Last night
the mania made manifest, know as the “Super Bowl” took place. From what I have heard or noticed on screen
scrawls during programs that are supposed to be about actual news, ticket
prices begin at $2800. In hopes of
increasing the revenues generated by fan who actually seem to think that a
gladiatorial melee between two greatly overpaid stables of athletes has any
valid social significance beyond enriching illegal gambling, the “game was
televised. Thus the fans who don’t have thousands of dollars to throw away for
a day of beer-soaked half-attention to a game can be persuaded to offer up a
portion of their more meager incomes buying dangerous foodstuffs, newer and
bigger televisions, and, of course, beer; gallons and gallons of mostly cheap
and flavorless beer.
During the
previous week, I’ve ignored newsreaders drooling over the “leaked” commercials
slated to be aired at a mind-numbing rate per minute during the “game.” There seems to be a fascination with
commercials aired during the “game” Companies apparently use this over-priced
time to debut sales pitches. Obviously,
football has become secondary to the advertisements when they build in delays
in the “game” to pitch consumption.
Having no
interest in football (or basketball) and no interest in the cheaper American
beer breweries that will compete to see how many discarded cans and bottles
they can provide for erosion control along our roads and parking lots, I never
watch this circus.
Mind you, I’m
not opposed to material goods and fine food.
But grease-laden pizza, and “celebrities” I neither recognize nor care
to know pushing me to drink bad beer and buy ever bigger, ever louder
televisions to watch and listen to programs that have become less about plot
and more about audio and visual effects don’t motivate me to part with money or
time.
Yesterday, I
watched “The Crucible.” It is my opinion
that we have our own little witch hunt developing in New York now. Conversion disorders do exist but the rapid
onset of multiple instances among a populace prone to shared hysteria and/or
hoaxes suggests to me something beyond a need for medical intervention. Rather, a serious talk about hoaxes and frauds
interspersed with a stark, harsh review of possible legal consequences, if
combined with confiscation of cell phones, landlines, and computers, so as to
render the group unable to conspire without direct parental overview, just
might spur an amazingly quick and complete recovery. It’s certainly worth a try.
As for the
commercials, we were once told that cable television would remove them from the
programming we were offered. They seem
to have only become more prevalent, more invasive, and more obnoxious. A large portion of our population spent time
actively watching advertisements for things that they did not need, could not
afford, and had the intellectual depth of Sarah Palin and her prayer warriors
as they were prayed over to prevent harm coming to them from witchcraft. We can do better with that, can’t we.
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