by Ryszard Krasowski

Created on: January 20, 2009

ABSOLUTE POWER

According to the dictionary, dictatorship is a system of government in which a country is ruled by a single person or a small clique with absolute power. This person or this group believes that it has a divine message that will bring relief to the masses. The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you may vote first and take orders later and in a dictatorship you do not have to waste your time voting because it is done for you whether you want it or not.

If I had written about politics, the beginning of my article would have been perfect. But I do not know too much about politics so in that case it would be dangerous to express my opinion on that subject. I am sure that some people would be offended by my point of view even if I would try hard not to step on somebody's toes.

That is why I decided to look for any sign of a dictatorship in other fields of our life. It did not take too long for me to find something that had all the symptoms of making me feel as if I was under influence of small clique with absolute power.

It was in front of my nose and it was called TV.

I do not know about you but I have an impression that everything on TV dictates a way of my thinking, my behaving and a way of living my life.

Let us take, for example, an innocent expression "don't touch that dial". Of course as a free man in a free country I may do what I want to do and may touch that dial, but at the same time I would like to watch in its entirety what I started to watch, so I do not touch that dial. By doing so I did what I was dictated to do I did not touch that dial. As a consequence I had to put up with all the crap between shattered into pieces something that I watched "buy two, get one free", "5000 thousand dollars cash back", "60% off" etc.

I have my own sense of humor and so does everyone else. I laugh when I see or hear something funny and I have a stone face when there is nothing to make me express my feelings. But a group of people obsessed with power try to convince me that I should laugh or cry whenever they want me to do so. Each sentence spoken by an actor or actress in various sitcoms is followed by a hysterical laugh of invisible audience which seems to be controlled by also invisible dictators. There is nothing funny in these sentences but someone tries to convince me that I should laugh. Someone tries to control my sense of humor, but I do not need to be told that something is funny. It is like telling a joke, but

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