The revolutionization of everyday life

A look behind the scenes: Inside a serial killer

Everyone knows how boring and stupid most television shows are. It is clear to anyone who spends an hour in front of the television during prime time that soaps, news and commercials are designed to represent the lowest common denominator in terms of taste, intellect and attentiveness of future television viewers. For generations, television has been tainted with the cliché that it is “mindless entertainment.” But for most people, that's not really a reason to stop watching TV.

It is not difficult to understand that entertainment is related to stupidity and insignificance, and that “being entertained” also requires the viewer to display their critical and creative talents in front of the television - how annoying it is to be critical and creative anyway! In a society that seems to take seriously nothing else that is outside the sphere of work, the market of goods and services and the accumulation of wealth, it is only understandable that we spend our free time in the most uncreative ways. However, the negative effects of mass television viewing are much more complex than they appear at first glance. Our dependence on television and other forms of uniform entertainment and information media also extends to the economic, social and, above all, personal levels. So our relationship to those media is the same as that of spectators to the spectacle and our lives themselves are less fulfilling for us who only passively watch than for those who act and are active ourselves.

This spectator/spectacle relationship is also reflected in the god status of the “stars” and other celebrities in our society. The media is partly dependent on the idealization and ultimately “sacralization” of “personalities” like Tom Cruise, Ice Cube or Joschka Fischer in order to shape the program that continues to keep us glued to our television seats. In reality, these people are no more different or more exciting than us. Rather, the fact that so many of them can slip from one role to another (from model to rock star, from rock star to actor, from actor to President of the United States) shows that what makes them so "newsworthy" is due only to their public status and not actually to their exceptional talents in a particular field. Every day we're bombarded with so much useless information about these individuals that you eventually can't help but pay attention... and soon you know more about Madonna's new boyfriend than you know about your own neighbors. You may even begin to live vicariously through Madonna, who has been cultivated by the media as an image of feminine charm and breaking conventions. Simply to live a life that seems to you to be far more interesting than your own. In the worst case scenario, we will soon know more about fictional characters than we do about real people.

Listen to people's everyday conversations and you'll notice how much time they waste talking about TV shows, old movies, and comic book heroes. Instead of making plans for our own lives or getting to know each other better, we spend our time sharing useless information fed to us by the media. And the more time we spend wondering who will be the next MTV Band of the Year, the less time we have to do more with our own lives. There is a reason why things are the way they are. When television companies, film producers and other mass media institutions convince us that entertaining, exciting life is not what happens around us every day but is only found in the lives of celebrities or films, then they manage to sell life itself back to us. This is what happens when you prefer to spend your free time watching TV rather than traveling or falling in love or playing football: you think that the most exciting thing you can experience is watching a travel show, a series or a football game. And the more you watch these things on TV, the more you forget that you could be out there doing these things yourself instead of just watching them. You'd be surprised how much more exciting it actually is to make music yourself than to watch MTV - how more uplifting the feeling of racing yourself against an obstacle is than just watching adventure movies.But the less often you leave your seat in front of the TV to actually do things, the emptier your life is in reality and the more you need the TV shows to compensate for the lack of excitement in your own life.

This is exactly where the media comes into play. They are happy to be able to provide you with a replacement life – at the appropriate price. Sure, they'll sell you second-rate sex and violence, pseudo-excitement and affection... but you have to pay for it, for pay TV or cable TV, the TV, the movie tickets, the computer modem and the latest fashion or music magazine. Most importantly, you need to hear their ads on the radio, read them in the magazines, or watch them between shows. These ads are designed solely to get you to spend money on the products being advertised... But if you spend your money on them, you'll have to work harder and longer to make more money.

Ultimately, your job isn't particularly rewarding. Instead of it fulfilling you completely so that you no longer feel the need to watch TV, TV seems much more exciting compared to your job. So at the end of the day you'll feel so exhausted that you won't be able to do anything other than turn on the TV... You'll even see your creative doing of things as work, which will leave you exhausted and unsatisfied, and instead you'll be much more likely to watch other things outside of your "work time" in your "free time". With this thinking, you find yourself searching for the meaning of life, watching the Champions League final on TV instead of creating or playing your own game.

And all of this would be incredibly funny if it weren't so tragic: most likely the job you're putting all your energy into is in the media or marketing industry. Maybe you work for an advertising agency or a television station or for a company that produces and markets a product that is completely useless to humanity but that everyone wants to buy because it is advertised so heavily (Coca Cola is a good example). And as you feel more and more burned out, missing out on real life and its deep, intense, situational experiences just so you can buy a cheap replacement, you are supporting the same system that wastes your time until you die. And please don't kid yourself: you will definitely die! – Then do you want to look back on a life that consisted of watching and talking about “The Simpsons” or a life of pain and joy, romance and struggle, love and hate? Are you satisfied with watching other people do the things you could do yourself if you didn't waste so much time as a passive spectator and with your job that you only need to buy things you don't need... to pay to see more? If you want, the solution is quite simple: it's easy to turn off the TV and go outside. To stop caring about what Elvis' daughter is doing and start caring about what your friends or your enemies are doing, what your lover or your stepparents are doing.Get out of your office, step into the sunlight, and learn to do this without fancy clothes or a brand new Walkman, so that you will be free to live a life full of challenge and excitement, a life full of new experiences, a life in which you are the master of your own destiny, rather than just the victim of a boring job and a few sharp advertising campaigns.

Surely you can find a worthwhile way to make more money than you need to survive, using the energy and time you waste selling shoes or programming computers for your employer... or, better yet, you could work with others to create a world where survival doesn't depend on money.

Do something now or remain silent forever! Don't talk about how bored you are, or how much you hate your job, or how completely pointless your life seems if you don't have the will to try to free yourself.

(Translation by Heiko B. aka “T. Atman Search” – an ascetic hedonist)