'TV the opiate of the people'

Title taken from Edward R Murrow, who borrowed it from the following saying ‘religion is the opium of the people’ from Karl Marx. This makes television comparable to religion and lets face it who doesn’t worship their TV on a daily basis.

What do all these quotes mean?! I friend of mine upon reading this blog commented on the quotes I use at the start of each post, it suddenly dawned upon me that I have never explained myself and what these quotes mean. Firstly lets start with the title of the blog ‘Television the triumph of the machine over people’, this quote was taken from Fred Allen a US radio comedian (1894-1956). I chose this to be the title of the blog as we often watch films, or television programmes or read articles about the idea of machines taking over the world, think about, I Robot, Dr Who, The Matrix, Terminator and many more. What seems to be a genuine fear amongst people, Allen claimed has already happened with the invention of television. This idea fascinates me as I believe, although perhaps Allen said this way before his time, in this day and age television is slowly taking over more and more of our lives. It is used to form routine, think of daily soaps, used as a babysitter when mum needs some piece and quiet, used as a recipe book, think of shows like the Great British Bake Off, I even used it to help improve my French (which as it turns out wasn’t a great idea and still received a U at A-level). TV is more and more integrated into our daily lives and I believe that Fred Allen was correct ‘Television (is) the triumph of the machine over people’ which is why I found it apt that a blog writing about TV should have such a title.

The other quotes I have used are taken from each of the TV episodes which I discuss in each article. The first article written takes a quote from 30 Rock which is my favourite TV show (my ambition in life is to be Kenneth). I chose this quote, ‘If I could push a button and five people in the world would die, but I’d get free cable for life, I’d do it’, I chose this as it made me laugh, and is something I can relate to. It’s the sheer honesty that makes you laugh, but also made me question my own morals…I think I would do that (wouldn’t you?)! The following article about SOA ‘I ain’t no Spiderman nigga’ was the most memorable quote for me from the new series so was very appropriate for an article about the series. I particularly enjoyed this line as it came after a quote from Spiderman and required this knowledge to find it funny, I felt like it was a joke specifically aimed at me, and I enjoyed that! ‘Its better to carry a tune than to carry a grudge’ was taken from Modern Family and was one of my favourite quotes from Cam; it seems almost philosophical in a funny way. A strange outlook on life, but I found it particularly humorous because of the character of Cam who is always melodramatic and over the top. ‘Why kill a man when you can kill an idea’ was taken from Homeland and again was one of the quotes that particularly stuck with me. I found this quote quite chilling as it was said by a terrorist who has reportedly killed thousands of people. I chose this to go with the Homeland article as for me it sums up the show, nothing is predictable. The final quote ‘In that life I have no future, only distraction’ is taken from SOA and again it summed up the episode for me…nothing happened I saw the episode purely as distraction.

So there we have it...and from now on I have learnt my lesson and will tell you what each quotation means as part of the article!