Focusing on Cruelty Fries

As the Minnesota State Fair inches closer, I remember walking through the grounds last year and seeing a booth in the distance over the throngs of people. “Cruelty Fries” is what I thought it said and was intrigued by the idea, believing that many of the foods at the state fair are indeed cruel tricks on unsuspecting fair goers.Alas, upon reaching the booth I saw they were simply advertising Curly Fries, though in my heart of hearts I knew that no mere name change could stop deep fried potatoes from being cruel. But how many foods really are cruel? In fact, how many things that we consistently do are really cruel? Cruel to ourselves.

Definition of cruel: Disposed to inflict pain or suffering.  Though one could argue that self-knowledge of a thing or activity’s ability to inflict pain on oneself and the willful engagement with such activity would preclude it from actually being cruel, and indeed be a much more intriguing comment on our society.

I believe the list of items and activities that fall into the category of self-cruelty ranges far beyond the deep fried potato. Granted, in moderation or small doses even deep fried potatoes are not cruel. But America is not the land of moderation.

The first thing that popped on to my list was television. I know, anyone can bash television. There’s little challenge in that. But the reason it popped onto my list was not because of content, even though a majority of it is drivel and we are often stupider for having watched. It was not even because of our sedintary behavior while watching it though I once read an article (and I am sure it was true) that stated that you actually burn more calories and your brain is more active while you sleep than while watching TV. 

As if that was not reason enough for it to be cruel, there’s more. I was talking with a friend the  other day about how shows and commercials are filmed, edited and presented. And perhaps it is because I am fairly sensitive to the stimuli around me that I notice this.  What I noticed (and I am sure many others have as well) is the intense staccato nature of the presentation.

More and more the images and scenes and graphics and sounds change so rapidly that I can’t consciously keep up. I certainly end up with sensory overload and don’t even want to know what subliminal messages are being fed to me. But it’s not the sensory overload that catches my attention because I know I am more sensitive to that and I know that anyone who is or has grown up in the video game generation is more than comfortable with the staccato presentation.

What makes me stumble and ponder is that television is a conditioning agent and if you watch enough of it it will condition you. What is this type of presentation conditioning you to, you ask? Well, my guess is that it conditions you to be able to take in and retain rapid and unrelated bits of information, which I suppose is good. But what goes hand in hand with that might be the ability (or inability) to focus on things for only a short time and then move on.

But what do so many people lament when they are trying to get things done, especially things that might take some time? We can’t focus. Focus. focus, focus! Those around us can’t focus on what we are trying to focus on. No one can focus. It’s like the Tower of Babel.

Now that’s cruel.

This entry was posted on 28. July 2008 at 09:04 and is filed under Permusations, Misreadings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.