As chance would have it, this evening I had an opportunity to see more television than in the last couple of years. And all in one fell swoop. Bits of news, scraps of a sports event, most of a Hollywood movie, untold commercials… Quite an experience, but I cannot come up with the right word for it. Jarring? Baffling? Troubling? Daunting? Disheartening? Yes, disheartening!

Addendum (December 20, 2018)

Ever since the end of the tourist season, I spend a good part of my afternoons and evenings at Martina’s in the archway connecting the lower and upper square in Motovun. Few other places are still open at this time of the year, anyhow. As I sit by the crackling fireplace next to the bar, I often raise my eyes to the television set on one of the opposite walls. More often than not, there is no sound, but there are whirling images galore. Either Croatian or Italian programs are on the screen. And I am amazed by the similarity of them all. All the differences between the two countries are made irrelevant by television, a marvel of information technology. This is especially true of commercials, which dominate everything else on offer. Buy, buy, buy! Sooner or later, America crosses my mind. In my lifetime, this champion of capitalism has spread around the entire planet, and it is nigh impossible to escape it any longer. It is everywhere, including the medieval Motovun between tourist seasons, when there are but a few souls still around. Disheartening, indeed. As well as jarring, baffling, troubling, daunting…