If you want to be happy, turn off your television

Got a minute?

If you do, I'm going to tell you the absolutely healthiest, smartest thing you can do in your own life, and I can do it in three words.

Stop ... watching ... television.

Pretty simple, huh?

Let's leave out the fact that programming is incredibly inane. We can even leave out the fact that advertising on TV is designed to get you to spend money you don't have on things you don't need.

Watching television -- especially watching lots of television -- makes you more passive. And over a long period of time, it changes your brain waves. It makes you less likely to stand up for yourself, more willing to accept the status quo and of course less well-informed.

It's the perfect pacifier, and it's the primary reason that people are essentially so docile (except when someone on television tries to stir them up).

Ever wonder why despite the fact that something like 70 percent of the people in this country say they are (at best) just getting by, there's really little talk of changing the system?

Television.

John Prine said it first:

"Blow up your TV ..."

Thanks for that minute.