Karl Marx is famous for saying, “Religion is the Opium of the people.”
Ten years ago I took a trip to Brazil and a guy took me on a tour of the slums, the “favellas” of Sao Paulo.
The favellas were miles upon miles of shanty towns and lowly concrete homes built on the sides of hills. Infested with gangs, drugs, prostitution and violence.
Every single person we met in the favellas had a color TV. Even the people who made $60 per month and had no job. Even the poorest of the poor watch TV.
Which is interesting because TV obviously shows people things they want. But what is not so obvious is that it teaches them nothing-
– absolutely nothing –
about how to get it. Which leads me to my observation:
RELIGION IS NOT THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE.
TELEVISION IS.
In Sao Paulo, most of the people who were ‘wide awake’ were the religious ones. Like Paulo, the guy who took us to the favellas. He was helping the poor kids who lived there. The ones who were sleepwalking were the ones watching soap operas every afternoon.
Laura and I have friends at both ends of an extremely wide economic, social and political spectrum. We now have friends who make less than $100 per month and we have friends who make $100,000 per month.
And generally speaking, the prosperous ones are ones who generally DON’T watch TV.
Personally I have probably watched a grand total of six hours of network television in the last six months. I don’t think I’m missing much.
Also – have you ever noticed that TV shows never show people watching TV? And those actors and actresses are making a lot of money. Hmmmâ… Do you think there could be correlation?
MAJOR ACTION POINT:
I would like to make a request of you.
The request is:
If your TV is in the center of your living area in your house, unplug it and move it upstairs. Or move it to the basement. Or some place where a person has to deliberately GO THERE in order to watch it.
Never let a TV be the default influence in your living space. If you do, you’re just a piece of flotsam and jetsam floating along on the surface of a sick society.
If you comply with this request, it may earn you an extra $100,000 or $1,000,000 in your lifetime.
It may also prevent the nonstop gush of filth and nonsense from pouring into your living room on a daily basis.
One last thing about TV:
When you do watch TV, picture yourself as being somehow “above” it.
Don’t get hypnotized. Stay wide awake. Critique it. Observe it. Pay attention to what the TV producers are doing to you. How they’re manipulating you. How the people on the TV shows are using the medium.
That’s what Marketing Maniacs do.
There are marketing lessons all around you, 24/7/365. Only those who are wide awake learn those lessons. Everyone else is just manipulated by them.
Perry Marshall
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
87 Comments on “TV: The Opium of the People”
Perry, that is so true. I went backpacking during most of 2004, came back to stay briefly with my parents and they watch tv a lot of the time. I couldnt believe it but eventually fell into that routine too, although not a prolific tv watcher, I had my favourite programmes and watche them religiously – like the correlation with the Marx statement re: religion with regards to that. Since I have been building my online business, I cant remember the last time I watched tv. I joked with someone the other day that if someone came into my house and stole my tv, I wouldnt notice for around 4 weeks.
Apart from some good educational programmes, it is largely nonsense. I feel at bit embarassed about having a tv now to be honest.
Tina (UK)
Also, thought you might be interested to know that a 1957 Time Magazine article was entitled “Television: Opiate of the People”, a fascinating interview with Edward R. Murrow. Worth a look:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809673,00.html
If I’d believe everybody always tells the truth, then the replies to your post, Perry, prove you wrong because I doubt most of them are that successful while hardly any of them watch much tv. (or so they say :) )
While reading this excellent post, I couldn’t help but thinking you could substitute ‘surfing the web’ for TV, as least how most do it:
Paraphrasing Perry:
“Even the poorest of the poor (surf the web).
Which is interesting because (surfing the web) obviously shows people things they want. But what is not so obvious is that it teaches them nothing–
– absolutely nothing –
about how to get it.”
Obviously, there is good information on the web, but you have to be just as careful about what messages you internalize, whether from TV or the internet.
Thanks, Perry for being real.
Wow – looks like you touched a nerve w/this post.
