The debate of the red button

There have been many great debates throughout the history of the world: philosophical, theological, scientific, political and cultural to categorise a few.  Our world has been shaped and directed by high brow thinking and debating which established theories, doctrines, formulae and rules.  Einstein’s theory of relativity was borne out of hours of painful study and debate.  The Patristic Fathers debated significantly over the formulation of the doctrine of Trinity.  Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind still leaves neuro-surgeons scratching their heads.   

The debates of today, however, have less implications for the fabric of society or the development of science than those of our ancestors, yet we engage them with equal fervour.  I have no proof with which to bolster my theory but i wish to share it none-the-less. (clears throat) The single most debated issue facing the Great British public today, is that of the red button!

Interactive digital television has taken me captive.  Once upon a time I was free.  Free to live, to leave my home and go out places, to chat with my neighbours, free to enjoy reading a newspaper on a Saturday morning and free to grow some vegetables in my back garden (I freely chose not to do that though).  But now I’m a prisoner.  Held in my armchair with cords of curiosity and flicking through the channels in a desperate panic that I might be missing something.  I’m constantly being instructed at the end of each programme that I can be privy to some fascinating insights if i ‘press my red button…now’.

I remember the days when one used the red button to utilise teletext.  I further remember that one was often instructed ‘not to push the red button’.  The red button on the escalators; in the school woodwork room; in an aeroplane cockpit, were all forbidden fruit and were only to be pushed in an emergency, not willy nilly or at the drop of a TV presenters hat!  What is the world coming to?

I’m going to break free - free from armchair bondage – and exercise my right to not push the interactive red button and instead push the red ’standby’ button and get on with my life.