Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: TV-Free America

[Tom Nelson Scott (veda]

On Tue, 15 Apr 1997, Documania wrote:

> Sure, TV's influence is enormous and the statistics support a disturbing
> negative behavior that correlates with TV watching. But it is NOT
> universal, TV is NOT the sole cause of that problem, and the solution is
> NOT to kill TV. The solution is to upgrade programming and/or control
> access, plus deal positively with other contributing factors.

Lookit: TV should be known by the company it keeps. When you go into a
bar, what do you see? A TV, lots of smoke, alcohol ...

> It's ironic that people so into "community" are first in line to destroy
> the vehicle that has done more to make the world a global community than
> anything else in history.

The *kind* of community TV has encouraged is what we're worried
about. Who wants a global village of smokers, drinkers and couch
potatoes? Who wants to live in that kind of coho/ecovillage?

The choice belongs to each individual and to each community, block by
block. I support the freedom to watch, smoke and drink whatever you
want, but I encourage you to make wise decisions and not to ruin your
life with TV, tobacco and alcohol.

In the end, the choice is yours and yours alone. I won't crush your
Camel softpack or pinch your Bud sixpack or cut your MTV cable or jam
your DSS signal. All I can do is encourage you to give yourself, your
children and the community you live in a break.

                                * * *

I'm about to invest more time and money into research on cohousing
communities and ecovillages. Before I try to develop one or move into
an existing coho/ecovillage, I'd like to know what kind of community
I'm getting into. What are the group dynamics? How does a commonhouse
work? Should I expect TV to play a central role in developing the
sense of community, or are there more evolutionary activities that I
can participate in? What might those activities be?

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Tom Nelson Scott                  Phone/Fax: 1-414-966-2902
[company name]                    Business email: tom.scott [at] veda-home.com
W330 N8357 West Shore Drive       Academic email: veda [at] csd.uwm.edu
Hartland WI 53029-9732            Academic web: http://www.uwm.edu/~veda
                     "Do less, accomplish more."                       
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