6 April
Learning Curve
I’m not really one for TV. Like Corporate Team Building events, the very concept annoys me. It’s not that there isn’t anything good on, it’s more that I dislike the way it sucks you in and you don’t even know it. Without even realizing it, people all over the world have become slaves to a flat screen. The worst thing? They see no reason to be anything else, because what is there to be? The TV, in some places, is the centre of the universe which everything else revolves around.
That said, TV is vital for the communication of ideas. Documentaries enable us insight in to worlds far out of our comfort-zones and soaps offer unlimited potential for entertainment and escape. Without it all of us would also probably know a lot less than we do. One thing I didn’t know until recently, for example, was how badly some Muslim’s are treated while just going about their daily lives. Something which sounds obvious, but in fact doesn’t really hit home until you see it for yourself. Until you get drawn in.
I won’t say I didn’t think about it before, because that’s not true. I thought about it often, but I suppose I only scratched the surface. What the show did, quite brutally, was immerse me deeper: quickly my friends and I started to wonder how we would react in a similar situation…A confrontation, or verbal / physical abuse. Thoughts which came hard and fast, like a cricket bat over the head.
So next time you see someone being hassled for no good reason, open your mouth and say something. You’d want someone to do the same for you, wouldn’t you?