(Semi-President Butch’s total lack of affect upon hearing the news of 9/11.)
So a few VERY bright Cornell professors did some statistical studies and came up with a set of interesting results regarding the literal epidemic of autism in the so–called “developed” world and television usage in homes. Read it here if you so desire…it’s pretty heavy going… and about the authors here if you wish.
Long story short? They found that rising autism rates positively coincided with rising TV watching rates in a number of states. There are a lot of ifs, ands and buts about the study…it is truly impossible to ascertain the real hours spent watching TV by a sample taken over a broad range of subjects, let alone young children, for example…so they used previous studies that equate precipitation averages with TV watching rates plus cable and satellite subscription percentages to come to their conclusions. The study makes sense overall.
Read on for more.
There is a good article about this study in Slate magazine…TV Really Might Cause Autism…that pretty fairly sketches out the results of the analysis and some possible loopholes, but to me the most interesting part of the whole thing (And the proof of the pudding as far as I am concerned…other than common sense, of course, to which I will refer later on in this piece.) is the immediate and truly bizarre reaction of the major media.
Under the aegis of “TIME IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CNN” (And you should ALWAYS be careful of what systems like those try to foist off on you as “news.”) you can read a classic defensive hit piece that is oh so fairly titled A Bizarre Study Suggests That Watching TV Causes Autism…this before the damned thing is ever officially published. I am sure that if the study does not sink from public view quickly the other bastions of the hypno-media will soon chime in against it as well.
I mean…it’s just business, right?
Nuthin’ personal.
Bada-BING!!!
Now for the common sense.
For literally millions of years human children have grown to adulthood without much in the way of passive intake of information.
They played. They ate and slept and went to school. They read…some more, some less. They listened to tales. They ADVENTURED. And in all of those activities, they were to a great degree involved in the action. Reading…even listening to stuff being read or learning in school…demands a certain level of action. Of participation. Translation from the word to the inner image. They are ALIVE.
But watching TV?
To young, unformed minds especially?
TV, with its barrage of undifferentiated images?
Cartoon characters for a few minutes, then an ad for poisonous cereals, then one for poisonous hamburgers, then a blurb for Mommy about the hottest thing ever crime show, then back to the most often quite senseless (as in making no real sense at all), Scooby-Doo/Spongepants Whatsisname empty bullshit tranquilizer dart TV…???
The child’s mind simply gives up. And (s)he stares.
No affect. (In psychology, affect is the scientific term used to describe a subject’s externally displayed mood. Wikipedia)
Blunted affect. (Blunted affect is the scientific term describing a lack of emotional reactivity on the part of an individual. Wikipedia)
The first doctor to use the word `schizophrenia”, Eugen Bleuler:
Blunted Affect
Loosening of Associations
Ambivalence
Autism
The main point that I have been trying to make on left blogworld for almost two years now with my NEWSTRIKE!!! and MEDIASTRIKE!!! ideas is that watching TV short-circuits the normal perceptual and critical processes of the human mind, and that the whole media system is set up to SUPPORT that action.
THAT is why TV advertising works so well.
There is no affect.
Only effect.
“I’m suddenly hungry for some chemical-laced, fat soaked poisons. MMMMMM!!!!”
“Y’know, Mabel…that there Preznit is makin’ some good sense. Pass the Fritos. wouldja? Nuclear war? Mebbe it’s whut’s S’POSE to happen. News is over. Time to go to bed. `Night now…”
“YAWN…”
This “autism” thing?
What if it goes right on up the age scale?
Huh?
Kids can be “a little” autistic, right? There are degrees. They have even invented new names for the problem. ADD. Asperger’s Syndrome. (Steven Wright’s HDADD. The kid doesn’t pay attention to much, but when he does it’s it’s in some serious Hi-Def.)
Where does “autism” end and not giving a shit begin?
When the carbines come out of the school lockers? “Looka HERE, Ralphie. It’s just like the VIDEO GAME!!!”
Where do childhood diseases of the mind, body and soul end and adult diseases begin?
“Nothin’ on the news again tonight, George. Jes’ 600,000 dead Iraqis and Preznit Butch stayin’ the old course. Who’s on Letterman?”
Are the solid 38% ButchCo voters clinically insane?
Suffering from blunted affect?
Certainly the words “Loosening of Associations” and “Ambivalence” would apply to most of the voting population of the United States.
Are we ALL fucking crazy?
Would ButchCo even EXIST without the cooperation of a media system that spreads the word/image viral epidemic of not giving a good shit about ANYTHING?
And most importantly…because I am sure that a large percentage of the people reading this little missive are of the “Oh. Yeah. Not ME, though.” persuasion…
How much TV do YOU watch?
How “autistic” are YOU?
Where do YOU draw the line?
Hmmmm…???
Severe deficits in social interaction and communication?
“Oh, man…not the KIDS again!!!”
Or “I really don’t want to talk to anybody. Leave me the fuck ALONE!!!”
An extremely limited range of activities and interests.
Off to work, back home, TV, sleep, back to work…fix the house on the weekend, TV, eat, sleep, here comes Monday again…
“Repetitive, stereotyped behaviors?”
Maybe…working and voting for Democratic candidates who have for over 50 years either OVERWHELMINGLY supported the status quo that quite plainly has gotten us into our present state of near collapse or lost big time to those who do?
Seriously paying attention to a mass media that has been complicit in the takeover of America by fascists like Cheney and Rumsfeld since before the crack of the rifle faded from human hearing in Dealy Plaza?
Hmmmmm…???
“But…y’ gotta LIVE here!!! Can’t pay attention to EVERYTHING!!! It’s just too confusing.”
Isn’t that quite possibly what is being formulated in the being of an autistic child?
Autistic America. Look away.
Abu Ghraib.
600,000 dead Iraqis so’s we can drive Escalades and eat Greaseburgers.
Opposition politicians who support the people they oppose.
Look away.
Too confusing.
Just what they want you to do.
Were the slaves who survived slavery “autistic”?
Almost HAD to be.
Either that or spiritual geniuses.
You either look at it and get so angry that you risk almost certain death or…you don’t look at it.
Autism.
It’s what’s for dinner.
American cuisine, 2006.
YUM!!!
Eat up.
There’s plenty more where THAT came from.
Or…
NEWSTRIKE!!!
and
MEDIASTRIKE!!!
The only true revolt left open to us.
Disarmed and disenfranchised?
There is still INFOSTRIKE!!!
VAYA!!!
Heal thyself.
TURN THE SHIT OFF AND WAKE THE FUCK UP, GODDAMNIT!!!
AG
