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Show ON SKINNYDIPPING IN CHANNEL THIRTEEN So we learn our behavior, right? We both need and seek some constant or high stimulus level, correct? And, we are dropped unclothed into a media barrage the second we're squeezed from the womb. Which must make for one high conditioned stimulus level. Which must also make for extreme variability in symbol-specific behavior. The conditioned stimulus level is so high that we develop volume controls on it-the Reality Switch, a device that allows us to be excited and entertained by a media, but not involved on a personal level; and the Input Wall, which blanks out commercials, radio music, neon signs, highway markers and sundry annoyances-and of a type that conditions us to view violent and unpleasant events as unreal. Claude Ballpein, Ace Detective, slams his fist into Mobster A, unreal; a soldier in Vietnam crumples, unreal. In fact, with the use of unbuffered mass media, click! Reality, unreal. WITH ALA CARTE, YOU GET THE EGG ROLE Somewhere along the line, Homo Electricus changes channels and notices that two programs with different names and sponsors are similar. Duplicates! Thought/cut from standing channel changing scene to latest status game scene. Turn the knob, change the image. Fine tuning, he discovers that he lives in a TV Guide. Parent program followed by Job program followed by Leisure program. Driving a commercial, smoking an ad. At this point, he pulls in his antennae. Blank. Cut to Late Show Horror Flick. Test Pattern. It becomes obvious that roles are a necessity of life, but to keep the old plug in the socket, one had best divorce Ego and Role. Cut to Yolk and Shell. Without the shell, the hoik is formless, ready for frying. No shell sans yolk, either. The only really sane thing to do is get a color set. Bathe in food coloring, hide in the tall weeds and wait for the Easter Bunny. THEME ACCURATE OVER VIEWING IS DEPENDENT |