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Essay # 2 Nowadays, more and more people grow increasingly incapable of understanding a simple fact that the notions of objectiveness and badness do not necessarily contradict each other, which in its turn; can be explained by existential specifics of post-industrial reality. Ever since the promoters of neo-Liberal agenda had managed to instil citizens with the idea that the expression of ones political opinions in clear and coherent manner represents an offence against the spirit of political correctness, people are being naturally afraid of doing it. This is the reason why when they come across publicly expressed opinions that cannot be freely interpreted; they automatically conclude that such opinions must be biased by definition. The validity of this statement can be illustrated with mainstream Medias attitude towards the web site Turnoffyourtv.
Com, which contains articles that discuss the dampening effect of television on the minds of people addicted to it. Despite the fact that conclusions of these articles are logically substantiated, the very referrals to Turnoffyourtv. Com, during the course of conducting an academic research, are being commonly regarded as unacceptable, because of sites badness. However, when we take a closer look at the site, it will appear that the true reason why materials available on Turnoffyourtv. Com are being disregarded as biased, is not because they endorse intolerance, or because they are stereotypical, but because the very purpose of sites existence is declared to be the promotion of Free Speech, and one does not have to be overly smart, to understand that it is namely the very concept of Free Speech that hawks of political correctness hate with utter passion. The self-proclaimed experts on tolerance try their best to convince as many people as possible to think of Free Speech as being strongly associated with Nazis and with Americas far-right, while implying that this should serve as a good enough reason to institutionalize the practice of ideological censorship in America.
However, in this paper, we will dare to disagree with hook-nosed experts. During the course of conducting our research, we are going to refer to Turnoffyourtv. Com as an absolutely legitimate source of information on counter-productive effects of television. We need to understand that in his site (Turnoffyourtv.
Com), Ron Kaufman does not talk of TV as technological phenomenon that it is being in heritably evil. He simply suggests that TVs ever-increasing association of entertainment cannot benefit Americans in the long run, because by watching TV, they become incapable of distinguishing between information of socio-political importance and between absolutely irrelevant gossips about celebrities, intentionally presented by Medias as worthy of viewers attention. In its turn, this contributes more then anything else to the process of American society becoming marginalized. This is the main idea of most of the articles, available on Kaufman's web site, which are subdivided into following categories: Reviews, General Commentary, Health and Education, Programs and Rating, Networks, International, Poems and Essays and Public Opinions. It is understood, of course, that the authors of these articles express their strongly negative attitude towards commercialized TV as such that undermines the integrity of American nation from within.
For example, in his article A Nation of Morons, Kaufman makes a very good point while suggesting that: Television does nothing to serve the public interest or the greater good of our nation. Instead, TV is simply a video advertising display that panders to the lowest common standard in an effort to sell products for private commercial gain. Producers at TV networks are interested in making money, not upholding moral values or curing social injustices (Kaufman 2007). Can this serve as the proof of authors badness? We do not think so, because there are no logically articulated but opposing articles can be found in existence. Educated people, capable of utilising their sense of logic, simply cannot come to conclusion that contemporary American TV does a great deal of public good.
It might very well be the case that those individuals that associate the very purpose of their lives with watching ball game 24 / 7 have different view on the subject, but their opinions are highly irrational; therefore, they cannot be seriously considered. Turnoffyourtv. Com is nothing but a place where negative articles about the effects of television are being structurally organized, according their original purpose. However, there are plenty of similar articles can be found even on web sites that are being commonly referred to as neutral. For example, the conclusions of Anastasia Austins article Why Are We So Obsessed with Celebrities? , found on Buzzle. Com (neutral web site about entertainment), qualify it for being featured on Kaufman's site: Come on, admit it.
Unless youve been pushing up daisies for the last several months, you know all about what has been happening with Paris Hilton. Its nothing to be ashamed of in fact, coverage of the trials and tribulations of Ms. Hilton have been inescapable. One literally cannot get away from the coverage of her life, seen in American news outlets as the most important news of the day, trumping trade relations, looming nuclear tensions between countries, political drama, you name it (Austin 2007).
This Austins article articulates essentially the same ideas as the ones expressed in Kaufman's article The Breasts of Britney Spears vs. The Military Industrial Complex: Television can easily show the trials and tribulations of Britney and her breasts - but can it show a serious and complicated issue? The emergence of the military industrial complex within the United States should be a topic of hot discussion on TV news. With ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and American troops deployed in 135 countries around the world, military preparedness and armaments should be on TV non-stop.
