A common criticism leveled at Baby Boomers by members of younger generations is that trying to change Boomers’ minds with dialectical reason is like hitting your head against the wall. This intellectual stubbornness is summed up in the meme “When you’re arguing with a Boomer, you’re really arguing with the television.”
The Baby Boomers’ status as the first generation raised by television lends a lot of practical weight to that assessment. But a couple bits of esoteric lore that have been floating around the ineternet suggest the possibility of another darker dimension.
Since the invention of mainstream radio and television, billions of watchers and listeners have tuned in for a dose of entertainment and education. But just imagine watching your favorite TV show or listening to the radio suddenly interrupted by a strange broadcast or a mysterious message. It will definitely leave you confused and uneasy. Well, there have been many such cases over the years, but today we will discuss one such strange case that happened on 29th August 1968, when all the TVs In America suddenly went off for about 25 seconds, leaving behind such a sound as if it was the voice of a devil, making it the scariest thing that ever happened to America.
It occurs to me that one way to define Clown World is the point in time after which every TV going out is no longer the scariest thing to have happened in America.
But I digress.
On August 29th, 1968, every single TV in America suddenly shut down and for 25 seconds, people have heard a voice, a murmur. No one seemed to understand what the issue really was and what the sound was from the TVs. Many people believe that it was the devil trying to convey some message but nobody really understood it. After 25 seconds, all the televisions turned back on and the daily scheduled programs resumed. To this day, no one exactly knows who caused it and why it happened but everyone believed it was the work of the devil.
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The story above has been debunked as an urban legend by Snopess, for what that’s worth.
But it does make another association in my mind with one of the more cryptic and chilling prophecies attributed to a saint.
Elizabeth Ann Seton was said to have had a vision of the future, in which every home in America had a black box that could let the Devil in.
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Again, is the account of the Devil speaking through every TV in America for 25 seconds back in August of 68 literal fact?
Maybe not. But if the events that have unfolded since that date are any indication, the urban legend is a 100 percent effective metaphor.
So keep in mind, when you’re talking with someone who grew up in front of the television, to some extent, you’re talking with the Devil box.
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