Out of the 270 million people in America, in 2000, 93.5 million of those people watched local television during any given week and over $66 billion was spent for the making, viewing, and renting of motion pictures via Hollywood, movie theaters and video rentals in one year. Spending this kind of money to entertain this many people raises the question of, in what direction is America headed from all this leisurely activity and consumption.

The answer is simple, into a gray area of reality. America (especially the media) seems unable to discern the difference between what is real and what is a prefabrication of reality. For instance, the man who spoke Saddam Hussein's words in English during a CBS interview with Dan Rather late last month was an actor using a fake Arabic accent. Why resort to an actor when there are thousands, maybe millions of people capable of language translation.

Again, recently Hollywood's political dream-team has crossed over into the real world to protest the war in Iraq. Actors like Mike Farrell and Martin Sheen - who play the American president in the acclaimed television series "The West Wing".

The long list of artists who signed an anti-war petition reads like a who's who of Hollywood's brightest and greatest, including names such as Robert Redford, Barbara Streisand, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Samuel L Jackson, to name but a few. The media believes that if America saw their most adorned actors speaking up for peace, then they would be more prone to protest the war also.

Again, after the September 11 tragedies, Hollywood staged a primetime memorial consisting of every actor they could pull from their elaborate million-dollar bedrooms. Though the effort was noble, the show was not as terrific as one that would have been planned months before and rehearsed to the tee. The actors looked and responded like uneducated zombies devoid of makeup, wardrobe, and poise.

America's dependence on Hollywood has deepened to the point of matters of life and death. Is this good for the psyche? Not at all. When watching your favorite actor on television or in a motion picture, the characters they play are not a depiction of the actor playing the character.

In other words, just because Tom Hanks was a war hero in "Saving Private Ryan" does not mean he should be an expert on war. Likewise, just because Martin Sheen plays the President on "West Wing" does not give him the knowledge or authority to determine what is best for this county's war efforts. These are illusions that the media would like to implant into the minds of American television viewers.

Virtual Reality has also taken root in the armed forces, where most military training is based on video simulation. Soldiers train at flight simulation using sophisticated video equipment. This would explain why America uses the Air Force to fight their wars. Ground and hand-to-hand combat is a thing of the past and too risky for the military to take, especially when families of the soldiers are constantly reminded by the media that their sons and daughters will be killed if it ever came to a real war.

America is softening up and dumbing-down. Mainstream Hollywood and television is running our lives and our thoughts, not to mention the recent effort to dictate our beliefs and opinions. When we start merging fantasy with reality, when reality hits we will be unprepared because fantasy has taught us that there is always a happy ending, and that we all can be heroes.

Always know what is real by cutting your television consumption down.

© 2003 by Cartel Q