Unreality Boob Tube

(Money Can, and Will Forever, Buy Happiness)

Folks on TV got it all. Nice new stuff, immaculate homes. The men buff yet thoughtful, the women busty yet chaste. Meanwhile you, in real life, clean up some vomit, not sure whether it’s from, dog, child, or drunk freeloading relative.

Wacky TV antics make life look fun. But who cleans up after the kids caper through the house chasing the dog chasing the cat chasing a bird chasing a fly? On TV it may be a well paid union Production Mess Grunt, or at least the regular ‘custodian.’ At home—crap!--it’s you again, the kids are in bed now, or not old enough, or ‘doing homework’ on the computer (yeah, right,) or out with friends, or moved out. First, better swat the fly and feed the animals, we don’t want a repeat.

Hardly anyone ever seems to do actual work on TV (who would watch such misery?) Yet all have endless money and elegant lives. Those that work, somehow have plenty of time for philosophical discussions, lengthy investigations, or wacky hi-jinks.

Reality, of course, is dreadful repetitive drudgery, day in, day out, no chance of promotion, among jerks and layoffs. Each week just enough coin, after rent, power, water, trash, petrol, and drugs, to buy a ten pound sack of potatoes and a 12 pack of Le Peu Bargain Lager. Dull conversation, chronic apathy, better at least have a little fun.

After that second shift on your second job, all you want to do is lie down. But no, a whining house mate, broken floor board, torn couch, dirty shirts, crumbs, was that a cockroach? Always something else stupid and boring but critical. Unlike TV: sometimes exciting, never important.

Life in fantasy TV world is only possible with money. The rest of us inhabit reality, where you do what has to be done, as best you can, for better or worse. Difficult situations remain unresolved. Broken windows and cracked doors get duct-taped, roofing and plumbing struggled with and fixed by sheer poverty-driven determination and luck. Relationships are unpleasant, complicated, gut-wrenching.

It seems, and probably is, that money could fix it all. But it won’t. Human nature, without tribe, gets greedy.

Relax, there’s nothing you can do. Only a tiny fraction of the world has a TV life. You don’t, and likely won’t. Compare yourself with the rest of humanity, throughout the history of mankind, instead.

People of every size shape color and ugliness, in every part of the world, barely scrape by each day. Some 30,000 die of starvation--every day. It sucks to be poor, but our local market still has food, to be stolen if all else fails. 

More and more dog eat dog, fight or flight for every scrap, but still a long way from the garbage heaps. Hunker down and hang on, this is the new reality. Which is not being televised.