d a v i d t a u s

Revolution By Remote

music: Cake- Fashion Nugget

I strongly believe that of all our culture’s products, television is one of the worst. Yes, it can be an effective means of communication and a viable source of information. I know this. TV, however, is used more for the powers of evil than good. It is, as Franti puts it, ‘the drug of the nation.’ When reduced to its most essential form, television is simply a series of flashing lights and sounds that keep people’s attention long just effectively enough to ensure their brains are shut off and they are content to sit in a comfortable chair. It pacifies people, distracts them from the world around them, keeps them from getting too outraged. Yes, there are some good things on the tube, but when taken in its gestalt there is so much garbage floating over the electromagnetic spectrum and into people’s living rooms that a complete sacrifice of TV is more than worth it. I’ve personally made a choice to eliminate as much TV from my life as I can, and encourage those with whom I surround myself to do the same. Every week on Live Live I used to plead with listeners to turn off their televisions, get out of their houses, and go meet other like minded people at a concert. I preach the evils of television to my students every chance I get. (“what about the discovery channel,” they say..) The elimination of television from our society is one of my personal revolutions. Think, then, of the potential of my latest material acquisition: I received a TV-B-Gone from tmo yesterday.

It’s a keychain sized remote control with one button: off. And it works on almost any TV out there. Genius.

I tried it, with great success, on the TV in the downstairs apartment. We went to Radio Shack and tried it out-success on the TV we pointed it at. The effects aren’t instantaneous; sometimes you have to wait for a couple seconds before the TV shuts off. Blockbuster has apparently shielded their sets or doesn’t use remote control sets. Same with Bally’s health club. I think that you have to be fairly close in order to use the thing, and you have to have it out, pointed at the TV you want to turn off. Stealth in-the-pocket usage doesn’t seem to be an option, but all things considered, the thing is great.

This is just one more tool used in the war against the idiocy of society dubbed culturejamming. I figure if we can get people to shut off their televisions long enough to wake up and smell the garbage then things might actually start to change for the better. Or we’ll have a mob of really angry and no longer pacified citizens on our hands, which might not be that bad of a thing. It doesn’t matter. Television has to go. With this new tool, I’m going to do my part and infringe on people’s personal liberties by turning off their televisions as much and as often as I can. And I’m gonna start with the meatheads next door. The nation may be safely bathed in that off-blue flicker for now, but thanks to the TV-B-Gone the good people of this country will soon snap out of their reality-tv-and-sitcom induced stupor and be forced to confront real people: their friends, their neighbors, and perhaps worst of all, themselves.