World Watch Focus: Missing the Point

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     ‘World Watch Focus: an ‘Idle’ Nation’’, a previous post on this weblog, has generated a great deal of discussion, both on and offline, since it was posted. It has also illustrated that quite a few of the people who read the post failed to understand its central point, most often simply because it specifically targeted the show ‘American Idol’.

     Of course, targeting anything that has 43 million Americans all doing it at the same time is a dangerous proposition, mostly because humans are often herd animals, and following the herd makes the members of the herd feel safe, and the herd will defend itself. Additionally, ‘American Idol’ does also have the additional defense of being one of the more ‘family friendly’ shows on television.

     Jibes aside, the real point of the previous post was to ask the basic question of why 43 million Americans would watch- and as many as 63 million Americans would vote on- a show that does them, their families, their neighbors, and their nation absolutely no good. Not a single one of the 43 million viewers of American Idol, save perhaps the family of the winner, gained anything from watching that show other than 2 more hours in front of the TV and perhaps a few more pounds from snacks.

     Yet, while that show was on, hundreds of illegal immigrants crossed the insecure borders, hundreds of thousands of US troops were still deployed around the world in harms way defending the freedom to watch TV- whatever might be on-, and the US Government continues to over-regulate and under-manage the affairs of the nation to the tune of billions of tax dollars in debt.

     The point of that post was to bring to the minds of whoever might have read it the question of what they are doing to be part of the solutions to such problems as just described, and perhaps to suggest the thought that spending the amount of time that most Americans spend doing absolutely nothing useful- whether it is watching TV, playing video games, or whatever- could be better spent actively working for themselves, their families’, their neighbors’, and their nation’s well beings.

     This is not to say that entertainment and relaxation does not have its place, but how much entertainment and relaxation does one nation need? Consider how many hours one spends doing the things one does. How much work? How much sleep? How much sitting in front of the TV being told what one knows? The answer, if one is honest, is often startling.

     From a personal perspective, I made that evaluation for myself and my family. At the end of that evaluation, I discovered that most of the reason I have not achieved some of the very important things I would like to achieve is because I was letting the endless banter of the world lull me into sitting on my couch or in my basement every evening wasting countless hours entertaining myself and relaxing. In the mean time, time and life were passing by, with all of its important cares and concerns.

     For the record, I have not watched TV since last October except in rare cases where it is on at someone else’s house. My TV is no longer in my living room. My computer has a single game on it, which I play sparingly. Instead, I take all of that time to read, to write, and to participate in things that I know will eventually help strengthen and preserve this great nation in which I live.

     All of this may sound self righteous, but it is not. Instead, it is an attempt at a wakeup call for my fellow lulled-to-their-couches-by-the-siren-song-of-the-world citizens who are not paying attention to what is going on outside their favorite TV shows. The truth is that America is threatened more basically and more insidiously than it has been in its history by current events, yet those events are largely unknown to most Americans. Unless more Americans start paying attention to these events and acting on what they know, too few will be ready when the next major world event rips our collective attention from the daily routine. What good will American Idol be then?

DLH

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