Books? We don't need no stinking books!

2/25/07

This morning my wife and daughter were relating how clever the latest commercial for something called the “Wii” is. In the commercial, a couple of Japanese engineers personally deliver the Wii to an American home, much to the delight of a couple of old codgers who discover the delight of this latest video contraption which enables them to fritter away endless hours doing absolutely nothing of redeeming value. At the end of the commercial, the two “i”s in Wii bow to the “W,” or something like that, so the commercial manages to insult not only the few tatters that remain of American culture but also a venerable practice of Japanese culture.

Being the get along, go along guy that I am, I almost restrained myself from saying what I really felt about this latest video piffle. However, I could not hold it in any longer.

“Ah,” I said, “another shot of Novocain into the American mind!”

I did, however restrain myself from elaborating on my thoughts about the Wii. Fortunately, I have the Insightful Pontificator.

That’s just what America needs—another mind-numbing video game that turns our kids into zombies for hours, destroys their social skills, turning them into electronic hermits, and cripples any hope that they will somehow develop an appreciation for the written word. Why, who needs books? We have video games! Who needs other people, who needs to interact with the world? We have a virtual world of our own, in which we are the commanders, the lords of the manor, if you will!

This is yet another sign that our society, the America we knew, is going down the drain, and quickly. The worse (or maybe better, for xenophobes) news is that the rest of the world isn’t far behind us.

I am reminded of the classic 1960 film “The Time Machine” starring Rod Taylor and (very) loosely based on the H.G. Wells classic. In one (for me, the only) memorable scene, the hero of the film (Taylor) visits a future society and asks to see their libraries and their books. His host looks at him quizzically and replies “Books? Oh, yes, we have books.” The host then takes Taylor into a library filled with books. When Taylor goes to pick up a book, it crumbles because it has turned to dust from lack of use, as have all of its companions. If this movie were re-made today, one cast rest assured that there would be an infernal noise box (a television) in the background with a zombie kid playing a video game, perhaps a Wii, featuring his or her wreaking havoc on an entire society because it had somehow incurred his ill will.

The Insightful Pontificator