THE WATCHERs

OR

"Trying to Make it Real"

In the 1970's, Les McCann and Eddie Harris recorded a song entitled "Compared to What?"  It is a protest song about the Vietnam War.  Most of the things they cite in the lyrics plague us much worse today and the lyrics appear timeless.  Abortion, gender tensions, basic inhumanity, inability and unwillingness to take action in our governance, are cited in the lyrics; along with "war".

I contend this is so because U.S. citizens have become a nation of "Watchers" who spend the time when they not sleeping "watching" T.V., I-Phones, game devices, and computer screens.  Because the information received is piped directly to the brain, the reasoning senses are short-circuited.  There is no processing that comes from listening, imagining, thinking, or discussion.

Dismantling of our education curriculum also comes in for its share of blame.  In the 1950's, required early undergraduate college courses included a semester each of writing, speaking, listening, and grammar.  That disappeared in the 1960's for most college students because the spoiled baby-boomers found grammar to be "too hard".

We've always been a nation of 6th-grade level citizenry and our advertising and television fare are adequately dumbed down to that level.  Somehow, my grandmother, who had a 6th grade education was far more aware, skeptical, shrewd, and wise than the average listener, reader, voter, and buyer we have today.  Seventy-Six million "mind-conditioned-to-consume" baby boomers are responsible for much of it also.

In the 1970's I clipped a full page drawing from Esquire Magazine   that imagined what a typical male worker of the computerized future would look like.  It had a large head, skinny neck, was a stooped shouldered, pot-bellied, spindly-legged guy with long arms, knuckles dragging the floor, and long skinny fingers.  I've since misplaced the drawing, but that image continues to haunt my memory.  The only thing that I would correct is the butt.  It is huge on most citizens today.

The health of our children is gravely impacted by the amount of watching they do in a waking day.  It has become the activity of choice for babysitting, educating, pacifying, rewarding or punishing, and "relaxation".  Most watchers also eat while watching.  No wonder our children are diabetic and obese.

Young boys are especially impacted because they disproportionately watch and manipulate game devices.  The performance in schools of young boys in the United States began slipping behind that of young girls in the 1980's and has spiraled down ever since. Poor teaching practices are mostly to blame for this, however.

It is said that 90% of what the brain processes enters through the eyes.  Humans have to work with the ears, imagination, and speech to provide the brain assistance as it processes information. We do that by researching, listening, communicating carefully, thinking, and providing feedback. These activities enable the brain to better process what it is fed through the eyes.

The numbing/dumbing process has proceeded to the point where politicians don't have to work hard at all to get voters to swallow their lies.  They now have the power to over-ride what the eyes "see", and the ears have lost all power to correct for misinformation.

Don't-cha THINK?

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