The Electric Teat

The WPIX -11 commentator was the inspiration for this blog*.  Two nights ago he did a piece about morbid obesity in America, and in it he made the observation that 50 years ago our parents didn’t eat healthy, smoke & drank while they were pregnant, never went to the gym, but they were thinner.

Of course Lionel ended with a flurry of fast-speak, and blamed the usual suspects like fast food and a fast-culture, but he fell short of actually fingering the true culprit for the absolute explosion of flesh in America today.

It couldn’t be evolutionary, because fifty years is not nearly enough time for the Darwinian scales to be so morosely tipped.  Whatever is the cause of this modern day plague is cultural, affects us on a bio-medical level, and causes increased food-intake, increase of junkfood, and promotes an all-around seditenary lifestyle.

The easy answer – is Television!

Whatelse in our lives has the power to tell us to sit down, sit still?  – tell us what to eat and when ?  Something that reduces sleep and raises stress?  And the one main difference between our parent’s generation and ours? 

Our parent’s had one color tv per block if they were rich!  We, in one generation, have gone from one tv in the house, to one per room, to the frightening proliferation of the portable internet.

 We are the first generation to be plugged in, from womb to tomb, to an electronic titty!  The long term ramifications of such a shift into the tv-culture is only now being realized. 

Something to think about … on your way to McDonalds.  Operators are standing by…

* See Lionel's Commentary --