Doing the pledge drive is painful, not only because you have to ask for money the whole hour, but also because the experience reminds you that you live in a very closed society where the major media is essentially all there is.
Activist Radio is a tiny enterprise, floating on a sea of corporate propaganda. Even independent media is tiny if you look at how people really get their news. TV has been the biggest ally of totalitarianism in the Empire. It provides millions with a world view, full of danger, but with the comforting assurance of American idealism and perseverance. On and speaking to us all day long, it is a wise and trusted member of each household. It also defines each family's link to the broader social structures of our country. TV defines us, explains our motives, and provides those feelings of mass exhilaration and grief that we all need in our lives. It provides an artificial reality so necessary for the empire to commit its atrocities abroad and its wholesale swindling of the American worker at home. Only about 1% of families don't have a television in at least one room. It is the perfect vehicle of control in the empire of lies.
