I dedicate a few moments of my forgettable days to go out and sit on public benches. Doctors and psychiatrists say that it is essential that you get air, even if it is contaminated, and move your tired anatomy, do without observing the enigmas that inhabit the ceiling and walls of your house for a few hours. Sometimes I share those benches with the elderly. Fortunately, we are the only ones who are not connected to mobile phones and other indispensable technological wonders. Sitting down, we avoid being run over by the huge crowd of passers-by absorbed by these devices without apologizing. A very old man told me one day: “All I have done in my life is work and watch television in my free time.” I don’t know if his work was joyous or suffering, but to think that he now only spends his endless time watching and listening to TV gave me a chill. Also pity.
I also turn it on in the morning. Not out of masochism but out of obligation, and the result is as tiring as it is terrifying. Most of the people I know assure me that, if they have any interest in knowing the news of the world, although all of Christ is logically engrossed in “what about me”, they do it through the internet. Therefore, I imagine that the vast majority of general television viewers belong to the fifth or sixth age. And what do televisions sell us, besides incessant and hateful advertising? Well, horror and morbidity disguised as information, bad theater in the name of its heroic search for the truth. And the parishioners of that apparatus may feel safe at home watching the parade outside. It happens with horror movies. It scares us and many viewers take pleasure in the certainty that what they see on the screen is fiction, that they are not going to experience it in reality.
I consider not reconnecting with the bug. Television has allowed me for several decades to write what I want. The medium was just a pretext and the message makes me cringe. I can continue giving my superficial opinion of the state of affairs without having to suffer the monster.
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