We got rid of the TV 20 years ago – we’ve been too busy. And the kids are much, much better off w/o it – their imaginations are stretched more with duplo, lego, and reading. playing. they are in better moods since they are interactive, not so passive in front of the screen.
and me – well, i click the mouse now and again.
I have quite a strong attachment to Tv, and have been able to quit several times. As someone mentioned above, when you visit a friend, their Tv is on. It seems to pull me back in.
Where I live, there are Tv’s in Banks, Restaurants, and even the community center where I work out. I don’t even have to look at a television for it to affect me, I can always feel ‘the buzz’ if there is one on in the room.
Thank you for this article to remind me how much I want to leave Television behind.
Cheers,
Ambre
http://www.losetokeep.com
We had to cut out the cable bill after the tech wreck in 2000 – the same year our son was born. What a blessing it is to have him grow up without watching TV. He finds it boring and the commercials annoying. He’d rather be doing something. We spend more time together as a family creating our own memories rather than just remembering some fictional show.
Nicely put.
Never had a TV, but occasionally watch one to ensure nothing’s changed.
I will definitely never get one.
Apart from the worthy news and educational bits, TV has fueled a whole lot of ignorance and fear in this country.
Perry you have just pointed out one of the greats things that has influenced the minds of the people and slw them down from achieving thier goals fast.
So many people sent more time on T.V than there jobs,friends and even thier family.
So well put. The TV and main stream media have people in a trance. They are so manipulated at the unconscious level that they are enslaved to the life of being just over broke or broke. TV tells that “what” not the “how”. People who are awake are aware of the “how” and are making things happen. Lets continue to lead by example and turn of the cable. I is one of the best things I have done.
Perry the timing for this post couldn’t have been better…
We are quickly closing in on the last quarter of the first decade of 2000…
Time for people to really assess what they accomplished during this decade…and if they want to improve their results…turning off the TV just might help to get them closer to fulfilling their goals for the second decade of 2000…
I haven’t watched TV since 1983 when I moved to Italy…Italian TV was horrid…and I was too enchanted with Italy and her people…so I never missed TV…When I moved back to the States…I was too busy working to fulfill my goals…
Funny thing…I don’t read the newspapers either..but in the last two and a half decades I always know what is going on in the world…the information is so pervasive that it bombards us 24/7/365…Why waste my time going through redundant information…???
I so loved this post that I posted it on my blog…full kudos to you and a link to “The Nine Great Lies…”
You and your vision are appreciated !!
Rose
Hey Perry,
Good article, not a very popular message for most people it would seem though.
Oh, and your misspelling of favelas made you #2 in google for “favellas”
I thought that was funny.
Personally, I’m a sucker for good storytelling and nice visuals. For that combination, I can either watch TV or read comic books. I prefer comics, but there is still material on TV that I enjoy.
I don’t watch a lot of TV because I don’t find much to watch that’s worth my time. I turn on the TV when there’s something I specifically want to watch. After that, I turn it off. There’s no need to keep a distraction going. I got my story, time to move on.
BTW, remember in the 80’s when a lot of sitcoms revolved around either rich or well-to-do families? Hell, Different Strokes was about a savvy investor who made it big and was able to adopt to kids. Occasionally on the show, and on the spin-off (Facts of Life), you’d hear investment facts and advice.
Ducktales was an enriching series for one episode where Scrooge McDuck explained how he made his fortune, and told the Huey, Looey and Dewey “Don’t work hard, work smart.” That lesson has stuck with me since. There was another episode that explained how money worked, and how continually printing it would destroy the economy.
Compare that to the shows of today, which feature lower-middle-class families with men who’s mental abilities are mediocre at best. Somehow they marry these beautiful women who are so extremely loyal to them they stick around no matter how stupid they get.
The portrayal of these idiots is always positive, and when you see rich people, it’s always negative. Dishonest, mean, manipulative and downright evil. Is it no wonder you see so many people who don’t want to be rich these days? Financial intelligence has been vilified.
