First I would like to apologize to the readers that I have for my apparent neglect of my duty to this blog. I certainly was going through a rough patch and didn’t have all the time to dedicate to keeping up my work here. I also would like to thank all for their participation on the second round table subject of education. I got some very good responses and some also equally good questions raised which I will be getting to later.
Now for the matter at hand. I gained a lot of respect for Andy Pettite when I watched a portion of his hour long press conference today. For a quick summary of what he said check this article out .
I could see why the committee excused him from testifying during Roger Clemens and Brian Mcnamee’s hearings. Andy Pettitte just is a nice guy. It is easy to see that he is sincere when he says he is sorry for what he has done. It is easy to forgive him. More importantly, he admitted his transgressions. He wasn’t acting like he was wronged or it was a big misunderstanding. He owned it and for that I will stand behind him and I know many other people will.
What impressed me the most was the way he answered the questions. He listened attentively and never once bristled and came out swinging. He said his faith was what led him to be honest and to let it all hang out. “The truth” has set him free. We all make mistakes and when one of us comes out and genuinely repents of them, then by all means we ought to forgive them. Andy Pettitte you are forgiven. “Go and sin no more.”
Turn off your TV, turn on your mind…
Schopenhauer on thinking for Oneself: “The safest way of having no thoughts of one’s own is to turn on the TV set every moment one has nothing else to do. It is this practice which explains why watching TV makes most people more stupid and silly than they are by nature.”
“What good fortune for those in power that people do not think.” -Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf.
“It is easy to overlook a deceptively simple fact: one is always watching television when one is watching television rather than having any other experience. Whether the program being watched is Sesame Street or Spiderman, Nova or Fantasy Island, there is a similarity of experience about all television watching.”
Are you sitting down? Good because I am about to dive into a controversial topic. Bernard McGrane, a renowned Sociologist once pointed out that TV is designed to dominate your life. Think about it. You see it best in a dark room by its own light. It has its own sounds and images. It is dominant by nature. Turn it off and you might even forget it is there. Turn it on and you have to stare at it. It is getting bigger and bigger, the images are getting clearer and clearer and now, it even includes surround sound. The new tvs demand that you put them up on a pedestal above every other thing. Can you think of any other electrical appliance that demands such majesty, such visibility? No. You can’t.
And it is through tv that we have lost our sense of reality. I’ll give you an example. Think of the Katrina tragedy in New Orleans. Remember the countless hours of coverage that it got? Have the problems all been fixed? Not at all. Then how come it isn’t getting much talk around the water cooler? How come more people aren’t demanding answers, or volunteering or even thinking about it? Because the cameras are gone. TV and the media have moved on to other things like Britney Spears and Roger Clemens and steroids. We were told something as ridiculous as the New Orleans Saints were playing for the victims of Katrina. That sports were a way to heal the wounds left over from the disaster and that was bull. Throwing a ball doesn’t fix things or make them better. It only causes people to ignore just how bad things are. Sure sports might bring people together. But the tragedy which most people miss is that we even need sports to bring us together. What has New Orleans gained from the Saints making the playoffs that year? Moments of joy and happiness, yes but it didn’t feed anyone or clothe anyone or rebuild their torn down homes or give them back what they lost. The fact that these people even gain joy from that is a big example of how skewed our reality has gotten.
The allure of TV and indeed the media on the whole is that we believe that it is a good thing for the city that the Saints were playing well. Look closely though and you’ll realize that it was all a marketing ruse. The Saints got more publicity, sold more tickets, television ratings went up and they sold more jerseys. In the end what has the city gotten? Ten to twenty minute segments at halftime of games while the games go on. Imagine that all the people who watched the superbowl (including me) saved the money they used to buy tickets, even buy big screen Tvs, alcohol and other refreshments and sent them to New Orleans. Wouldn’t the problem be taken care of?
There are countless other examples but I will leave you with that one as the point has been made. We need to spend more time thinking about others and setting examples and learning and loving other people instead of being glued to the tube. Gotta go. I have to go watch the Lakers play the Suns.
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Posted in America, Change, Education, ESPN, Heart, Life, Love, MLB, NBA, NCAA, NFL, Opinion, Social Commentary, Sports, Television, The Mind, The Round Table, trackback | 7 Comments »