It isn't (Kaufman 2004). Nevertheless, nobody suggests that there is anything wrong with Austins conclusions, whereas this particular Kaufman's article is being commonly regarded as biased, and therefore unacceptable. Why is that? The answer is simple - The Breasts of Britney Spears vs.
The Military Industrial Complex is being featured on web site that explicitly declares its allegiance to the concept of Free Speech, this is why it became the subject of attacks. At the same time, the articles available at Turnoffyourtv. Com, can only be referred as moderately sensible at best, because, while containing a lot of factual information about the negative effects of TV on citizens state of mind, they do not provide readers with the insight on why more and more Americans continue to become increasingly obsessed with watching ET, Cops or Treasure Island. This is because authors of these articles had failed to adopt a historical perspective on the subject of discussion. Had they done, it would become clear to them that todays America is nothing but a contemporary equivalent of Roman Empire, in time of its decline; therefore, what TV does to Americans should be thought of as symptom, rather then the actual diagnosis.
In the last century, before ancient Rome was being completely sacked by barbarians, its citizens consisted of crowds of degenerates, who were only preoccupied with indulgence in perverse sex and with watching gladiator fights. These people used to purposelessly roam among Romes great buildings, built by their ancestors, without being able to understand how this was possible, in the first place. At this time, there was only one way for Roman Emperors to win public support by continuing to stage ever-more graphic and bloodier gladiator shows. Only a direct onslaught on citizens senses could revitalize them for a while.
The degenerate Romans in 5 th century A. D. , preoccupied with celebration of diversity, were simply incapable of paying attention to the news of social or political importance, unless they sensed that such news somehow related to entertainment. We all know what happened to Rome, as result it was being sacked by barbarians, who despite their lack of cultural refinement possessed a plenty of biological vitality. Nowadays, there are many objective reasons to suggest that America (and the whole Western world, in general) is simply following the footsteps of spiritually corrupted Romans, with growing popularity of celebrity news being simply a symptom that there is something rotten in the kingdom of Denmark.
Therefore, we cannot agree with Kaufman's naive belief that, by reading materials available on his web site, may result in people deciding to smack their TV sets with hammer. American television simply reflects the fact that majority of Americans are being deprived of spiritual qualities that allowed their ancestors to build and to maintain civilization in the New World. They are now being solemnly concerned with seeking entertainment and Media owners simply capitalise on this. It would not be very smart, on their part, not to do this. To conclude this paper, we will need to state once again that there are absolutely no logical reasons to think of Kaufman web sites content as biased; therefore, students should actually be encouraged to refer to it, while working on their academic assignments that have to do with discussion of psychological effects of TV.
In fact, it is namely the web sites marked with the Blue Ribbon of Free Speech, which should be thought of as the only credible sources of information on variety of different subjects, simply because these web sites are not affiliated with any corporate agenda and are not dependent on advertising. The fact that articles found on these web sites are being written in clear and straightforward manner only add validity to the ideas expressed in these articles. We need to understand that the very term badness, in its contemporary sounding, is deprived of any semantic meaning, because according to the hawks of political correctness, badness can even be found in fairy tales such as Seven Dwarfs and Snow White, which according to the experts on tolerance should be called Seven Vertically Challenged Males and Caucasian Female. There can be no doubt as to the fact that Turnoffyourtv. Com contain materials that reveal the actual agenda of Media magnates in U. S.
as being counter-productive to the well-being of this nation. However, this does give us a right to refer to Kaufman's web site as biased. After all, it is not Kaufman's fault that the overwhelming majority of these magnates consider the notion of Free Speech as such that pose clear and immediate danger to their commercial agenda. Bibliography: Austin, Anastasia Why Are We So Obsessed with Celebrities? . 7 Mar. 2007. Buzzle.
Com. 11 Feb. 2009. web Gibbon, Edward The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. London: Everyman's Library, 1993. Kaufman, Ron A Nation of Morons. 2007. Turnoffyourtv. Com, 11 Feb. 2009.
web Kaufman, Ron The Breasts of Britney Spears vs. The Military Industrial Complex. 2004. Turnoffyourtv. Com, 11 Feb. 2009.
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Research essay sample on Military Industrial Complex Trials And Tribulations
