With television has convened 3 major value systems that have become inherent in American culture: violence as a solution to life's problems, low-grade sensuality - from junk food to pornography, and addiction as a way of life, mixed with graphics tha

With television has convened 3 major value systems that have become inherent in American culture: violence as a solution to life's problems, low-grade sensuality - from junk food to pornography, and addiction as a way of life, mixed with graphics that present the spectacular in its most concentrated form. Using computer animation, image-makers are creating a world of pure movement unbound by the laws of physics. Logos twist and zoom in abstract space; layers of language curve toward the viewer, only to separate and reform as some new term; animated cities spring magically from maps and lure the spectator in as if on a guided missile. They present nothing more than prescription drugs for an already over medicated society, war toys for five year old boys, cosmetics for seven year old girls, and on and on.

We're losing touch with real values and worthwhile living. There is nothing being done to prepare the next generation to become literate, self-renewing people. There are good reasons why every major religion long ago warned about giving too much power to the merchant mind. Why? Because its singular focus and its self-driven impulses run roughshod over the more non-commercial values that define a worthy society.

As parents work longer hours, for less pay, neighborhood contacts have correspondingly declined. More time is spent on the family-room couch, making TV the only source of important cues and information. All of this is provided by corporate dominated media. One company owns 800 radio stations, and before 1996 it was illegal to own more than 12, after the Telecommunications Act. Six major media conglomerates(1) now control most of the circulation of magazines, newspapers, and the audience of radio and TV. American life is nothing more than trivialization and sensationalism.

We give the cable companies monopoly licenses. We give away the public airwaves for no license fee to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission); billions of dollars a year that radio and TV stations keep, and we get nothing in return. That's a remarkable display of tenant rights. We're the landlords, they're the tenants, they pay no rent, and they keep us off our property 24 hours a day. How many tenants in other contexts have those rights against landlords?

We don't have a single cable channel for civic activity, to learn from each other's successes and band together. There's not a single channel for teachers and students. If a martian came to earth, and watched television, they would conclude our universities are playgrounds. They play sports. There's nothing else on national television about what serious students and faculty are doing in a diverse array of subjects.

There are all kinds of things going on, that we don't know about. They don't fit the formula: violence, sex, addiction, sensuality, celebrity status! That's how you get on the news. Unless you're a weatherman. You've got doplar radar! The news is 4 minutes, three segments and a preliminary teaser. 4 minutes of sports, 9 minutes of ads, 1 minute of chit chat, 3 minutes of street crime, and an animal story! There are plenty of people trying to improve the world, but that's not sexy enough, it's not violent enough, it's not addictive enough.

These corporations are stealing our property. It's our commonwealth. But hey, whatever will be will be. Just live your private life. Go through life on your knees, mumbling out of one side of your mouth that you can't fight the system, and the other side of your mouth that you can't fight Exxon. Try to make the best of it. Teach your kids to go to trade schools known as universities, so they can become a cog in the giant corporate wheel. Maybe someday they'll write a patent application so that Monsanto can own more of your human genes. They'll get a bonus at the end of the year!

(1)AOL Time Warner (the largest media firm in the world), Disney (which absorbed ABC/Cap Cities), Viacom (which includes the former Westinghouse and CBS), Bertelsmann (the German firm that controls 10 percent of all adult trade books in the world), General Electric (which owns NBC and all of its subsidiary media outlets), and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (the Australian-based firm that controls a large American media empire that includes the Fox radio and television stations and network).