B.TV.

by Pedro Bofecillos

We all know that before 1948 and the advent of network television, little of importance happened in the world. Still, there are a few key dates, people, and accomplishments with which the well-informed media denizen of the 21st century should have at least a passing familiarity. Certainly there is no call for in-depth study, extensive (God forbid) reading, or the numbing four-year experience of a so-called liberal arts degree.

As a public service, Magellan’s Log has assembled here, on one page, all the relevant pre-1948 cultural background that one needs to successfully make one's Late-Capitalist way these digital days.

For your convenience, we have renumbered the years of human history, using a frame of reference more in keeping with items of cultural importance in the 21st century. With a nod to the increasingly irrelevant past system, we call our chronometric method "BTV", meaning of course "Before Television."

Helpful tip re BTV: Feel free to save this page and then open it in Word. You can then easily adjust the font-size, the margins, and the formatting, and you will find that it will all fit quite nicely on one side of one 8½ X 11 sheet of paper, which you can then fold and carry in your wallet for quick review at odd moments (on a plane, on a toilet, waiting for the officers to complete the breathalyzer test).

The perceptive cyber-citizen will understand that all instances of war, genocide, revolution, famine, epidemics, and the like have been omitted since they are of no interest to the builders of the coming Cyber-paradise.

For the dinosaurs among our readers, that is, those who are still mired in Old Time, we point out that BTV reckoning begins on June 20, 1948 (see first item below).

END

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