My advice is this: Find the good stories, turn off the sitcoms and the reality shows (this includes talk shows) and only watch the things you turn the TV on for. After that, turn it off. Keeping it on is like finishing a book and trying to read more on the cover, the dust jacket, the margins…
Blah, blah, blah Perry.
I am an actor, and I watch TV. Our national culture surrounds TV. I admit that we probably watch too much, and that it IS another form of escape, but so is the internet and every last damn bit of “marketing advice”.
There is some garbage, and there’s some fantastic stuff- just like on the internet.
I think some of that “There’s no PV in TV” Ambot stuff is still in there….
My dad spent 20 years of his life watching tv instead of being my dad. It ties into living vicariously through other people, he was nothing, so whatever was on television that day, that’s where he was…
I think the issue is self-control. The TV doesn’t make anyone do anything – waste time or overeat – it just provides distraction and instant gratification. So does the Internet. And we are using that even more than the TV. If we would just become mindful of our own processes- and catch ourselves using TV/Internet to relieve us of the need to be productive right now we wouldn’t need to take the time to move anything to another room.
Hi Perry!
In April of this year my wife and I moved. One of the things we did was not sign up for any tv from any provider. Our thinking was anything we want to watch is available online or thru Netflix.
Many a day goes by now that the only TV we watch is at the end of the day around 10 or 11pm. We throw in a disk and generally fall asleep to it.
So far it hasn’t increase our income (it will!) but my wife and I have spent a lot of time learning about internet marketing, social networking and fine tuning my skills at creating blogs and websites.
I always believed tv was a serious problem in the developed world but like any good drug it’s hard to stop…
Perry, you certainly hit the nail on the head with this article.
It reminded me of a comment from a customer years ago. She limited her children’s tv watching to one hour a night.
Her statement then, back in the 70’s, is still perfectly valid today.
“TV is nothing more than a mental douche”
Hey Perry that’s why we call TV “the electronic income reducer”.
I am super selective of what I watch. It is for sure 99.9% garbage and soft porn everywhere.
My kids are 12 and 9 and they can’t just TV surf because after 8 o’clock you don’t know what you’ll get; and that’s almost any night now.
We programed the TV to get only a few channels but usually we kick them out to play like my Mom did.
The main stream media got freaked out when Janet Jackson had her boob exposed on the super bowl which made my chuckle.
I cut my TV watching way back 2+ years ago but I’ll be honest I love my sport of hockey and being Canadian living in Toronto I watch the Leafs games but that is about it.
There is a direct relationship to watching little or no TV and me starting to make weekly checks in my online businesses this summer.
On this one you are preaching to the choir. I am somewhat reluctant to say that we only have one TV in the house and it is a 10 year old, 19″ one.
This is one very valuable lesson I learned a few years ago and it has contributed immensely to my personal growth. Instead of watching TV, I read, listen to or watch business, marketing, self-help Cds/DVDs.
Perry – you are absolutely right.
We don’t watch much tv at all, and if we do, it’s usually interesting shows on the History channel or Discovery. We do get rental movies to our house and watch a couple a week.
One that that I think ties in to your discussion is that television, the media specifically, is extremely negative and promotes fear. I don’t recommend watching the news.
I think being an entrepreneur requires staying positive and as emotionally balanced as possible. Watching the news does not help you to stay balanced. Many people watch it before bed, and they wonder why they don’t sleep well at night. All of that “bad” news, fear, depressing news etc seeps into your subconscious.
Yep – pulling the TV is a great move and I totally agree successful people are less likely to imbibe in it.
Michelle
I thought I was the only person that felt this way. While, I still have my tv, I don’t watch it as much because know I spend my time preparing marketing strategies for my business. I have noticed the manipulation techniques they use on tv to keep people tuned in. I can’t hate em for their marketing strategy because it appears to get the job done.
My dad and I had this very conversation 5 years ago or so. We, too, agreed that TV is the opiate of the masses.
To this day, one thing I’ve never purchased in my entire life is a TV. We’ve gotten a couple for free, as gifts. But then never bothered to get programming — so just had static.
