Ed Icionsub

Many years ago the birth of the USA Today newspaper brought huge outcries across America that “The Moonies” were implementing this horrific scheme to brainwash Americans into the Moonie cult. Critics decried the singular point of view from a national newspaper and the perfect platform to write stories that were little more than opinion and advice rather than news, which would mold the minds of the people reading the daily propaganda.

If you take a look at today’s newspapers and the internet homepages, that is exactly what we have now. A small percentage of news and a large dose of opinion, advice and seeds of doubt planted daily.

When the football season is over, the only night that I bother to turn on the television is Thursdays. I like to watch Survivor and the original CSI. Otherwise, I don’t watch much TV and don’t need the television set on sucking away my electricty and brain cells.

This was a conscious and deliberate choice for me. While growing up, television was a major influence on my life and the entire household. There were loud debates about which show to watch on nights when more than one appealing show aired on competing channels in the same timeslot. There were times that personal obligations were not met because of the desire to watch a show (It’s almost over – give me 5 minutes!). There were family nights in front of the TV when we were required to sit as a family unit and be entertained or informed. Eventually, we added additional television sets to the household. Remote controls were invented and assigned to the dominant male in each household. Cable television introduced more adult-oriented shows and the concept of commercial free broadcast. The majority of Americans became willing slaves of the boob tube.

As recently as last year, the primary television was left on,24/7, and became a constant source of noise and eirie blue light emanating from the black box sitting in the place of honor of our living room, our kitchens and bedrooms. Hell, in Las Vegas there was even a 9 inch flat screen TV mounted to the wall of my hotel room’s bathroom.

All of that has changed in my adult single life. I now turn off the TV unless there is a show that I want to watch. I check the schedule for titles and times and if it is convenient, I’ll watch the show. Then I turn off the TV and go about my business without the noise and annoyance of canned laughter, third grade level “humor” and the same 10 actors or actresses making the talk show rounds to promote their current movie, CD or book.

I found these folks on myspace, some random friend of a friend that had a cool cartoon like avatar for their profile pics, and found that there is a whole group of submit army initiates among them. One of my faves is the general pic. They have a myspace page dedicated to making submit army banners and stuff to promote the subversion. It may all just be a viral ad for their funny and sometimes offensive t-shirts and stuff which they sell at offend all, but I like it.

The whole concept is cool, and I do hope it is working for them.