Originally Posted by gwd

Television's influence goes beyond the car commercials. I suspect that many of the dumb remarks from car culture apologists are caused by the uncritical thinking that TV encourages. Last month I went with my mother to her geriatric doctor and the doctor was asking me about her mental activities. How much she reads the newspaper etc. The doctor said it wasn't enough to browse the newspaper but she should discuss what she has read. I asked the doctor if TV watching had any effect. The doctor got quite animated when she replied "TV is the worst thing for maintaining mental alertness, it actually inhibits it." The doctor noted that it is a good sign that since my mother has been taking her memory medicine she has been reading more and watching less TV. Sometimes I feel that when I talk to someone about car free and get that blank stare I'm talking against years of TV watching.

I've attached an excerpt from a very old book, called something like "Four Reasons to Abolish Television". It was written in the '70s so has some of that era's silliness to it. I read the book a few years ago. Even though I had been TV free for many years prior to reading the book, the author describes some facets I hadn't noticed. In particular "technical events". Although some items in the attached list seem contradictory in isolation, when you get to the list after reading the book you understand that items come from different contexts. The list appears beyond the halfway point in the book but I thought some people in this forum would find some food for thought. If you live a lifestyle that isn't validated by TV it is hard to engage a TV person.