Long Live the New Flesh

Since being introduced to the United States in 1928, television has become one of the most monumental innovations of all time. It has changed the way we entertain ourselves, the way we receive our news, and even changed the world with it's images. Is it possible, however, that television has become too much a part of our lives, and to some even more real than reality itself? Master director David Cronenberg explores this idea in the best science fiction film ever made, Videodrome. In this film, Cronenberg looks at television a bit like a modern version of Plato's cave. To the viewers, the figures on television, like the shadows in Plato, have become more real than those they see in their own life. This may be a bit of an abstract concept to most, but regardless of your view, it's interesting to ponder. Television has changed the way we live so much, that it has really become life. After all, how much of what we see and believe is influenced by what we see? Like the oft-repeated motto in Videodrome says, "Television is the retina of the mind's eye." If TV can control what we see, then it can control our entire lives, maybe even until it is our lives. Television is a valuable resource for both education and entertainment, but like Cronenberg predicted, it has undeniably become more manipulative than anyone could have guessed. There is nothing real outside of our perception of reality, and if TV changes that, then it arguably is our reality. But this blog post is getting incredibly pretentious, I apologize, so I'll just end it here in the way all great things should end: Jeff Goldblum.