Ignore Reality

I have always been able to ignore reality while I am watching a TV show, movie or reading a book. I know that if I jumped from a moving train going 100KPH, I would die. I also know that not only can James Bond jump from a moving train, but he will get up with not a scratch and just a slight amount of dust on his jacket. He can also take a bullet in the arm and keep on fighting unlike the crying and screaming that would happen were I ever to be shot.

Books can be the same, needing one to suspend belief and just go with the flow as it were. Of course, books tend to incorporate more reality than the movies do, but ultimately the good guys prevail and most of the bad guys are sent to jail or a painful death. If the book or movie is successful, there is a better than average chance that the bad guy will have escaped or survived to be bad in the sequel.

However, it seems that lately, either I am getting less tolerant or the writers of the movies are just getting lazy. I shouldn’t blame the writers, but the director who is the one with a less than firm grip on reality. Perhaps they can’t tell the difference between real and make believe because of all the scripted “reality” shows that have become so popular. Louise and I will be watching a show and I will look over at her and say “There’s no way that would happen in real life! In real life, that guy would have banged his head getting into the cruiser and then had a bad fall down the stairs at the station house.”

What is disturbing me is that lately I have started to criticize the TV commercials. “How could a dish of soap and water clean all the stains of that blouse just by dipping it in? It couldn’t! Oh and there’s no way you could drop a huge rock into the bed of a pick up truck without damaging the axles.” I could go on and on and if you ask Louise, she will tell you that I do.

 

Do they think we are stupid? I guess they do and you know, judging by some of the shows that are on the tube now they just might be right. I have read books that suggest that the media is designed to pacify the population. It keeps them occupied with the antics of Honey Boo-Boo or caught up in the fictional lives of an Edwardian family and their servants. We watch pretend mobsters and pretend detectives. Pretend contractors and pretend cooking shows. Hell, even the “reality” shows are pretend! If the intention is to keep us inside and out of trouble, then they have been successful.

I have become pretty sedentary over the past few years, and lately I don’t even do the things that I like to do, especially if there is a favourite show coming on. I have said I will wean myself from popular entertainment and get more involved, and this time I do mean it! I’m going to walk, cycle, carve, build some furniture, volunteer at the food bank, do my Christmas shopping early and spend quality time with Louise.

Well, once I have set the PVR…