Four Arguments For The Elimination of Television
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688082742/104-8922886-1087944?v=glance&n=283155
Reviewers say -
very reasonable and persuasive, September 5, 2001
Mander presents four main arguments, and dozens of
corollary arguments, against having television as any
part of our lives. Any one of them alone might seem
plausible but perhaps overblown, but the overall
effect of their combined presentation is overwhelming.
I closed the book absolutely revulsed by the nature of
this technology and how it has manipulated us. I can
anecdotally attest to its ill effects in my case,
certainly -- I can recognize thousands of brands but
only a few plants. My direct knowledge of the world
has been reduced by about 20,000 hours' worth of
actual experience interacting with real people, time
that I spent instead glued to the boob tube, absorbing
hundreds of thousands of commercials. I don't have a
TV anymore, but whenever I am around one that's turned
on, I find myself hypnotically drawn to stare at the
screen, irrespective of content. This occurs even if I
am in the middle of an interesting conversation -- to
my embarrassment and dismay, my eyes dart as of their
own accord toward the flickering images. I have to
stand facing away from the TV to prevent this. What I
consider to be my natural aesthetic sense has been
perverted such that I can hardly look at a man or
woman -- or myself in a mirror -- without
automatically, subtly judging the person's appearance
against an internal metric, a deep and narrow palette
of beautiful faces and lithe body parts, implanted by
hundreds of thousands of advertising images. This
phenomenon subtly cheapens and distorts many
interactions I have with people.
....
Just scan the table of contents to Mander's book, ...,
and you will begin to see the array of influences
these forces have in our culture and in our individual
minds.
Please buy the book, give it to everyone as gifts this
year, ***especially to parents of small children***. I
see parents use the TV as a pacifier, but as you will
read, it is an incredibly high price to pay just to
keep the kids temporarily quiet.
....
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57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
Cuts to the heart of what's wrong with this society,
December 10, 2000
Reviewer: David Yeh - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Written in the late 1970's by a former advertising
executive, Four Arguments is a coherent diatribe
against television. He explores four areas: (1)
Television as a poor mediator of experience; (2)
television as a way to influence audiences'
perceptions en masse; (3) the "dumbing-down" effects
of TV on the human being; and (4) the inherent biases
of television and how they limit real information
flow. The first couple of arguments are more attacks
on capitalism and the development of television as a
capitalist tool, but overall, they are solid
statements that stand on their own.
However, TV has become a central part of the American
lifestyle, and it would be hard, if not impossible, to
get rid of. But I definitely feel the truth of his
arguments. When I was in India, much of the time at my
host family's place, they would sit around watching
television while doing chores. It felt empty somehow.
Where was the richness of the culture? Here I am in
India, and I'm sitting here watching a stupid Hindi
movie instad of interacting in a meaningful way. And
when I came back home, I felt the shock of the media
doubly. Everything on TV looked slick, fake,
contrived, absolutely ridiculous. We have been so
inoculated to all of this by now that it's hard to see
unless you go away and come back again.
It's tough to break any sort of addiction, and I think
television is an addiction. It is part of the problem
of a society that always looks for the next best
thing, that promotes the loudest, noisiest, most
violent thing, that can't sit still for half an hour
to soak in the beauty of quiet stillness.
In some ways, this book is hard to read. It's easy to
grasp but it's difficult to take this kind of attack
on such a commonly accepted lifestyle even though you
know it's wrong. Plus it's a lot of information coming
at you at once; I had to digest it in little bits and
pieces to give it time to sink in.
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1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Why there is a mix of good and bad reviews, October 2,
2005
Reviewer: Bruce Quinn "reader_in_LA" (los angeles, ca
United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
I'm in the camp with the good reviews, but I think I
understand some of those who say "his arguments are
ridiculous." I always took this book as part satire
and black comedy. For example, he interviews a
researcher at Stanford who says something like,
"Televison beams photons at 20,000 electron volts
directly into your eyes." "And the effects of that?"