We did have channels at one time because a relative brought over a TV antenna and insisted on setting it up. So we had programming for about 1-2 years. But it got to where I couldn’t stand it.
One day, I carried the TV out into the garage and put a potted plant where the TV had been. Ah, peace and quiet again.
One of the biggest problems with TV is that it robs you of reading time… learning time… time you would normally use to “sharpen the saw.”
Anyhow, excellent post. I fully support your suggestion to move the TV out of the main living space — at a bare minimum.
Ryan
Great post Perry. The only shows I’ve been watching lately, when I remember, are…
Daily Show – satirizes TV news and politics
Colbert Report – satirizes TV news and politics
The Soup – ridicules reality television
So, I guess that only watching TV shows that make fun of TV shows counts as staying “above” it? ;)
Perry,
I think there is a wealth of information on TV.
My Fav’s: Discovery, NatGeo, Home Improvement shows, Gardening, CNBC, Food Channel, and of course, the Yankees.
Don A.
Perry,
Very very true. Networkers hate the TV, and for the past 5 years I have barely watched anything at all.
No radio either. I can barely tell who the current pop artists are or what their songs are.
News is what’s really really bad…That can throw an individual right down the scale, can creates fear and hostility.
I also don’t watch sports, except for the occasional UFC match. But I do have a guilty pleasure or 3.
TrueBlood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Entrourage.
To me there is nothing like watching Curb and laughing my a** off from time to time..
Very keen observation, no one on TV watches TV. Even made up characters have better things to do, lol
Hi Perry,
Once again you have hit the nail on the head, my wife Jane and myself are far too busy to ever watch TV.
We occasionally try and watch a video but it has to be exceptional for us to get to the end.
I liked this article so much I posted it on my own website, with full credit of course.
It’s definitely addicting if it’s front & center, we’ve noticed with the kids. So we just cancelled the cable with great moans of “What about Lost? What about Heroes? What about ___?”
Addictions, see what I mean? They can watch that stuff on Hulu, not to mention it saves over $100/month.
That said, we LOVE Netflix and they’re probably losing money on us. If it’s a night to watch something (adults make that call) then we enjoy choosing some great stuff there…classics, documentaries, concerts, good old TV series from yesteryear, etc. It’s not like we never watch anything.
As I heard Gregg Harris say one time on this issue, “If you don’t want to get rid of the TV and tell me you only watch news and sports, I’ve got news for you, sports.”
It’s a time gobbler, and that’s got a really high opportunity cost.
Becki
Love this post. I don’t watch much TV because I don’t have time. When I do make the time it is generally a movie with the family.
It was not a conscience thing on my part but I am in front of my computer screen 10X more than TV.
I just cannot do productive things with a TV. My computer helps me get things done I guess.
But I think that is Perry’s point. TV is one way communication, while ‘input devices’ (people, BlackBerrys, computers) are two way or interactive devices.
It’s funny, but I know the years I spent learning the ‘Internet thing’ in the early part of this decade came at the sacrifice of TV.
My wife saw the back of my head more than the front as my office at home was configured that way!
Perry,
I think you hit the nail on the head here. I’ve hated television since I was in junior high school (23 years ago or so), and I couldn’t agree with you more about how it sucks you in, puts you in a trance so you don’t process anything, you just blindly absorb and accept it, and it imparts dependence, non-action values.
I haven’t made my extra $100K-$1M yet, but I’m much closer than a lot of people I’ve come across simply because I hate television.
Like John Manley, we have a tv, but no cable or satellite, etc.
And Simon, I’ve come to find it humorous when people look at me funny when they make a tv reference, and I tell them I don’t know their reference because I don’t watch tv. It completely throws them off. Pretty funny.
– John
There ought to be ONE exception to the rule: sports. I can give up TV shows, but my NFL, NBA, and USC Trojans Football… I can’t give THAT up.
