 This only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes, portraying Americans as overweight slobs who live and die on their sofa-beds, their only physical activity being a button press to change channels. This is a baseless lie. Of course exceptions exist, but the unified image of an entire nation of people into a simple lump describable in two words or less is more harmful than television could ever hope to be in its darkest days. Failing to see shades of grey in ideas and beliefs is a stain upon humanity’s nature, and as common as it may be, terrible things have and will continue to come from it. Moral ambiguity is there, it just takes a reflection on the situation and a level of critical thinking that may, unfortunately, be beyond the scope of some peoples’ will to see.

*The reason I use “books” here instead of “reading” as a medium is because the person I quote never said explicitly that watching TV is bad for you, although they implied its conclusion. My argument would remain largely unchanged if they had. I chose focus on television as a broadcast device and creative outlet.

Every so often I look at the condition of the world and I suspect that the most widespread problem we have is the ever-growing sentiment of anti-intellectualism that infiltrates every aspect of our society. This rampant disease is never so prevalent as it has been with the recent generation of teenagers, and having grown up surrounded neck-deep in the filth of Gen-X, I can safely say my belief is that most, if not all, of the issues faced by humans aged 12-20 stem not only from cultural influences, peer pressure, or a desire to be accepted by their friends; they suffer from an incurable BRAIN DISEASE known as “Teenager-ism”.


Teenagers pride themselves on this disease, reveling in their ignorance and glorifying themselves on their uncommonly high levels of Stupidity. They go beyond what the average person would consider a healthy level of moronic stupor. Now, over the years I’ve upheld a single conviction, steadfast through all the doubters and disbelievers I’d encountered, and until today it’s been purely speculation. This conviction is that being a teenager is an inoperable affliction, treatable only by the passing of time or the arrival of death.

Certainly, I am not the first person to ever hold this hypothesis.

It appears we’ve spent countless lifetimes ignoring the warning signs, failing to prepare for war against a foe with the capacity to end our lives simply by ending their own. No, I don’t mean suicide-bombing Al Qaeda terrorists or Japanese kamikaze pilots; I mean Teenagers, an enemy whose primary goal is the degradation of our society into something hardly discernable from the future seen in the film Idiocracy; a world where the finest literature is found scrawled on the inside walls of bathroom stalls.
