The answer has to be ‘No.’ A resounding, ‘No,’ for that matter.  People who say they can are probably people you don’t want to have anything to do with.  And if you let them try, you’re asking for trouble, more often then not.  That would be commonsense, but we’ve run into a short supply of that, especially when people look to other people, other groups to ‘make them happy.’

We’ve run into a problem in the world, and most definitely, the Western world, and that has to do with the fact that some groups say they can be every thing for everybody, it just depends on what you want to ‘give up.’  Making people happy is part of a barter system.

Giving things up, isn’t just meant for dieting we’re to understand, because groups are just relegated to personal aesthetics here, though the way we are to see ourselves is a problem all its own, considering the constant barrage that comes from films, internet and TV of how we should look, and TV more so, because 90% of the country has at least one or two, and more for some.  The number of televisions is not the problem.  It’s the watching.

The one cure is turning the TV off, not that we haven’t heard this before.

But still it’s so simple, you can just push the button never see the TV program ever again, and be no worse for wear.  Yes, TV, the 24/7 beaming of imagery, is powerful and selective, but who has the control—who wants to be happy, but it’s difficult.  Those who ‘produce’ television have a good and scientific idea of who watches and when they watch, and when it comes to kids that many parents function in absentia.

This concern regarding the ‘entertainment media’ portion of TV can be traced back to the Golden Age of radio.  Game shows, Westerns, detective programs, gossip formats, music and more, it was all there and the complaints were there, and the same concerns, and threats from parents where there, ‘Behave or no radio’.  Complaints of the negative influences were there.  Actually, complaints about entertainment can be taken back to the pre-radio days.  Books for pure entertainment were looked down on.

So, we know that entertainment television can’t make everyone happy.   What do you give up to watch TV?  Time.  The more you watch the more time is gone, and time is the most valuable investment anyone has.  Maybe just for the sake of time, people should just turn away from the machine.  Get a hobby.  It’s amazing how many people don’t have hobbies.

What else do we know about TV?  Besides the ‘entertainment’ produced, which doesn’t make everyone happy. We know the news, or what many would say is passed off as news.  Because what has to be understood is ‘news’ is its own entertainment format and discussion and we all know, that the news media doesn’t make everyone happy either.  We all recognize the fact that car crashes, plagues, floods, natural disasters and human conflict be it a war or the vandalism of someone else’s property, is not entertainment and anyone who revels in the misery of others is, well, questionable for any number of moral, ethical, and political reasons.

But news makes people unhappy—considering the imagery would anyone be surprised?  But, again, along with the imagery are the words issued from the mouths of everyone who’s image is flashed across the screen.

How many times have we been faced with words uttered as if they were fact, and then they become lost in the continual flow of images and more words?   But ‘news’ as it is called has always been suspect:

"Modern man is staggering and losing his balance because he is being pelted with little pieces of alleged fact which are native to the newspapers; and, if they turn out not to be facts, that is still more native to newspapers."  --G. K. Chesterton

G. K. puts it in a nutshell, and he considered himself a journalist, among other things, and he saw it, the production of ‘news’ firsthand, and what I just quoted by Chesterton was written in 1923. 

So, the speed of light and of words and seemly short memory, other manipulation of memory, or re-writing, some would say, of the news by the producers appears to facilitate the appearance of what can be call a fallacy of fact, and fallacy of fact seems to have a longer life than fact, and happiness is one of the casualties.

But everyone wants to be happy?  Well, I can’t say that TV is a route to that particular destination, and I will go so far as to say any group, which does use TV as a platform for rallying for the happiness of others, should be studied, if not with total suspicion, with a wary eye.  Preferably, both eyes.

Groups could be any kind, secular and non-secular, and most assuredly political.  And the list can go on.  A special attention percolates from the television especially on the subject of religion, specifically Christianity.  The news media is always seeking some way to showcase that particular faith.  Usually in a bad negative light, being that if ‘it bleeds it leads’ mentality, but bearing in mind how the ‘news’ was dealt with in the previous paragraphs, we’ll leave the news media out.

We’re dealing with happiness here, and religions can provide route through life, which can be lined with gifts of happiness.   Of course, this does have something to do with a belief in something beyond the material world. God comes to mind.  And there is a variety of religions in the world.  Much good—and happiness can be found in religion, in particular religions. Of course, atheists, militant ones in particular, have issues with organized religion, particularly Christianity, interestingly enough, while there are religions, such as Christianity, which have no issues with atheists at all.  An interesting conundrum there.

So, when it comes to religion, and a religious group says we know the way to happiness, and then offers the way and their leadership, one needs to be watchful, using ‘both eyes’ as previously mentioned.

We should be familiar with the fact that organizations, private, and political—most political, do this all the time, and we have seen this in the most materialistic and secular of ways.   Frequently, we are asked to vote for ‘happiness,’ something which will be at some later date ‘done for us’ or ‘provided as a service.’  And we know the human species is a gullible lot, because so many believers believe that this kind of ‘happiness’ is free.

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