TV: The Enemy In The Room

I watched half an hour of television this afternoon. I had to; I was in a hospital waiting room and I had to turn my head towards the tv screen to stop the other people in the room talking to me.

I was struck by what a sedative television is, all this time after giving up my own set. Within five minutes of watching the programme in front of me--some cooking competition compered by a tv dancer dressed like a Burton's window from the 1980s--I was almost asleep; and within ten minutes I felt like my brain had died.

Somebody said to me earlier, apropos of my not having a tv set, you're missing EastEnders. Her tone was rather incredulous, as if I had revealed I'd gone three weeks without water. You walk down any street at night and glance through any window, you'll see at least one person sitting dumbly in front of the glowing box in the corner with nothing on their body moving except an arm forking biscuits into a half-open mouth. And usually a whole family will be doing it.

Jack Kerouac called tv the world of one eye.

I'm convinced that if television hadn't been invented we'd all be more intelligent and less inclined to take all of the shit that's heaped on us by the people who rule our lives and control our world. It's like a Communist dictator disguised as a leather-booted party girl.