I burnt out early on seeing too many bad films. Too many hours wasted, too many times getting up from a folding seat with a numb butt only to emerge into the night no wiser and often feeling somewhat mentally soiled. The times I left a theatre feeling really uplifted or inspired I could count on both hands. By my early twenties my perspective had greatly broadened and my time was better spent on other more rewarding pursuits.

All those kids/adults spending X number of hours playing games for weeks, months and years don't get that time back. Blasting things and repetitive killing for hours on end daily isn't particularly kind to children in regards to developing a well-rounded personality or, for that matter, even a halfways decent education. The television generation that started watching 4 hours every weeknight loses a month and a half each year. That time isn't given back either.

This is part of the Western problem, particularly here in the USA. It's the reason the space program may never send a man to Mars or ever develop true manned space exploration of our solar system. It's the reason we are turning from an industrial to a service economy. It's the reason the Zone here, and its relatively "cerebral" activity, has never achieved more than a few dozen regulars.

Art once commented about "Dream Crushers". The true dream crushers are the insidious time-wasters that suck up hours of millions of individuals life greedily. Pretty soon folks need their dose of "artificial reality" as their real lives get worse and worse and their dreams seem ever further out of reach...and yet they don't realize that the time-wasters are one of their biggest problems.

November is National Novel Writing Month. (Na-No-Wri-Mo for those in the loop;-) Folks who sign up try to write a novel in a month. It's goal is to help folks get motivated and use their time more constructively - a noble goal in an era where time-wasting has become a silent national blight, its only telltale sign is the increasing obesity of our population young and old.

Video games, film and television are a hell of a way to destroy a culture. It's beyond insidious. It's like candy coated poison - it goes down way too easily. The entertainment industry trains people to worship celebrities via the media and usurps a ridiculous amount of people's lives in this meaningless and unrewarding pursuit. Artificial reality and offering a faux adult world with constant repetitive ego reinforcement to kids via computer games via violence is a pathological child psychologist's wet dream.

Sure, a small portion of our population is probably better off pacified and controlled. However, way too many folks with real potential, whose minds deserve better, will have their lives wasted and their fondest dreams sacrificed on this altar.

For those boys, girls, men and women, I lament - and for them do I bother to write posts like this, which I know are about as welcome as a thunderstorm on the perfect summer day.