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<title> Frustration reliever of a not-so-brave new world </title>
On returning from school, my legs aching from sitting on the bus for too long, my mind stupefied by the engines roar, I come home to television. It's a bliss. This essay is a reflection on that bliss, that frustration reliever at the heart of every western family. As most people, I am of two minds when it comes to television and it's those two minds that I am going to try to sort out. Are we, as Postman feels, slowly being suffocated by televised media? Or is television perhaps essential to our survival in the world we have created for ourselves? I don't propose to answer my questions, I merely intend to reflect on them.
	Television has a good side. There's no question about that, at least not in my mind. There are some really good shows on the blessed thing, and this is the problem, right? It is a sympathetic drug. It keeps us company when we're lonely and afraid. If we are in a group, it absolves us of having to deal with uncomfortable silences and on top of that, it's an awesome baby-sitter. We can easily frown upon sleaze like the Ricki Lake-show. That kind of programming certainly demeans us and it's what comes to mind when we talk about bad television. It's only when the afternoon passes and prime time comes around that it becomes difficult to take a clear stand. How can we say that the news, the cultural programs and the expensive, American drama-shows are bad? They're not.
	So there I am, watching hour after hour of mindless crap, hoping something good will come on. When I finally manage to tear myself from the screen, I do so with a feeling of waste. Another day has passed and I didn't get anything more worthwhile out of it than Dawson's Creek. Television is consuming my mind. This is the downside. While I don't really agree with Postman when he says that television can only be put to use as an entertainer, I still feel that too much entertainment has entered me through visual channels. I don't need any more sitcoms or talkshows. But who's to blame? Television in itself is not responsible for what is happening. I don't even think that producers are ultimately to be blamed, even though I must say, people like Rupert Murdoch come across as pretty close to evil. No, it is everybody, as individuals and as a collective, who must do something about it. I must press the off-switch on the remote myself. 
	In the introduction I asked the question of whether television is essential to survival in this world. Maybe that's a terrifying question. Maybe it's a way of saying that we have created a society too horrible to survive without the aid of easily digested entertainment. Nevertheless, in the world we inhabit, and by "we" I mean people of Western Europe, television is very useful for relieving frustration. And there is so much frustration to relieve. We watch it and get to dream ourselves away without much effort. In the situation we are in, this is a good thing. I'd rather not lose my access to television. On the other hand, one could argue that we are in this situation because we read to few books and watch to much television. 
When I started writing this text I knew I wouldn't come up with anything even resembling an answer to the questions. All I have managed to do is get a hold on some of my thoughts on the subject. I know I like television. I like what it does for me and I like a lot of what is on it. On the other hand I don't like what it does to me. Television is, whatever anybody says, a great media for spreading information. It has drawbacks of course. Maybe some people believe in what they see on the tube too much, but maybe they would have believed newspapers in a similarly unhealthy fashion. As long as there is an off-switch on it, we have a choice. That's what we're after, isn't it.
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