Four Arguments For The Elimination of Television

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Four Arguments For The Elimination of Television

 

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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688082742/104-8922886-1087944?v=glance & n=28315\

5

 

 

 

Reviewers say -

 

very reasonable and persuasive, September 5, 2001

 

 

Mander presents four main arguments, and dozens of

corollary arguments, against having television as any

part of our lives. Any one of them alone might seem

plausible but perhaps overblown, but the overall

effect of their combined presentation is overwhelming.

I closed the book absolutely revulsed by the nature of

this technology and how it has manipulated us. I can

anecdotally attest to its ill effects in my case,

certainly -- I can recognize thousands of brands but

only a few plants. My direct knowledge of the world

has been reduced by about 20,000 hours' worth of

actual experience interacting with real people, time

that I spent instead glued to the boob tube, absorbing

hundreds of thousands of commercials. I don't have a

TV anymore, but whenever I am around one that's turned

on, I find myself hypnotically drawn to stare at the

screen, irrespective of content. This occurs even if I

am in the middle of an interesting conversation -- to

my embarrassment and dismay, my eyes dart as of their

own accord toward the flickering images. I have to

stand facing away from the TV to prevent this. What I

consider to be my natural aesthetic sense has been

perverted such that I can hardly look at a man or

woman -- or myself in a mirror -- without

automatically, subtly judging the person's appearance

against an internal metric, a deep and narrow palette

of beautiful faces and lithe body parts, implanted by

hundreds of thousands of advertising images. This

phenomenon subtly cheapens and distorts many

interactions I have with people.

 

.....

 

Just scan the table of contents to Mander's book, ...,

and you will begin to see the array of influences

these forces have in our culture and in our individual

minds.

 

Please buy the book, give it to everyone as gifts this

year, ***especially to parents of small children***. I

see parents use the TV as a pacifier, but as you will

read, it is an incredibly high price to pay just to

keep the kids temporarily quiet.

 

.....

 

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57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

Cuts to the heart of what's wrong with this society,

December 10, 2000

Reviewer: David Yeh - See all my reviews

(REAL NAME)

Written in the late 1970's by a former advertising

executive, Four Arguments is a coherent diatribe

against television. He explores four areas: (1)

Television as a poor mediator of experience; (2)

television as a way to influence audiences'

perceptions en masse; (3) the " dumbing-down " effects

of TV on the human being; and (4) the inherent biases

of television and how they limit real information

flow. The first couple of arguments are more attacks

on capitalism and the development of television as a

capitalist tool, but overall, they are solid

statements that stand on their own.

 

However, TV has become a central part of the American

lifestyle, and it would be hard, if not impossible, to

get rid of. But I definitely feel the truth of his

arguments. When I was in India, much of the time at my

host family's place, they would sit around watching

television while doing chores. It felt empty somehow.

Where was the richness of the culture? Here I am in

India, and I'm sitting here watching a stupid Hindi

movie instad of interacting in a meaningful way. And

when I came back home, I felt the shock of the media

doubly. Everything on TV looked slick, fake,

contrived, absolutely ridiculous. We have been so

inoculated to all of this by now that it's hard to see

unless you go away and come back again.

 

It's tough to break any sort of addiction, and I think

television is an addiction. It is part of the problem

of a society that always looks for the next best

thing, that promotes the loudest, noisiest, most

violent thing, that can't sit still for half an hour

to soak in the beauty of quiet stillness.

 

In some ways, this book is hard to read. It's easy to

grasp but it's difficult to take this kind of attack

on such a commonly accepted lifestyle even though you

know it's wrong. Plus it's a lot of information coming

at you at once; I had to digest it in little bits and

pieces to give it time to sink in.

 

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1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Why there is a mix of good and bad reviews, October 2,

2005

Reviewer: Bruce Quinn " reader_in_LA " (los angeles, ca

United States) - See all my reviews

(REAL NAME)

I'm in the camp with the good reviews, but I think I

understand some of those who say " his arguments are

ridiculous. " I always took this book as part satire

and black comedy. For example, he interviews a

researcher at Stanford who says something like,

" Televison beams photons at 20,000 electron volts

directly into your eyes. " " And the effects of that? "

" Completely unknown. " Someone referred to the 2005

Truman Capote movie as playing " like a mad scientist

with a lisp " and I sort of imagine some of Mander's

text being similar. I'm sure some of this was written

tongue in cheek - but could I be seeing humor when it

wasn't intended. Well, I don't think so, but who

knows. I think this is why some find the book

brilliant and others find certain arguments

" ridiculous " .

