A Life Without Television

As I watched with growing revulsion, the so called “peaceful demonstration” of students in London protesting against increases in fees for higher education and I remember all the violent terrorist acts around the globe, I began to wonder. What is the main objective of most demonstrators and terrorists?

The answer is abundantly clear, to obtain maximum publicity via television. This publicity is designed in both instances to provoke fear. In the case of demonstrators, fear amongst legislators of the side-effects within society of proposed new legislation and where terrorists are concerned fear amongst the general population. The fear in both instances leads to reaction on the part of the legislature. Any action based upon fear is likely to be ill-thought-out and almost certainly lead to a worsening rather than an improving situation.

The target of these comments of mine is not so much the organisers of protests or the master-minds of terrorism (though I have nothing but contempt for both) but television production companies and their journalists. I accept without reservation that television is such an important part of the fabric of society these days that under no circumstances would the majority of people be willing to contemplate its disappearance.

This fact in itself should give the television companies and their journalists pause for thought. Their pictures and the views of their commentators are received in the privacy of people’s homes. Many people are still uncritical of the views of journalists on most subjects other than part politics, so the power wielded by television over the thinking of the general population is enormous. What a responsibility! A responsibility which it seems to me is shrugged off by the use of phrases such as, “we have a duty to report life as it is”.

I agree with the sentiment expressed in this phrase but object most strongly to the manner in which television producers and their owners interpret it. It seems to me they are interested purely in what looks most dramatic (interpret this as ‘most violent’ if you will) on our TV screens. There seems little desire for objectivity in their reporting, they merely accept the ‘hand outs’ and press releases of the terrorists and organisers of demonstrations that turn violent without pausing to question the accuracy or fairness of their contents.

I am forced to conclude that were there no television cameras, the number of ‘peaceful demonstrations’ would decline dramatically, as also would the number of terrorist outrages. Demonstrations and terrorist violence are designed to force ordinary people to accept the bigoted and usually totally unrepresentative views of tiny minorities. Because we are foolish enough to report their statements so uncritically, we bring unreasonable pressure on the decent peace-loving majority of the communities these extremists say they represent. We end up cutting the ground from beneath the feet of the moderates. The more we do it, the more extremists are encouraged, which leads to greater and greater use of violence and terror to support their unrepresentative views.

We cannot allow this to continue surely? Something must be done. It is no use hoping “they” will do something for they won’t. If the TV companies and their owners and journalists are unwilling to act responsibly, one option remains to us. The “on/off” switch! Switch off our TV sets! Refuse to watch news programmes and so-called current affairs programmes. Bearing in mind the number of 24 hour news programmes that have to find ‘news’ of some kind to report continuously, one suspects there is sometimes a very creative interpretation of what constitutes ‘news’ to the producers of these programmes.

In my view the message would soon be received and a sea change would take place in TV reporting. News programmes would be cut back severely, extremists would have to depend more upon reasoned argument to persuade people of their points of view and we would all be freed to take more exercise and spend time talking to one another instead of being glued to news programmes.

I know it is useless to pretend we could ever achieve a future ‘life without television’ but we all need to think a great deal more about the impact it has upon our basic freedoms. Television of itself, just like the wheel, fire, atomic energy and gunpowder, poses no threat but the use to which it is put by unscrupulous people both in the so-called ‘free world’ and elsewhere, is a huge threat to human advancement and happiness. It is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity – a challenge to use our inventions responsibly and not to further narrow, self-interest. How we respond to the challenge as individuals will determine what kind of world our grand-children and our great grand-children will inherit.