blue glow

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i had this strange experience last night when othercat and i were going to pick pj up at the airport. at first it was really innocuous, it was just this car with a family in it but it wasn't right somehow.

well i'm sure it was fine if you're them, but all i could see was this creepy blue glow in the backseat as the kids stared enraptured at the screens strapped to the seatbacks in front of them.

i got this sudden mental movie of ghostly hands playing arpeggios on these children's brains through their staring eyes as their consciousnesses were distracted from this invasion by something innocuous like barney. i would have said mr. dressup but i don't think that show is capable of being evil.

i mean really, it has a tickle trunk.

they were silent and unmoving and i can't swear that their blink reflex was on and suddenly the matrix and it's ilk don't seem so far fetched after all. just what *are* we programming the children for these days?

it's easy to figure out what we're programming the middle eastern children for. hatred and violence to keep the machine turning and the money flowing. i guess the ones here are being taught to hate them, and i see it working but not as well. there is too long a history of different races being hated in this part of the world. or i self select for sane people.

yeah that's probably it.

okay in reality the kids here are being taught that their way is the right way and that they need to be patriotic and to defend their country. not to mention that it's unpatriotic to ask questions. volunteer! volunteer so we don't have to draft! please! the draft will get the people marching on washington... better to indoctrinate the children instead.

if i were a higher technology and i wished to invade this place i would find a way to do it in the water or through the media. very few people manage to remain out of range of media these days after all.

even folks without televisions know what survivor is and you can't walk down a main street of any large city without giant screens overhead blaring their ads for mascara, scientology and the latest hollywood epic piece of trash.

*unheard whispers* consume consume consume consume

now go and consume some more.

the older i get the more grateful i become that my parents didn't get cable until i was in my teens and the happier i am to be from a town where off air was tv ontario, french tv, cbc and one other channel (ctv i think). of those four two and often the third are primarily concerned with education and the like.

although i fall in love with television regularly (emily, lorelai and rory gilmore anyone?) i was actually able to cancel my cable last summer and i do not find myself missing it in particular. there are a few shows that i miss but they are all available to rent on dvd or to purchase. i may have to get netflix only because my local store doesn't have a few of them but nonetheless i don't really care. [also they didn't turn off the basic cable so i still get about six of the shows i like... for now]

i would like to see last season of grey's anatomy but if i never do i don't care. this is such a lovely change and is, i believe, only possible because i spent my childhood and my college years without television.

i only really got addicted when i was living on a farm in the country with satellite. now contrast that with these children sitting in their CAR and watching tv. not watching scenery or the world around them, oh no, watching television instead.

how can you teach your children the truth of the world around them if they never see it?

and even if you're one of the people that never learned to see it yourself? considering the things that are happening in the world these days it seems unwise not to open your eyes and look out the window and then think about what you see.

it's like getting all your news from one channel, where do you find the balance? [part of why i'm so upset that al-jazeera was denied by the crtc, unfortunately their complaints process is unfathomable] i recall once coming home after reading an article in the toronto star and spouting off at dinner.

i knew everything, i mean i had read one article, that was enough for a solid opinion after all. so yeah off a spouting i go and my dad sort of looks at me and says 'have you considered...?' and i go no and then he asks me about something else and points out a couple of things the writer did that demonstrated his personal bias and i sort of get smaller and smaller in my chair but i learned. when they tell you not to believe everything you read? they mean it.

take the following headline for example "the israeli army clashed with hezbullah militants today over..."

interestingly their bias is sitting there and staring at you and you may or may not have noticed it. see how they've told you who the good guys are? i mean it's an army, they have to be more respectable than a bunch of militants after all.

has anyone asked them? i'm thinking they consider themselves an army as well...

please note that i do not take sides in this conflict, i think everyone is wrong and i'm still inclined to believe that in any long running dispute both sides are equally at fault. however, the radio and the media are taking clear sides and swaying world opinion to that same side.

hell the fucking canadian government is taking sides those bastards. i need to write to my mp but there's no point because he's a liberal and the government isn't. i'm heartbroken over this, i feel that canada has lost an essential thing now that will never come back.

our neutrality. our reputation as peace brokers and keepers of the world.

i only pray that we can get it back.
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wow, i had no idea that post was going there.

i'm going climbing, my abs are still sore from that fucking evilly awesome workshop on sunday (shari berkowitz - advanced reformer on the mat) and they need to work out at this point.

i haven't been in so long my nails are clicking on the keyboard right now.