science 3

Reading as a Negative

What? I am against reading?  Yep, I am.  Not all reading mind you. but over indulged in, mindless reading.  Reading gets an exalted place in our western world, at least among the intelligentsia and wannabees (that’s me).  The idea is if you read you are intelligent, wise, learning, growing and open minded. It means you are self-aware and a good person.  But that is not true.

Television as a Positive

It isn’t any more true than watching TV means your a vacuous idiot who is satisfied with shallow crap.  I watch more hours of TV than hours of reading.  So, am I just being defensive? No, I am being realistic. People watch substantial TV and they watch idiot TV. People read substantial books and they read idiot books.  What I am against is the persistent illusion that reading in and of itself makes someone admirable.  It doesn’t.  

What vs That

If you learn, grow, share and become enlightened while reading then it’s good. And they same is true about watching TV. If you get entertained in either medium, that is good too. But not if that is all you are doing.  Escaping to the boob tube and never critically evaluating what it is you are watching isn’t good.  And it isn’t good with reading either.  What you read and how you think about it make you admirable, not just that you read.

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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who is reading Frankenstein and having a hard time getting through it.

Quote by Albert Einstein

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Morning ‘not a haiku’ poem #4

Stretching in morning dark,
Edge of light past trees,
Dogs wiggling, I am on the floor with them.

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