Years from now, if our species survives long enough, historians will look back on the last century or so and wonder why we were so keen to pump toxic slop into our brains via television, movies, and the Internet. Just as junk food makes us physically ill, so too does junk entertainment poison our brains. This is why, more than 30 years ago, I tossed out my little-used TV and since then have been extremely careful about what inputs I accept.

Many people seem to regard TV in the same way people used to regard cigarettes: a mostly harmless indulgence. But, as we know, cigarettes are not mostly harmless. Nor is popular entertainment. It's as cancerous as tobacco - but in a mental way, so we don't notice.