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Screen Masters
How much of your life do they rule?
I haven’t had TV in almost 10 years. It isn’t the first time I’ve gone long stretches without TV. I went almost the entire decade of the 1980s without TV.
And I went almost a third of the 1970s without TV. I have taken countless walks in the evening noticing the pulsating blueish-gray light flashing out of people’s windows. It was euphoric to be free of that hypnotic device. I read a lot of books back then.
I humbly admit that over those many years without TV — including my latest decade-long stretch — I have often stepped back and watched my ego proudly brag to someone about not watching TV. Egos, as they are so inclined, will say anything to puff up their importance and status among those it comes into contact with. My ego doesn’t get it but it’s plain as day to me.
I brag about how profoundly uninfluenced by TV that I am; how superior I am to those who don’t realize that TV is a drug; a screen through which the masses are influenced. That is something I realized back in the Seventies and, the rambunctious young spirit that I was, I endeavored to be free.