"Completely unknown." Someone referred to the 2005
Truman Capote movie as playing "like a mad scientist
with a lisp" and I sort of imagine some of Mander's
text being similar. I'm sure some of this was written
tongue in cheek - but could I be seeing humor when it
wasn't intended. Well, I don't think so, but who
knows. I think this is why some find the book
brilliant and others find certain arguments
"ridiculous".
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
If you want to keep feeling good about television and
technology, hang out in best buy and don't read "4
Arguments", July 31, 2005
Reviewer: Magnus - See all my reviews
Written by a former "big six" ad executive, "Four
Arguments" is a book that CONSIDERS the long term
effects of television and other post industrial
revolution technologies on:
1. The critical thinking skills of human beings
2. Our relationship to natural environments.
3. The physical and mental health of human beings.
4. The knowledge/power balance in a democratic
society.
(not in that order)
CONS
1. Not a simple read. This book is probably organized
too well. Mander coherently and methodically plumbs
through each argument and sub argument with no regard
for the lazy or quick fix reader. His adherence to his
own structure is relentless. The payoff is cumulative
as the book gathers momentum. Clear but tedious.
2. This book is pretty depressing. For me the
resulting sobriety was worth the cold shower, but
perhaps not for everyone. Only the most determined of
readers will be able to reject all of ideas presented
in this book, and unfortunately this book offers a
bleak but well painted picture of our predicament.
Blue pill enthusiasts beware.
PROS
1. This book asks important and obvious
questions(You'll say "yeah that is a good question!,
why didn't I think of that?) about how man made
technologies and environments are affecting us. They
are questions that most of us would agree need to be
answered, yet amazingly, few if any of which have been
adequately answered to this day. (The book was written
in the 70's)
2. This book is both spell binding and spell breaking.
Mander reaches into the silent, unsure parts of our
minds that we have become experts at ignoring. After
making it about a third of the way into the read, I
experienced a tremendous feeling of relief at being
able to fully identify and articulate concerns that
had previously eluded the full grasp of my conscious
mind. For better or worse, my fears now had a voice
that I could engage in the light of reason.
3. Mander presents a well supported and balanced
argument. He is very clear about the fact that he is
merely raising questions and considering issues. He
admits his shortcomings in not being a scientist, and
repeatedly apologizes for not being able to make hard
scientific conclusions. He is consistent about
differentiating fact from opinion Although the book at
times feels somewhat conspiracy theory- ish, this is
probably more due to the nature of the topic, than to
lack of rigor or objectivity on the part of the
author.
Perhaps one of the most convincing reasons to check
this book out is the reactions of its critics. They
consisently use words like "insane, ridiculous, and
nonsense" ...in violent wholesale rejections of the
ideas in this book. Its always fascinating to me when
people idignantly deny their dependence/addiction to a
particular habit/technology while simultaneously
baring their teeth at anything or anyone suggesting
that they curb their use of it.
"4 Arguments" is both disturbing, and compelling. In
all fairness, I should probably mention that since I
read it three years ago, I've fallen into the habit of
calling it my favorite book.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Out of the Garden, March 7, 2005
Reviewer: Jorge Gringo Mexicano (Sonora, Mexico) - See
all my reviews
This book has made my year. I cannot believe the
reviews (and I have read them all) that blast Mander
for badly constructed arguments.
Call it what you will; Mander has created a master
review of the relationship between our banishment from
the Garden to a life of servitude to work and to the
attainment of knowledge. Television, in its perverse
way, has kept most of us from that knowledge, because
of its inherent flaws.
It is inherently boring, but in the gross cooption and
misadaption of artistry and faith among the best of
us, television has reduced us to our lowest common
denominator: boring people without self understanding.
We are ALL suspect; I am just as guilty of being a
stupid TV couch potato as anyone. In all my years of
watching it, I cannot say that I have learned any real
lesson in life from it.
Like Mander says, television robs the brain of its
ability to think. When one sees a movie after reading
a novel - Lord of the Rings is yet another example -
our imagination is replaced by the "reality", and we
forget what we have imagined before.
If critics of this book believe otherwise, I hope they
can tell us how the substitution is better than our
individual imaginations.
I only hope that Mander is fast at work on his second
set of arguments!
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