Tuning Out

I don’t watch television much any more. I started talking about that a couple of days ago before going off on a rant about some stupidity that I did watch. But I don’t as a rule, watch TV that is.

There’s a few reasons for that. Mostly I’m fairly busy doing all sorts of other things but the core reason is the constant messages that are promoted on TV.

There’s this accepted theme of “this is how we think” that’s played out on TV, newspapers, radio stations and to a lesser extent online and then again in workplaces, restaurants, gyms or wherever people congregate. And I really find that hard to deal with. It’s really difficult to have a conversation with someone when they’re talking from a basic premise that’s accepted as truth, when you don’t actually agree with that.

For instance, it’s taken as gospel that anyone who’s fat is fat because they eat way to much and don’t do enough exercise. And yet, if you talk with fat people and really take the time to hear of their experience, you’ll find that lots of fat people don’t eat very much at all and they do exercise regularly.

Equally there’s thin people who eat lots of junk and don’t exercise and never gain weight. They’re often referred to with annoyance by those thin people who have to eat a calorie controlled diet and exercise religiously to maintain their size.

Both ideas are a “known” part of modern culture and yet both say the exact same thing. Diet and exercise don’t actually play that much role in the size of your body.

And yet what’s accepted in thin people is denied in fat people. Why is that? Seriously, I really wish I understood, and I don’t particularly think it’s just another way that fat people are being stigmatized.

I do wonder how much of that stems from a basic unwillingness to think about things. One of the ladies I worked with was talking, the other day, about having a radio playing whilst she was working and how much she enjoyed that. Otherwise she was alone with her thoughts. I smiled to myself because I love the opportunity to be alone with my thoughts. Again, different perceptions. I’m not suggesting I’m right and she’s wrong, or vice versa for that matter, I’m suggesting we have different realities and different ways of viewing the world.

And isn’t that the core of a lot of the problems we, as a global society, face. We all hold different perceptions and yet some people continue to view that as Truth. So we have bombings and racism, sizism and all sorts of different sections of society busily promoting themselves as being better than everyone else.

That’s why I turn off the TV and close the newspaper. I’m not better, or worse for that matter, than anyone else, male or female, and I don’t like to be constantly told that I am.

So I tune out. I don’t watch TV, though I do enjoy a movie from time to time. I don’t read magazines. What I’m trying to develop is the ability to look at something that’s presented to me and determine from my own reality, whether I agree with it or not. I want to form my own opinions and live my own life without other peoples limiting points of view.

It’s all kind of airy fairy and sometimes I wonder what the hell I’m even doing. I feel better when I don’t watch TV though. There’s too many thoughts that really bother me.