I watch a few things on TV. I used to watch CNBC all day as I worked. Since I am in the financial area it seemed a good idea to keep an eye on the markets for any “Breaking News”. A few months ago I decided that breaking news simply meant “We want to be first so stop thinking and let us tell you something trivial”. I still turn it on occasionally but rarely.
I watch NCIS, old CSI, Psych, Eureka and a couple of others that require your brain to be engaged if you truly want to enjoy it. I like trying to solve the plot before they do or doing internet searched on the science they bring up to see if it is realistic. I have learned a ton of things and it make TV interactive.
My son watches the history channel and rarely anything else.
Oh, umm , does college football count? Because you do know this is the kick off of the season right? How else can I spend hours scouring the internet looking up obscure stats to impress my friends with my arcane knowledge :)
Be active in your life. Be responsible for it. Too few people strive for greatness.
What a timely post. I just this week returned home from volunteering my summer at a kids summer camp. No TV there. Funny, you don’t miss it when you are living well without it. I don’t watch much anyhow but I do have a couple shows I like. I have never had cable, I get 3 channels over the air.
I sat down last night to watch something – what a waste of time! Sometimes I just need to take a break from what is going on and TV certainly can empty your mind (since it puts nothing useful in to it).
But, ya, I have reduced my watching time considerably over the last year or so. Great post.
Boy do you have this stuff the wrong way around. People watch TV when they’re skint because they can’t afford to go to music concerts or the theatre or the football game. It’s not *because* they watch TV that they get skint.
Amen and AMEN!
I work tech support for a national cable / HSI provider and the amount of stupid that pours through those phones are mind boggling!
The internet calls aren’t so bad, but if “Dancing With The St@rs” or your daily slop opera gets interrupted people get UGLY. Even make bomb threats.
If that’s not bad enough, now you can record it and watch it over and over in Hi-Def. These same people just can’t comprehend the fact that power supplies fail and hard drives fail. Now all there recorded porn is gone :( –
I get every channel available for free and have not found one I like yet. I do keep the TV on at all time, mostly with the volume down and it’s don’t matter what channel. I’m accustom to the back ground noise and frequency it makes… but that’s an addiction for another blog.
Geez, I can’t imagine paying money for cable television! I haven’t had TV since I went to University. I forget that people still watch it!
What do most people do when they come home? Crack open a beer and sit in front of the television for 4 hours.
And we all wish we made more money…
When we in the UK only had 4 channels, the BBC produced some fantastic work – I, Claudius, Smiley’s People to name but 2.
Now we have hundreds of channels of mainly rubbish and much of the best stuff is from the USA (The Wire, Sopranos etc)We do have some good documentaries though – just watched one on the coming food crisis.
Moderation in all things – TV is great if you just want to flop and relax for an hour. It’s when you watch it endlessly without discrimination.
A survey here in the UK said 50% of people would not change a channel they didn’t like if they couldn’t find the remote!
Sorry, I’m not getting rid of the idiot box yet.
Living in Detroit, one of the highlights of Thanksgiving is watching the Lions football game. We recently hosted Thanksgiving for my family, and they immediately turned on my TV. Unfortunately for them, I didn’t have cable, satellite or a digital tuner/antenna. They still huddled around the small fuzzy screen.
The last time I looked forward to watching TV on a regular basis was during my childhood when my favorite shows were Leave it to Beaver, Dukes of Hazard and Get Smart.
Perry – I’ve recently realized that the entire elderly community of the world spends 80% of their time watching the tube. And I’m really curious what would happen if they couldn’t. If it was just shut off.
There was a blackout in NYC in 2003 that was incredible. There were all these people in the streets at night that you’d never seen before… nice people who could play guitar and laugh and stuff. Makes you think.
But if we’re being honest here, the internet will replace TV as the opiate for the masses soon enough. I don’t even own a TV, but I’m practically wet wired to the internet. So I’m not one to talk.
Lucas
I am very anti TV myself.
