THE IDIOT

 

 The idiot

“Historically, TV had been the dominant medium. We all used to wonder why we spent so much time watching TV. When asked “why TV?,” my answer was always the same ‘TV is the best alternative to boredom. It's the closest we can come to doing nothing while thinking we are doing something. It was always our go to way to kill time’".

“Today, our best alternative to boredom comes from an app.  Firing up an app on whatever device you happen to have in your hand, no matter where in the world you are, is how we kill time.”

I’m naïve, I must be.  Watching Mark Cuban, the “tech billionaire,” testifying in Congress yesterday in support of the Time-Warner-ATT merger, I was surprised by the silence – no one interrupted and called him a pestilent idiot – when he uttered the above sentiments early in his remarks.

“The best alternative to boredom.” “Go to way to kill time.”

I’m not a goody two-shoes and I do enjoy television and other entertainment media.  But I can’t regard Cuban’s comments as anything but an offense to the gift and privilege of being alive and sentient, whatever your religion or other moral code might be.

I’ve never quoted (as far as I can recall) Henry David Thoreau, but I think “as if you could kill time without injuring eternity” (from Walden) is pretty good and something I can identify with. 

I knew I thought Mark Cuban was a dope, but now I know why. Jane likes him on Shark Tank, though.
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 The other idiot

Kevin Ayers: Idiots (Link)