even if an average American moviegoer, before the advent of television, had seen as much as one movie a week — he would have spent NOWHERE NEAR the same amount of hours in having his emotions played upon in various forms of entertainment!
Television viewers now see three, four, or more full-length motion pictures per week together with sundry Westerns, husband and wife teams, ghastly suspense stories, shockers, thrillers, intrigue, triangles, blood and thunder, murder, divorce, gangsterism, brutality, blood, GORE!
And, to satiate the seemingly insatiable void of the gullible, lustful public, more and more channels are being opened (new television sets sold from this date forward will have 82 channels).
The Race to Escape
You are living in such a frightening era that most people want to escape the shocking reality of it all!
The average person simply prefers not to think about impending danger. He doesn't want to "be bothered" with the big issues of this day! The issues of confused religion; seething, teeming, hate-filled race issues; upset weather; flagging economy; unemployment; civil rights; failing schools and churches; the war in Vietnam; Sukarno's threats; the divided cities of Berlin and Jerusalem; and all the other giant headaches of a world reeling in its orbit in the most frightening period of recorded human history — all these are carelessly thrown aside at the cherished hour of the favorite "shoot 'em up" on television!
Man has invented dozens of effective blindfolds against realism.
Prior to the big radio shows and the later advent of television where the novels of illicit love, hate and killing with their soothing visions of pseudo-situations which entranced the reader.
Then came the silent film and vaudeville. Finally pictures began to talk! With the development of talking films, movie land entertainment swept the nation (and the world) with a new era of entertainment like a rampaging prairie fire! New personalities emerged, becoming the "matinee idols" of the day.
Many an American knows more about the shaving lotion and personal habits of his favorite "star" than he does the workings of his own government!
Many an American knows whether or not his favorite left-handed pitcher uses "greasy kid stuff," or can comment on his various personal traits, much more readily than he could name any members of the President's cabinet!
Hollywood quickly captured the imagination of the nation — and the world. Quick to catch the vision, the big commercial interests began cashing in by telling the public which kind of cosmetic their personal idol used; what type of cigarette their personal idol smoked; what type of hand cream, deodorant, wave set, or soap kept their idol from smelling bad; or which was his favorite soft drink.
Almost overnight, the new media of films and radio made the play actor better known than government officials — and a whole lot more influential on the public life. The movie going public is probably unaware of the TREMENDOUS influence their constant motion picture viewing has had on their lives!
Then suddenly, a new craze began sweeping the nation. The invention of television had lowered the level of class entertainment. The factory workers, common laborers, farmers and pensioners could be co-owners, together with the appliance store, of a television set!
Hollywood was suddenly a lot closer! Now it was possible to bring America's most popular form of entertainment right into the living room!
There were no cover charges, no nice suits and neckties required, no tipping of waiters, no standing in lines, and no tickets to buy. The truck driver and the millionaire sat in their respective homes and watched with fascinated interest the same shows.
No longer was it a matter of week-end pleasure-seeking! The glitter of self-satisfaction and sensual enjoyment could be had EVERY SINGLE DAY AND NIGHT for a small monthly payment.
Television began changing America's habits! The motion picture industry began fighting for survival. Hundreds of theatres closed — hundreds frantically lowered prices, cried for better movies, while hundreds more were seriously threatened. The movies fought back. They invented Cinemascope, Cinerama. They had Technicolor.
In the midst of it all, the blank-minded citizen watched the giant industries combat each other in a duel for his personal favor. The horror of a world in turbulent revolution, about to plunge itself into one last gigantic eruption of war, could be forgotten for a while, as the pleasure-mad public continued to poke at itself whatever medium of temporary diversion and sensual thrill was available.
Millions of our peoples are being LULLED TO DREAMLAND! Perhaps YOU are SOUND ASLEEP to the awful reality of world-shaking events around you!
Back in 1938, when television was still a gleam in General Sarnoff's eye, E. B. White wrote, "I believe television is going to be the test of the modern world, and that in this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision we shall discover either a new and unbearable disturbance of the general peace or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by television of that I am quite sure. . . . (emphasis mine).
Addiction to a Drug
The misuse of television has blended itself into a diabolical DRUG!
Scientists have revealed that thousands of children — allowed to sit in ghoulishly deformed positions for HOURS and HOURS EVERY SINGLE DAY are actually becoming DEFORMED in their bodies from watching television! Many parents regard television as an excellent "automatic baby sitter!"
ANYTHING to ESCAPE their God-given responsibility of teaching, chastising and training their children! Yes — children who should be out in the fresh air and sunshine, building up their bodies, are allowed — even ENCOURAGED by their parents to sit for HOURS before a series of programs featuring ROBBERY, FIGHTING, ILLICIT LOVE, VIOLENCE AND MURDER — STUFFING their minds with absolute nonsense!
Scientists have warned the irresponsible parents of our nations of future generations acquiring pitiful deformities due to the abject, calloused indifference of parents who allow their children to slump into bent-backed positions for hours watching television!
"You are what you eat," it's been said — and, physically, that is true. But your MIND, your thoughts, motivations, impulses, emotions, are the total collection of what you think!
But while many people are quite cautious about what goes into their mouths — they are utterly incautious and careless about what enters their minds!
But think about it! Anything which controls ONE SIXTH OF YOUR WAKING HOURS is certainly GOING to have a great affect on your opinions, impulses, thoughts, values, and the way you act!
Television is becoming more and more a LITERAL monster, which reaches out to totally devour its unsuspecting adherents. The customs, habits, and way of life of a nation has each, in its turn, been devoured. Television has killed conversation, dulled imagination, and made a total shambles out of whatever remaining vestige of family life there was left in America after World War II!
Television caters to non-thinkers, dullards, empty-headed dreamers, impulse-buyers, and fantasy-laden wishful thinkers who willingly huddle in front of their trusty tube, settling back into the apathetic abyss of a five-hour span of television viewing! And what does the average person learn on television?
He learns that all housewives who use "Brand X" are finks — that all "cops" are bumbling, fumbling idiots who need a suave, good-looking, fast-talking, gun-slinging private detective to solve their crimes for them. He learns that Baby-face Nelson was more important to American history than George Washington; that scientists and teachers are "squares"; that all cowboys wore six-guns, which fired 20 or 30 shots depending on the number of "flunkies" to be cold-bloodedly downed from their horses (which, miraculously, were never hit — though they are a much larger target than a man!); and that human life and limb is one of the cheapest commodities on earth.