I did have one years ago to watch the news but it broke down one day and was not replaced. I just don’t know how people find the time to watch TV programmes every night…
By the way, Marx did of course write what you quoted but he wrote about religion in a very compassionate way.
Where people feel a hole in their lives they will fill it.
With TV or sport or religion or perhaps even FaceBook…Twitter…
:-)
FaceBook rant coming up Perry?
Perry, my wife and I put our television in the barn three years ago, where it became a target for the pigeons and barn swallows.
Haven’t missed it a bit.
I have completely stopped watching TV about 7 years ago and I feel much better and have more time.
However, together with my daughter I sometimes watch her child-DVDs ( Winnie Pooh etc ) together. She does not watch TV ever, too,
but only DVDs. And she repeats watching the same DVD very often until she fully understands it and she aks questions etc.
My spouse uses TV sometimes, alone.
***
Before that 7 year I used it for 4 years. ( Complete waste of time )
Before that 4 years I also had a period of several years without TV. Then my girl friend manipulated me into purchasing a TV ( which was the worst buying decision I ever made. )
So in total I have about 12 years without watching TV and it is really much much better without than with TV.
***
You are really right that TV is the opiate of the people. It’s the number one addiction world-wide and since 95% of the population is affected, it is not qualified as a sickness but regarded as normal.
Chris
P.S.: Nice pun to the original quote with the “religion being the opiate of the people” which was issued by some communist leader. Which I think is quite funny, because I think that communist/socialistic ideology also qualifies very well as “opiate for the people”, right after “TV”. Because communism and socialism teach people to blaim others for their failures instead of learning from them. So instead of working on personal growth they remain locked in their regressive blaim-others game which makes them easy-to-suppress and easy-to-manipulate sheep for politicians and (wanna-be) dictators.
When I was in college, I knew people who scheduled their classes around The Young and The Restless. Unbelievable.
As for your post, another way it could be stated is, “Garbage in. Garbage out.”
Paul
Eat Well. Live Well.
PurpleGreenPops.com
So true, Perry!
I don’t have a TV since the the single chanel I liked (popular science)was cancelled. That was 4 years ago. I got to a stage where it irritates me if there is a TV switched on when I visit people, or in public places. Unfortunately I’m surrounded by people who don’t really understand. Your article makes me feel less alone!! Thanks!! :-)
Great post, Perry. I got rid of the TV 1996 when I moved out to the mountains in Southern California. I did continue to go see a movie once a month.
Today we do have a TV. No cable, satellite, etc. It’s off in the corner of the living room with the surge controller off. It takes about five minutes to set it and the furniture up so its easy to view. We rent a DVD by mail order each week (via Zip.ca — the Canadian version of Netflix) which allows us to provide a list of what we want to see.
You’re point about people not watching TV on TV is something I never spotted. But, yes, people on TV see to have much more meaningful lives — almost as if they can “live your life for you.”
But so much of it doesn’t make sense. We saw a series a while back (good sci-fi plot) which featured a two-income family, with kids who never could left a finger, yet they had a perpetually immaculate house and the mother had time to cook these big home cooked meals. Where did she have time to do all this cooking and cleaning? You never see anyone clean. They live in this big house in a great neighborhood, yet it never seems like they are struggling to keep up.
You’re exactly right. I say as I’m watching UFC 102, but it is my business to watch this, I guess that’s ok. I’m using your autoresponder series to write about it right now.
Unfortunately I just bought a 40 inch TV. I caved into the family pressure.
Gotta make wife happy…lol.
I will try to not watch it as much as I used to but it is going to be hard.
However, get my million dollars spend it well.
I got rid of the TV a couple of months ago. It’s one of the best things I ever did.
Now I read, play games or watch quality shows or movies on DVD. Or I spend time on the internet, which at least is more active.
What’s more, giving up TV has made my mental state more positive. At best, a lot TV is an opiate; at worst it’s a kind of poison.
The funny thing is, when you tell people you’ve shut off the cable, they look at you as if you’ve just said “I’ve stopped eating food.”
That’s how much of a drug it has become.