TV

I don't enjoy it myself. It's not the last impression I want to have of this world.

In the book Gilead (by Marilynne Robinson) it's 1956 and John Ames is reflecting on his life, which he has been told will end soon because of his feeble heart. Television is a new phenomenon. John considers TV to be a way of looking at the world, a world that he knows through experience and engagement. He considers TV to be a pale imitation of reality, lacking depth.

Which makes me wonder: How many people die watching TV? And how many people allow TV to become an alternate reality in which they live and move and have their being? It must be a lot, judging from the abundance of ads that are trying to create in us the desire to stare at little screens (or very big screens) for most of our waking hours. From which we can probably extrapolate that more and more people are spending their last hours staring at a screen. Who needs the Matrix?