TV", there are many strong and contradictory takes on the role television plays in society today. It would appear from a cursory look at the text that there is currently a debate raging across the United States of America centered upon defining the virtues and vices exhibited by television. One side says television is an important communicator of ideas at best, and a harmless amusement at worst. The other claims that television is a trap, a snare which can corrupt the minds of America. Most people, I believe (without any great mass of conclusive evidence), do not take any part in this debate. They're much too busy watching Julia Child teach how one should choose the ingredients for Beef Wellington or enjoying the high humor and quick wit of some cartoon or comic opera.

In his essay, "Crack and the Box", Peter Hamill makes two broad claims, which have far-reaching tendrils which reach to the core of our society. His major claim is that television is bad for the individual and for society. This is based on the claim that television is addictive, like some legal and illegal drugs. And like said drugs, television is harmful to its adherents in many ways (600). Television makes people asocial, and takes people out of the "real" world and into an "unreal" plane of existence (601). Television, Hamill claims, allows one to have emotional shifts without any kind of effort. It is passive escapism. He believes that television allows people to escape from the world and its demands, and makes them feel as if they have no control over their surroundings (601). His second claim is that television is in many ways responsible for the change of the drug culture into a mass "problem" (600). Before television., the use of hard drugs was restricted to a small minority of citizens on the outskirts of civilization (600). After television became universal, Hamill tells us that hard drug use became much more prevalent. He says that this is because television made people addicts, made people seek escape from "reality" (601-602). He goes on to say that it is easy to understand how someone could jump from television addiction to drug addiction (602).

Allegreta Behar-Blau of Woodland Hills, California is somewhat less enthusiastic in her support of television. She appreciates television as a place where she can retreat to from the daily grind of life. She explains how television offered her company when she was living alone (604) Television was "her best friend", though she was ashamed at being so enamoured of something which many consider "stupid and banal" (604). Once she became married, television no longer was her main companion in life. Television took the back seat, as a personal place which she could escape to when the pressures of the world, of her family, becomes too much to bear (604).

In looking back at the texts, I come away with a better understanding of Hamill's main argument, and how it can work on a case by case basis. There are, however, major flaws in his reasoning. Just because two events occur consecutively, it does not mean that the prior event caused the latter. To claim that the rise of television in America is directly responsible for the increase in the use of hard drugs, is frankly faulty logic, unworthy of Hamill's impressive essay. The second major claim, that television caused the hard drug climate of the 1960's and later still, must be pushed to the side for now, as there is no conclusive evidence supplied by Hamill to convince me that A) the addictive strain in American society was introduced by television and that B) there

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1893
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)