Television the Drug of the Nation

One Nation under God
has turned into
One Nation under the influence
of one drug

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V., it satellite links
our United States of unconciousness
Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive
the methadone metronome pumping out
a 150 channels 24 hours a day
you can flip through all of them
and still there's nothing worth watching

T.V. is the reason why less than ten percent of our
Nation reads books daily
Why most people think Central America
means Kansas
Socialism means unamerican
and Apartheid is a new headache remedy

absorbed in it's world it's so hard to find us
It shapes our minds the most
maybe the mother of our Nation
should remind us
that we're sitting to close to. . .

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V. is
the stomping ground for political candidates
Where bears in the woods
are chased by Grecian Formula'd
bald eagles

T.V. is mechanized politic's
remote control over the masses
co-sponsered by environmentally safe gases
watch for the PBS special

It's the perpetuation of the two party system
where image takes precedence over wisdom
Where sound bite politics are served to
the fastfood culture

Where straight teeth in your mouth
are more important than the words
that come out of it
Race baiting is the way to get selected
Willie Horton or
Will he not get elected on . . .

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V. is it the reflector or the director?
Does it imitate us or do we imitate it
Because a child watches 1500 murders before he's
twelve years old and we wonder how we've created
a Jason generation that learns to laugh
rather than abhor the horror

T.V. is the place where
armchair generals and quarterbacks can
experience first hand
the excitement of video warfare
as the theme song is sung in the background

Sugar sweet sitcoms
that leave us with a bad actor taste while
pop stars metamorphosize into soda pop stars
You saw the video
You heard the soundtrack
Well now go buy the soft drink
Well, the only cola that I support
would be a union C.O.L.A. (Cost of Living Allowance)
On Television.

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

Back again, "New and Improved",
we return to our irregularly programmed schedule
hidden cleverly between heavy breasted
beer and car commericals

CNN ESPN ABC TNT but mostly B.S.
Where oxymoronic language like
"virtually spotless" "fresh frozen"
"light yet filling" and "military intelligence"
have become standard

T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined
like "recession" to "necessary downturn"
"crude oil" on a beach to "mousse"
"Civilian death" to "collateral damages"
and being killed by your own Army
is now called "friendly fire"

T.V. is the place where the pursuit
of happiness has become the pursuit of trivia
Where toothpaste and cars have become sex objects
Where imagination is sucked out of children
by a cathode ray nipple
T.V. is the only wet nurse
that would create a cripple

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
On Television . . .



Artist : Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
Song : Television, The Drug Of The Nation
Album : Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury

and I think that so many people feel this way. During the war, a few people I worked with told me that politics "was none of their business" yet they would come in every few days and talk about who they had voted for on American Idol. Voting is only important when it is for something trivial apparently. And when the number of people who vote for a show that even further degrades the state of pop music equals a quarter of the number of people who were willing to drag their carcass to a voting booth for the last election, you know that something is seriously wrong...

it is getting WORSE AND WORSE.

n/t:)

Only a hard-core political geek would write a line like this:

"Well, the only cola that I support would be a union C.O.L.A. (Cost of Living Allowance)"

Just like Public Enemy's "He's the Son of a Bad Man" (about Bush Jr.)

The rapper disbanded this group and formed Spearhead, but nothing he's done with them is half as good as this is. My favorite track:

Water Pistol Man

When girls dressed in black they all look so lonely
and contraceptives don't get used by the horny
you can't find the key to the door in your building
but are you still willing
the responsibility becomes an afterthought
when one remembers the things that they should've bought
there's no pretending that you forgot
must everything in life have political ramifications
even taking kids on vacation or having a simple operation
but my friend Billy told me that sometimes
it takes a grown man a long time to learn
just what it takes a child a night to learn
and my son proved his words

(Chorus)
Water pistol man full of ammunition
squirtin' at fires on a worldwide mission
but did you ever think to stop to squirt
the flowers in your own backyard

for all my faux pa's I never said excuse me
was the simplest things that always confused me
I never stopped I never looked both ways
must it always a tug of love between friends and work
hope to learn the meaning of the word jerk
before it happens to a rope round my neck
let's build a bigger telescope
so that we can see things more up close
farther away from where we really are
I was up the whole night before
reading books about places I'll probably never go
and those aren't good things to know about

(Chorus)

when I feel with my heart, I know in my mind
I should say with my lips but don't
does that make you feel upset? I should know that
the power of one man seems like a small squirt
when he aims at the flames of the whole earth
but the fire starts at home...

(Chorus)

"but my friend Billy told me that sometimes
it takes a grown man a long time to learn
just what it takes a child a night to learn"

I never realized that before.

"Kill your god... kill your TV"

Good advice in my book.

One of my favourite strips was one where Calvin is telling Hobbes that Karl Marx called religion "the opiate of the masses"...they leave the room, and a thought ballon shows the tv thinking: "Marx ain't seen nothing yet."