 

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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

If you want to keep feeling good about television and

technology, hang out in best buy and don't read " 4

Arguments " , July 31, 2005

Reviewer: Magnus - See all my reviews

Written by a former " big six " ad executive, " Four

Arguments " is a book that CONSIDERS the long term

effects of television and other post industrial

revolution technologies on:

 

1. The critical thinking skills of human beings

2. Our relationship to natural environments.

3. The physical and mental health of human beings.

4. The knowledge/power balance in a democratic

society.

(not in that order)

 

CONS

1. Not a simple read. This book is probably organized

too well. Mander coherently and methodically plumbs

through each argument and sub argument with no regard

for the lazy or quick fix reader. His adherence to his

own structure is relentless. The payoff is cumulative

as the book gathers momentum. Clear but tedious.

 

2. This book is pretty depressing. For me the

resulting sobriety was worth the cold shower, but

perhaps not for everyone. Only the most determined of

readers will be able to reject all of ideas presented

in this book, and unfortunately this book offers a

bleak but well painted picture of our predicament.

Blue pill enthusiasts beware.

 

PROS

1. This book asks important and obvious

questions(You'll say " yeah that is a good question!,

why didn't I think of that?) about how man made

technologies and environments are affecting us. They

are questions that most of us would agree need to be

answered, yet amazingly, few if any of which have been

adequately answered to this day. (The book was written

in the 70's)

 

2. This book is both spell binding and spell breaking.

Mander reaches into the silent, unsure parts of our

minds that we have become experts at ignoring. After

making it about a third of the way into the read, I

experienced a tremendous feeling of relief at being

able to fully identify and articulate concerns that

had previously eluded the full grasp of my conscious

mind. For better or worse, my fears now had a voice

that I could engage in the light of reason.

 

3. Mander presents a well supported and balanced

argument. He is very clear about the fact that he is

merely raising questions and considering issues. He

admits his shortcomings in not being a scientist, and

repeatedly apologizes for not being able to make hard

scientific conclusions. He is consistent about

differentiating fact from opinion Although the book at

times feels somewhat conspiracy theory- ish, this is

probably more due to the nature of the topic, than to

lack of rigor or objectivity on the part of the

author.

 

Perhaps one of the most convincing reasons to check

this book out is the reactions of its critics. They

consisently use words like " insane, ridiculous, and

nonsense " ...in violent wholesale rejections of the

ideas in this book. Its always fascinating to me when

people idignantly deny their dependence/addiction to a

particular habit/technology while simultaneously

baring their teeth at anything or anyone suggesting

that they curb their use of it.

 

" 4 Arguments " is both disturbing, and compelling. In

all fairness, I should probably mention that since I

read it three years ago, I've fallen into the habit of

calling it my favorite book.

 

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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

Out of the Garden, March 7, 2005

Reviewer: Jorge Gringo Mexicano (Sonora, Mexico) - See

all my reviews

This book has made my year. I cannot believe the

reviews (and I have read them all) that blast Mander

for badly constructed arguments.

 

Call it what you will; Mander has created a master

review of the relationship between our banishment from

the Garden to a life of servitude to work and to the

attainment of knowledge. Television, in its perverse

way, has kept most of us from that knowledge, because

of its inherent flaws.

 

It is inherently boring, but in the gross cooption and

misadaption of artistry and faith among the best of

us, television has reduced us to our lowest common

denominator: boring people without self understanding.

 

We are ALL suspect; I am just as guilty of being a

stupid TV couch potato as anyone. In all my years of

watching it, I cannot say that I have learned any real

lesson in life from it.

 

Like Mander says, television robs the brain of its

ability to think. When one sees a movie after reading

a novel - Lord of the Rings is yet another example -

our imagination is replaced by the " reality " , and we

forget what we have imagined before.

 

If critics of this book believe otherwise, I hope they

can tell us how the substitution is better than our

individual imaginations.

 

I only hope that Mander is fast at work on his second

set of arguments!