Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: COHOUSING & TV

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

It is interesting that within my community there is a mix of people who engage 
in TV much, and of those that do, they include ALL the elders here. There are 
a couple of men who a really "addicted" to TV sports, and another interesting 
note that none of the parents of my childrens peers watch much TV. (or at 
least as far as I know or have been able to observe. I do not recall ever 
having any community discussions about TV in the commonhouse and we do have a 
MOVIE night. We have Free Cable in our commonhouse but no one has bothered to 
ever hook it up.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood

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From:   cohousing-l [at] freedom.mtn.org on behalf of Mac Thomson
Sent:   Friday, April 11, 1997 1:35 PM
Subject:        COHOUSING & TV

This recent discussion on homeschooling and TV brings into focus for me 
the fact that cohousing and television are antithetical.  I remember at 
the beginning of one of the cohousing conferences Zev (or maybe it was 
Bill then ;->) asked how many in the audience watched virtually no 
television and the response rate was very high - maybe approaching 50%.

Characteristics of TV
  ?  Emphasis on materialism, power, violence, and selfishness.
  ?  Passive watching.
  ?  Disengagement.

Characteristics of Cohousing
  ?  Emphasis on relationship, cooperation, peaceful reconciliation, and 
sharing.
  ?  Active doing.
  ?  Engagement.

I¹d like to hear what others would add to these lists.

I realize that this discussion is a bit off the main cohousing path, but 
I¹ve lived without a TV for a long time now and I just can¹t understand 
how friends and family of mine can agree that ³Yes TV is dumb and maybe 
even evil.² and then spend hours in front of it every week.  Blows me 
away.  So this topic is kind of *hot* for me.

I think that TV is one of the greatest destructive forces in our culture 
because of the power it exerts over shaping values that in turn lead to 
destructive behavior (see characteristics of TV above).
-- 
           Mac Thomson                   San Juan Cohousing
           ganesh [at] rmi.net                Durango, Colorado

 "Courage is grace under pressure."
                           - Ernest Hemingway