programming ourselves

We Either Program Ourselves or We Will Be Programmed


By John Taylor; 18 July, 2004



Today I want to launch from a London study reported in a newspaper
article called, "TV `programs' us to be unhealthy, Study shows childhood
viewing habits could put long-term health down the tube," in The
Hamilton Spectator, 16 July, 2004, A9, by Sue Leeman. This study finds a
direct correlation between obesity and the amount of time spent watching
television in youth. Basically, their finding was that the more
television the fatter kids are likely to be as they grow up, the more
likely they will smoke, the higher their cholesterol, the less general
fitness. A shocking indicator of how embroiled in television we really
are actually limited the study. Towards the end of the article the
report is quoted as saying that,


"it could not define a safe level of TV viewing because it couldn't find
enough people who watched no television to serve as a control group..."


Normally testing with humans is severely limited because of ethical
restraints. But here we find a scientific study that needed a few
non-television watchers and they could not be found. This is hardly
cruel and unusual punishment. It would not be unethical to subject a
human to no television but evidently there were no takers. I find this
unbelievable and frightening. Surely there must be groups who watch no
television! What happened to diversity? Surely a percentage of society
relies upon something other than TV for its information and
entertainment! The journalist continues, saying that among children,


"... those who watched an hour or less a day were the healthiest. The
American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents limit their
child's viewing to two hours a day."


The researchers point to two explanations for television being such a
bad health influence, perhaps the main cause of obesity. First the
obvious, viewing is an idle, passive habit in itself; it uses leisure
time that otherwise would be active, burning away many calories. But
this applies to computers, videos and video games as well, perhaps more
so. Second, television advertising works. It persuades youth that bad
lifestyle decisions are the best, that processed food is better, that
fast food restaurants are the best places to eat. This is reflected in
the conclusion of the study,


"Measures to limit television viewing in childhood and ban food
advertisements aimed at children are warranted, before another
generation is programmed to become obese."


This rather timid suggestion is very unlikely to make an impact upon
public policy in the face of millions of dollars of lost advertising
revenue from politically influential processed and fast food producers.
Not to say that this will never happen. We know that the idea is not
absurd; a generation ago banning cigarettes from public places and
television seemed a pipe dream but it happened, though not without a
long struggle. Sadly, as this study found, the ban on advertising
cigarettes on television does not mean that there is not a startling,
strange correlation with watching television. Their only explanation is
that smoking is portrayed in positive ways in many television shows that
children watch.

The real problem in the long term will not be public policy but "private
policy," the resolve of individuals to cut down on television. The
personal decision to watch television is subject to a much more powerful
pull than mere corruption. Other recent studies back this up. A couple
of years ago Scientific American produced a cover article called,
"Television Addiction is No Mere Metaphor," reporting that the hypnotic
process of watching television is now considered to fill enough agreed
upon criteria to be called addictive. We are embroiled with a boa
constrictor and do not realize it. Being squeezed to death you can
expect bloating and swelling. The epidemic of obesity is quite literally
that, the result of bodies expanding and bursting from this pressure,
the fatal result of being programmed and brainwashed into obesity.

I called this essay, "We Either Program Ourselves Or We Will Be
Programmed," because I think that part of the reason that television is
so addictive is because it subtly imposes a structure, a schedule, a
plan, and we fall into that rather than our own plan. A television
episode is called a program because it is built into a schedule, a
particular plan, an agenda of its own. Watch one program and you jump to
the next, then the next, and so forth. After the experience is over, the
Scientific American Article pointed out, you cannot remember what you
just saw, you do not feel better or more relaxed. Like a drinker after a
binge, you wonder what just happened and why you wasted so much time
without realizing what you were doing.

We could kick the habit if we made sure that private policy was more
closely allied to public policy. My plan, our plan, not television's
plan. Television is so very appealing, especially to those already
inclined to obesity because instead of laboriously planning your own
leisure time for yourself, television plans it for you. Addiction is in
the plan and the plan is addiction.

As it is, society participates in the planning unreservedly. It, in
effect, helps put our minds up for sale. The only ones who can get a
piece of our attention are those who buy advertising time. Even
governments have to buy television spots to get their points across. The
government is the people, so in effect we are paying out our own money
to hypnotize and propagandize ourselves.

As Baha'is we believe in a cheaper way, seeking truth directly, for
ourselves, then using that discovery in common presuppositions based
upon the truth that all are one, the principle we call the oneness of
humanity. Rather than putting our brains up for sale to ourselves, we
make up a program together, assisted by the power of the Holy Spirit.
That is what Baha'i is all about.


"Naught but the celestial potency of the Word of God, which ruleth and
transcendeth the realities of all things, is capable of harmonizing the
divergent thoughts, sentiments, ideas, and convictions of the children
of men. Verily it is the penetrating power in all things, the mover of
souls and the binder and regulator in the world of humanity."
('Abdu'l-Baha, Selections, 292)


John Taylor
helpmatejet@yahoo.com
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