Writing in 1988 in his book In the Arena, Richard Nixon laments the sad state of thinking at that point in time. I've also made note of what I perceive to be seriously degraded thinking in some people. Richard Nixon thinks one of the culprits that causes degraded thinking is TV.Mr. Nixon writes...
"It has enriched life for millions, particularly shut-ins whose only world is what they see on television. But watching television does not exercise the brain. A heart specialist will tell you that walking downstairs is passive exercise, while walking upstairs gives the heart the exercise it needs. For the brain, reading or conversation is like walking upstairs, because they engage and exercise the brain.
Watching TV is like taking the elevator.
Young people used to learn their lessons from McGuffey's Readers; the baby-boomers learned their lessons from the Beaver and Gilligan. As the postwar generation came of age, it spawned a new generation of TV programmers, who in turn have put more triviality, sex, violence, and bad manners on the air than anyone ever thought possible. Trash TV could only have been created by people who were raised on the tube. Garbage in, garbage out."
Mr. Nixon goes on to also blame another modern device for the decline of thinking, writing...
"I know I am in a minority even in my own family when I say that computers themselves are another culprit in the decline of thinking. I am too old to understand the things, but my grandchildren can't spend a day without them."
Richard Nixon thought much of TV was a garbage pit way back in 1978. Imagine how appalled he would be to see TV today. Nixon was still alive when MTV came along.
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