Cable: Good & Evil


I have been having intermittent problems with internet service not working. So, I had to make that dreaded phone call to Comcast where they walk you through steps such as "Make sure that your modem is turned on." I am no techie but I am not a moron either. To Comcast's credit, the reps no longer seem to be taking the default posture that it is something on the customer end that is causing the problem. For several years, it was the case that Comcast assumed it was our equipment (router, modem, etc)  and/or something we were doing. 


While I was lining up the service appointment, the Comcast rep made the tantalizing offer to reduce our cable/internet bill to $49.99 a month (a $30 savings monthly) while adding a full package of premium channels. Right now we are bare-boned Basic and get most of our meat & sinew programming through Netflix. However, the offer really tempted me. Less cost, more content. But herein lies the problem. Most of the content is not something I want to develop an appetite for. I am concerned that my menu upgrade will lead to a higher expectation of needing shows to surround me 24-7 like an on-call chef. 


I think the rep was somewhat incredulous...she couldn't understand why I would not take her up on the offer. Particularly since after 6 months, there was absolutely no obligation to continue. It wasn't one of those loan-shark deals where they lower the entry costs, rope you in, then crank up the latter fees to make up the difference, and reel you into the boat. Yet, Comcast knows that the offer still will stick with many even if there is an out. The special now becomes routine and the monthly shake-down sets in and we consider the costs a necessity. No thanks. I ain't biting and taking the bait.

There is very little on TV that I find compelling. Public Television offers interesting and intelligent programming, although tilted leftward. So, does CSpan--and it is even-handed. The quality that I find so appealing about CSpan is they actually provide a forum for people, organizations, and institutions, to have the floor and the microphone.  It is clear that CSpan endeavors to create a forum for different voices to be heard rather than those commercial television "loud mouth" shows (to call them "talking heads" is far too generous). When I do watch what is on outside of these two stations, it is often  because I am bored. Afterwards, I am often left with a sense of emptiness. I do confess to really enjoying The Office, right or wrong. 


We could probably correlate the decline of a lot of social variables of healthy communities and individuals with the rise of television. Once life became more about entertainment and amusement (or worse), the impulse for learning and education became secondary. TV works against the inculcation of intelligence for the creation of thoughtful, serious, and engaged individuals. I fight pessimism but I don't see how our country is going to progress without cutting the cord of the intravenous entertainment machine, keeping us glued to our couches and EZ Chairs. When I rented my townhouse to a tenant, I knew it was going to be bad news when I walked in and she had Jerry Springer on the TV, a TV that she had through one of those bottom-feeder Rent-to-Own outfits.  I had the sense that she had other issues in her life that needed her attention besides sex-starved nymphos who have fallen in love with their step-dads. I was right. I wanted to give her and her kids a chance for a better life and she soiled herself psychologically. 


Television can be redeemed but in order to be so, it has to be more redeemable.         


     
















           

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