TV: A Tame Scapegoat?
It seems that we must be more differentiated in talking about the influence of TV in our life, especially concerning the development of our children. The question is not: whether TV is good or bad, but: which program is good or bad. I think, we wouldn't like to be a modern Don Quixotte, who fools about something quixotically, that has been a part of our own life. There are many good programs on TV, and we have to learn how to choose and to appreciate them. Our children need to be taught about it. They need to know where to find good programs, why they are good, and how to appreciate them. They have to know how the suppliers of TV-programs operate, how they present their information, and which mission "the man behind the gun" has. We must learn to use TV as a medium of communication, as a means to get information, as entertainment. Those who blame TV for passivity, for a tendency to produce violence and sex, have to ask them, whether all this is caused by TV or rather TV is an object to which they attribute the cause of these. We must stop making TV a scapegoat of the dark side of human personality.
Should we be pro TV or rather contra? I think, this is not a real question. The real one is: we must learn to know which program is good and where to find it, because we have the freedom to change, and this freedom is never be taken away from us.
(This essay was written, when I was visiting Oxford, UK, in June 1997)