of television

i was watching discovery channel tonight. i like this channel. all the science and interesting ways to show it. the program was about future weapons. Science &"boys with their mean toys" what else does a guy with lots of nerdism in his blood want?

so sat down to watch. but somehow ended up focusing more on the language and presentation rather than the content.

Frankly, i was amazed. The program was not science. It seemed more like a propaganda piece for weapons industry and "our boys in army doing the good hard work" advertisement.

There was also the irony of one of the important researchers of the weapons program being vietnamese. She was doing work on liquid explosives which are really effective in killing people inside caves. Some how that famous line from apocalypse now "i love the smell of napalm in the morning." popped up in my mind. A vietnamese doing liquid explosive related reasearch for American army.

she went on and on about how she is gonna do her best to get the weapons out as soon as possible so that the army can use it against the terrorists. i could almost hear the lesson being taught. "all these guys are working as hard as possible to make sure those lousy hiding inside the hill terrorists die as quick a death as possible. so you better pay respect to them."

She even managed to put in a line to the effect that the results they obtained were close to miraculous. first time i had heard miracles in connection with death. I had heard about the miracle of life. The miracle of death makes a more spectacular episode.

by the end of it i expected a guy in a funny coloured top hat point a finger at me and ask something like why the hell are you sitting on your ass and not taking up the good fight or atleast waving some bloody flags. ( dont point out to me about the fact that i belong to a completely different nationality)

This presentation of propaganda in garb of science is not new. I am sure ppl will be able to point out other examples. when i mentioned this, my friend rahul (who was watching the program with me) made a comment saying all science is propaganda. Lets not get started on that.

In fact this is what was worrying me, be it science (discovery, nat geo) history(history channel) or anything else, facts and imagination are being mixed at a frightening pace. Its difficult to know what is science and what is imagination or opinion of some producer sitting somewhere.

I dont think we should be watching tv for new/information much. TV's best and only use is as emotional gratifier and provider of entertainment. Its completely unsuited for news or any serious knowledge discussion. the image becomes more important than the content on TV and thats bad for knowledge.

mushkil ho

gaye wo din ki intezaar karna mushkil ho,
unke waade par aitbaar karna mushkil ho.

intezaar ki yuun aadat si pad gayi humko,
yeh haal hai ki ab pyaar karna mushkil ho.

aane ki unke ab to raah bhi nahin dekha karte,
darte hain wo aaye to deedaar karna mushkil ho.

bewafaaiyon ki itni kahaniyaan jubaan par hain,
ki wafaa ki gujaarish ek baar karna mushkil ho.


i dont know if its complete or not. something seems missing. but anyway have spent enough time on it.