Bosnian wrote: WORSHIP OF TELEVISION A large and authoritative study, just published in �the Journal of the American Medical Association� confirms that there is more mental illness and insanity, far more, in America than you find in other advanced societies. The study led by a Harvard Medical School researcher, found evidence of mental problems in 26.4% of people in the United States, versus, for example, 8.2% of people in Italy, Serbia 23%, Croatia 21.8 %, Bosnia 2.9%, Germany 8.1%, Islamic world 3.2%, etc. The researchers were concerned with matters such as lack of access to treatment and under-treatment, but for those concerned about a safe and decent world, I think the salient finding is simply America's high percentage. The world is being led by a nation where more than one-quarter of the people have genuine mental problems.

And this is all because of........TV ?

It's probably more likely to be due to things like lack of affordable health care and the fact that being not wealthy and not having the "right" kind of job and the "right" kind of house and "right" kind of life means that people are not treated with respect anymore, but just as "losers".

Back in the "old days", people who were poor "knew" they were poor because of a combination of bad luck and because that's where God put them in the scheme of things. Nowdays, bad luck is not really taken into consideration and few people believe that people's places in the world depend on God, so any "lack" or "success" is seen as their own fault and they are then labelled "losers". If this is how people feel 24 hours a day, then it's no wonder mental problems abound.

Read "Status Anxiety" by Alain de Botton - it's a BRILLIANT book and explains such things in a very readable fashion.

Kim...

Television is just a means of communication. For communication process to take place a few components are required: the source/ sender, the message, the means, the receiver. One couldn't go more wrong than dumping blame on the mere means. The remaining ones, though, deserve more attention.

MOCKBA stated the general idea very well.

TV needs to be in better hands. But this does not mean that as users we are not responsible for using it in the proper way. We can select what is good in it.