Seems to contradict this book.
Aside from the language, it looks like you wouldnât need to change that too much to make it sound a lot more progressive. Sure, people of color arenât being kept as actual slaves anymore, but being stuck in communities with no real investment apart from welfare and no sense of purpose isnât much of an improvement. Perhaps Americans in general should consider whether the things that they wring their hands over (family breakdown, criminality, lack of ambition) are more due to the toxic atmosphere that people have to live in and less to some weakness of character associated with their skin colour?
He may not have meant all of those things, but maybe people like Rand Paul were already looking for a way out if they never even attempted to claim that his words were taken out of context.
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I think the quote makes a good point. TV has been described as âthe opiate of the massesâ.
The âsmarter, richerâ people I know generally donât watch much TV but prefer to pick and choose what occupies their spare time. Some of those activities would probably be described as âworkâ even if itâs a labor of love for them.
Watching Judge Judy wonât make you a high powered lawyer anymore than watching the Kardashians is going to make you rich spoiled brat.
Iâve got everything except the Soma. Whereâs my Soma?
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You might have the causation reversed. If TV is the opiate of the masses, then the people who watch it at the people who need to dope themselves. The people who donât bother with TV and pursue labour of love may enjoy living in Rat Park but a lot of other people self-medicate with TV because they just need to stop feeling what they feel all day.
Maybe thatâs unreasonably bleak, but if rats will choose to waive the morphine if they are sufficiently interested in their lives, then I would think that people might choose to waive the TV as well (barring, of course, the fact that there are very interesting TV shows and itâs fine to watch TV if you want to).
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Would you prefer that in Adderall, Prozac, Xanax or Cannabis* flavor?
*May not be legal in all jurisdictions.
As someone who works anywhere between 50-60 hours at a âblue collarâ job a week I must say, I view my job as a very small extension of who I am. Iâm sure this is a little bit slated- I mean donât want to think of myself as a âcompany manâ- but considering the fact that I can make my money and go home and do what I please- itâs pretty niceâŚ
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