Kill Your Television-Jerry Mander
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Review of Jerry Mander's
Four Arguments For The Elimination Of Television
by Ron Kaufman
"Winston turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though
the words were still distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen, it was
called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely
. . . Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen."
-- from 1984 by George Orwell
Television is advertising. It is a medium whose purpose is to
sell, to promote capitalism. In 1977, Jerry Mander, a former
advertising executive in San Francisco, published
Four Arguments
For The Elimination Of Television
. In the book, Mander reveals
how the television networks and advertisers use this pervasive video
medium for sales.
Four Arguments
talks about a lot more than just
advertising. Mander attacks not only the contents of the television
images, but the effects television has on the human mind and body.
His discussion includes: The induction of alpha waves, a hypnotizing
effect that a motionless mind enters. How viewers often regard what
they see on television as
real
even though the programs are
filled with quick camera switches, rapid image movement, computer
generated objects, computer generated morphing and other
technical
events
. The placement of artificial images into our mind's eye.
And the effects that large amounts of television viewing have on
children and the onset of attention deficit disorder.
However, at the heart of Mander's arguments, lies advertising. In
the words of writer Charles Bukowski:
"[America is] not a
free country -- everything is bought and sold and owned."
Sales, by definition, is the process of convincing someone to
purchase what they don't need. Advertising tries to convince someone
that the solution to a problem or the fulfillment of a desire can
only be achieved through the purchase of a product.
"If we take the word
need
to mean something basic to human
survival -- food, shelter, clothing; or basic to human contentment --
peace, love, safety, companionship, intimacy, a sense of fulfillment;
these will be sought and found by people whether or not there is
advertising," Mander writes.
"People do need to eat, but the food which is advertised is
processed food: processed meat, sodas, sugary cereals, candies. A
food in its natural state, unprocessed, does not need to be
advertised," he says. "Hungry people will find the food if it is
available."
Television commercials and television shows both promote the
purchase of commodities. Advertisers and television networks don't
want viewers to go out and search for the answers on their own. They
want to provide the answers on television. If your head hurts: buy
Advil (or some other pain relieving drug). Is your stomach growling?
Drive your Pontiac to Taco Bell or Burger King. Are your dishes
dirty? Get some lemon-fresh Joy. Every guy wants a fast Acura and
every girl wants to look like the women on the NBC television show
Friends
. Watch the Dallas Cowboys' Deion Sanders score a
touchdown, watch the replay (Sponsored by Coors Light), then watch
Deion do an advertisement for Pizza Hut.
Television is promoting a lifestyle. It is a virtual reality that
advertisers and networks seek to promote in order to gain additional
revenue.
"Perhaps there is a need for cleanliness. But that is not what
advertisers sell," Mander explains. "Cleanliness can be obtained with
water and a little bit of natural fiber, or solidified natural fat.
Major world civilizations kept clean that way for millennia. What is
advertised is
whiteness
, a value beyond cleanliness;
sterility
, the avoidance of all germs;
sudsiness
, a
cosmetic factor; and
brand
, a surrogate community
loyalty."
While watching television, the viewer is not seeing the world as
it is. He or she is looking at a world created by advertising.
Television programs are put together with the conscious attitude of
promoting a consumer society.
"If forty million people see a commercial for a car, then forty
million people have a car commercial in their heads, all at the same
time," Mander says. "This is bound to have more beneficial effect on
the commodity system than if, at that moment, all those people were
thinking separate thoughts which, in some cases, might not be about
commodities at all."
But what makes television different from other forms of
advertising, is that the viewer has
absolutely no control over the
images
. Sure you can change the channel, but you're really only
watching more of the same. The images come at you at the pace of the
advertiser; the viewer just watches passively. While reading the
newspaper, you don't have to look at the ads, you can turn the page.
In that same newspaper, if you want to find a coupon for Ranch Style
Black Beans, you will look and seek it out. You can read the first
few lines of a billboard sign, then turn away.
However, when you watch television, the only way to escape the
images is to turn the machine off.
The medium of television is
controlled by the sender, not the viewer.
Images just flow, one
after the next.
"If you decide to watch television, then there's no choice but to
accept the stream of electronic images as it comes," Mander says.
"Since there is no way to stop the images, one merely gives over to
them. More than this, one has to clear all channels of reception to
allow them in more cleanly.
Thinking only gets in the
way.
"
The multitude of technical events and special effects that
saturate the viewer throughout an average dose of television occur
with such rapid frequency that any response is essentially
eliminated. "Since television images move more quickly than a viewer
can react, one has to chase after them with the mind," Mander says in
the book.
"Every advertiser, for example, knows that before you can convince
anyone of anything, you shatter their existing mental set and then
restructure an awareness along lines which are useful to you. You do
this with a few very simple techniques like fast-moving images,
jumping among attention focuses, and switching moods," he
explains.
Television watching is not active, it is passive. Both the
viewer's mind and body do not react, and cannot react. Mander calls
television imagery a form of sleep teaching.
One researcher interviewed by Mander explains: "The horror of
television, is that the information goes in, but we don't react to
it. It goes right into our memory pool and perhaps we react to it
later but we don't know what we're reacting to. When you watch
television you are training yourself not to react and so later on,
you're doing things without knowing why you're doing them or where
they came from."
Mander published Four Arguments almost twenty years ago. I believe
his main theme then (and the one I hope you are getting from this
essay), is that advertisers and networks don't want the viewers to
think. They want them to just be good consumers and spend money on
their products.
On May 10, 1995 at the National Cable Television Association
convention in Dallas, John Malone, president of Tele-Communications
Inc. (TCI), the nation's largest cable operator, was speaking about
the future of television. "There's no question machines will be
smarter than people," Malone said. "And
we won't have to think so
hard.
"
Critics of television have often noted that what is shown on the
networks, the programs, are of a low quality. The entire television
industry has never seemed able to shake off the words Federal
Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow spoke in 1961, that
television is "a vast wasteland."
It is the quality of the shows that are often criticized. However,
this is missing the point. Television shows are not supposed to be
thought provoking. You are not supposed to question the images you
see on TV, only believe in their prima facie existence.
Television programs, commercials, news reports and talk shows are
all designed toward blind acceptance by the viewer. Because, after
all, if you see it with your own eyes, it must be true. It must be
real. Flashing images on the video screen. Reality inside a box.
"Television offers neither rest nor stimulation," Mander says.
"Television inhibits your ability to think, but it does not lead to
freedom of mind, relaxation or renewal. It leads to a more exhausted
mind. You may have time out from prior obsessive thought patterns,
but that's as far as television goes.
"The mind is never empty, the mind is filled. What's worse, it is
filled with someone else's obsessive thoughts and images."
Why do you think they call it programming?
Mander goes into great detail discussing the physical effects
television viewing has on the human body. His analysis is excellent.