Avri Gilad: "Television is the Main Engine of Humankind's Ruin"

After a period of relative silence, Avri Gilad speaks out, this time in a restrained and moderate manner, showcasing agendas atypical of those used to living by the schedule of ratings and action at all costs. In an interview with The Epoch Times, Gilad expresses his thoughts on the destruction television causes to society and explains why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not be resolved in this generation.

Gilad has a very clear explanation for the change he underwent after many years in television: "I was a teenager, wild and irresponsible. I was a big anarchist, eager to disrupt social order, always living on the edge. That's what you do when you're young – you want to make a name for yourself, earn a living, be famous. Today, I'm not in that place. Today, I approach each of my jobs with a sacred sense of responsibility – social responsibility, parental responsibility, let’s use some funny words – responsibility for the fate of humankind."

According to him, television plays a central role in shaping societal behavior and even influences the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Television is the main engine of humankind's ruin. It's today's greatest distraction. It created the distraction that allows the world to be destroyed while people watch reality shows in the meantime. People can avoid dealing with their lives, their community, and their nation because there's a constant distraction. A distraction occurring during your free time, which was previously dedicated to others, to the community. You used to earn a living, bake bread, slaughter cattle, herd sheep, and in the remaining free time, you’d interact. Television created an option where instead of interacting, you consume. You enslave your consciousness to content someone hands you to lull you, so you won’t handle crucial issues. Television is the greatest suppression device in the world. It suppresses human consciousness, and we see that in times when people should rebel more, they are more addicted. Those most addicted are the very people who should be leading protests in the streets. Truly. The weakest, being the most numerous, are the most addicted, to prevent them from noticing their condition. So they may live their lives through the lives of others. That’s what’s really happening. Television allows people to "upgrade" their lives, in quotes, by living through others’ lives in what we call reality television, and assuming they have lives when they actually don't."

Reality Shows Give a False Sense of Life

"It not only provides a false sense of life, but also allows people to think their lives are better than others", says Gilad. "Because others humiliate themselves on television, and at least I'm living my small life without public disgrace. Evil didn’t start with reality shows. Before reality shows, there were other things. There were game shows and various other things. I was a central participant in some, if not the main player."

According to Gilad, the problem with watching content is not just the genre, but the mental state it induces in us as human beings. If you watch content that inspires you or brings out good things in you, it might be less harmful, but what can be done when some people are negatively affected, connecting with the frequency broadcast to them from the screen? "What television broadcasts is the frequency that permeates society", Gilad explains. "It's all frequencies, so when you broadcast a certain frequency, a frequency of rejection, judgment, greed – that's the frequency you spread. Conversely, when you broadcast a frequency of compassion, regardless of format, and a frequency of acceptance of others, you spread something different."

In his comments, Gilad mentions a TV program featuring girls with no basic education, aired in primetime. "They praise the frequency of someone who 'knows nothing, excels in nothing except being full of themselves'. There’s no incentive to excel, find goodness within yourself, enrich yourself, or do anything with yourself. Nothing. It’s okay – the more foolish you are, the better. That’s a frequency that spreads and changes society. When a society changes in this manner, how can you promote messages like resource preservation, recycling, saving, upgrading? How? With what awareness do you work at all? When you bring such messages to today’s youth, they tell you 'you're rambling', 'I don't need it', 'let me do hahaha, pfff, like, and I'm fine.'"