Here is something scary

57 Channels and Nothing On

I woke up last night and couldn't get back to sleep. I ended up watching TV. It is a funny phrase isn't it -- watching TV? But really that is exactly what you are doing. You didn't turn it on to watch anything in particular and more often than not you don't watch anything in particular. You are just watching the TV. I guess it is like watching anything else. You can sit in a park and people watch or watch the world go by. In a park you are liable to see people running or maybe biking. Maybe they are walking their dog. Of course you don't know what they are thinking, but most seem like they are enjoying themselves. They are OK. When you watch TV, you aren't watching anything like normal life. You are watching the peculiar thing that is American culture. At 4 am this consists mostly of exercise machines. I watched for awhile a woman selling a machine that she said would give you the V shape you wanted with rock hard abs in just 3 minutes a day. Seriously. 3 minutes a day for two weeks and she would guarantee that you would lose ten pounds or you could get your money back. There were the standard testimonials and the before and after pictures about how much weight guys lost and how many dress sizes the women lost. And easy. I don't know why you would limit yourself to 3 minutes given the amount of fun people were having with the circle abs unit. Man they were loving this thing. But wait, two channels down they are selling an abs blaster. This one too will get you rock hard abs without breaking a sweat. Fun to use, etc.

I switched to another channel This one has Todd English hawking pans. I happen to have worked with Todd when I was in high school and again after college. He is an extremely talented, I would say gifted, chef. He has created a number of successful restaurants. He must have more money than he knows what to do with, and yet this is how he chooses to spend his time -- selling cookware on TV. The product is also billed as something that you cannot live without. People would call in with testimonials about how this pan had changed their life. I am serious. I really just had to laugh.

Except that it is not really that funny. We are without question the richest country that has ever existed. We have developed our technology to the point that putting a man on the moon is too boring to keep doing. And the way we choose to allocate the resources that we are able to acquire is to create and sell ab blasters and non-stick cookware. I won't go on about the TV not meeting its potential as a medium. That goes without saying. However, you have to wonder how we got to the place we did. Is this really what we are here to do -- buy and sell crap?