Friends of the Earth
Action Briefing Oct 99/Nov 99
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Birmingham Friends of the Earth Action Briefing Oct 99/Nov 99 |
Sorry, I can't write anything this issue. I have had my mind blown by a happening ....... an experience. My reality has been turned upside down. I have always had this distrust, this hatred of television. I was a user though, an addict even. I couldn't stop myself. I tried to cut down. Keep it pure, you know, the educational stuff: Open University, documentaries, Newsnight, oh yeah sport (wow, the adrenaline rush you get from sport !) and comedy. Comedy makes you feel happy, you giggle a lot, it's harmless ...... so I thought. One thing leads to another and I became a flicker. I sat there mocking the contestants as they made fools of themselves in front of an audience of millions (BBC1, ITV), hundreds of thousands (BBC2, Channel 4), or thousands (Channel 5 ,satellite). There's one licking a lolly lasciviously hoping that Jim Sugar Daddy Davidson will give them a lotta lolly. I make a note of the phone number at the end of the show. I sip on my ice cold Bud while watching the adverts, acknowledging the directorship but worried about the people who buy unwanted and expensive products because of the adverts. Those people are nearly as stupid as the car adverts. Of course size doesn't matter, it's the way you handle her, the speed, the quicker the better. God I haven't had a coffee in weeks! I begin to sweat in my Calvin Klein's. Flick. Fashion shows recycle your money. Flick. Westerns distract us from what's happening in the rest of the world. Until we round up all the baddies and hang 'em high, we will not put a stop to the rustling, pillaging, pollution, starvation, torture. Flick. A home movie show. People videoing themselves, each other, a dog, a cat, an earthquake, a typhoon, a daylight robbery, all for a hundred bucks while the TV moguls recoup the costs in one advert, the other eight are profit. Flick. Interactive TV. Flick. I fall asleep.
It was then that I had the nightmarish dream. I was carried forward to a time (circa 2002) when technology and our lust for knowledge, power and wealth had changed the world out of all recognition. Human kind, through a mixture of D.N.A., genetics and implants, had evolved by Frankenstein proportions. Everyone had miniature video cameras behind the retinas, antennae in the ears, transmitters in the teeth and a silicon chip on every membrane. Everyone was on-line able to tap into each others experiences instantly. Yet the world was environmentally pure; all food organic, everything energy efficient, zero pollution and poverty unheard of. How? If a company director wanted to dump its waste instead of dealing with it; the World Bank lend to a dictator instead of a co-operative, or a millionaire planned to make another million instead of giving one away, millions of people would hack into them. They had two options: change their minds or system overload and shutdown. They all changed their minds hence a perfect world. Now can you see why I could not write an article? I have seen the future, the light and am converted. I am no longer an addict. I love and cherish television, the forefather of this evolution. I watch it while eating my genetically modified food. When Ronald McDonald smiles he lets me know that there is nothing wrong with the world and I must order a Big Mac and fries for £1.99.