BLOW UP YOUR T.V.

I've always adminred John Prine's work, both as a songwriter and performer.  Many years ago he wrote a song called Blow Up Your T.V., with these words: Blow up you t.v., go to the counry, build you a home.  Eat a lot of peaches, have a lot of children, they'll find Jesus, all on their own.  Well, it was something like that, and it was good advice, John, very good indeed.  But you could add to that these days 'cause the television isn't close to being as bad for us as all the other electronic gizmos we now have.  And it probably is just a Spanish pipedream to think we can do without them.  We've been victimized by the comforts of easy access.

My wife wanted a Kindle, so I bought one for her a few years ago.  She's had her nose stuck in it ever since, and not long after that, she bought me one.  That was a waste of time 'cause I hate it.  About all I've ever used my Kindle Fire for is to play Angry Birds and look up a few things on the internet.  I think it's a slick little device, but it's not a book.  It's not even close to being a book, and when I read, I like to hold a real book.  I like owning a real book, and I've got lots of 'em.  I've loved books since childhood when I was made to read them, and if I wouldn't do that, my mother read them to me.  Being introduced to literature is a good thing, and it doesn't hurt a kid to make them read something that's not on an electronic gizmo. 

There's never been a generation of kids who've had access to information like the current one, but I don't think we're getting much out of that as far as real learning is concerned.  I like some things of convenience, but too much of it is not good.  I used to complain and say, "Why do I have to read that?"  And my father would say, "To keep you from being a dumbass."  And as it turns out, I'm not a dumbass, and I owe that to reading.  You can't learn much without reading, especially if you are introduced to worthwhile literature.  Not everything in print is enlightening, and most people don't read to be educated.  They want to be entertained most of the time, but there's still the few out there who read to gain information.  Most of the really smart people I know are good readers, and although it's not a perfect system for gathering information, is way ahead of the next best thing.

We are not a nation of readers, and therefore we're nowhere close to being the world's most literate society.  Forget all the bullshit you've heard about American literacy and face facts.  My home state of Texas, a long way from being America's dumbest state, has a population approaching 25 million, and close to 40 percent of them can't read well.  A full 20 percent of this state's population is functionally illiterate, and you can add to that another 20 percent who can just read well enough to get by.  They can fill out job applications, write checks, and do other fundamental things, but they're not capable of reading anything that requires a thought process.  That's frightening because it means some states are worse off than we are.  But that same dumbass who can't read a decent book can sure watch television, of use a cell phone, or fart around with a computer. 

It gets worse.  Add into that forty percent of non-readers another hefty pecent that can read but refuse to do so because there's too many other easier ways to obtain information.  I'm not talking about people who can't read well because if you can't read, you can't use most of the easy access digital gizmos to much of an advantage.  But using those things turns us away from the book, the real deal, that thing with a cover and pages with printed words on it.  Yeah, words and not picutures or symbols or anything else that makes it easy on you to to learn.  If you don't get anything else I've written here, please get this: Learning shouldn't be easy and it doesn't have to be fun. 

So, are we having fun yet?  Learning anything?  Probably not 'cause this is the internet, you know.  It's easy, too damn easy.  If you want to do something good for the human race, buy a book - a good book.  But don't blow up your T.V., and you don't have to throw away your cell phone or Kindle or any other gizmo you rely on.  Just don't let the damn things rule your life.  Don't let them make you so brain lazy you can't read real literature . . . if that hasn't already happened to you.