I was talking to a missionary from the Calvary Church a week or so ago and I threw out one of my stock lines:  “Karl Marx said that “religion is the opiate of the masses” but time has proved him wrong.  Television is the opiate of the masses.”  The missionary said “No your wrong.  It’s worse than that.  Television is a brainwashing machine.”

He went on to explain that TV raises viewers expectations and shapes reality for them.  It tells them how to be happy and what they should want.  Not just the commercials but the shows themselves create an alternate reality that is more exciting and more desirable than the world we really exist in.

I agreed. 

I didn’t have a solution but I agreed.