Non-PRO English to Russian Other Idioms / Maxims / Sayings General

The author tells story about his friends from former Soviet Union, who while living under its reign with its censorships did illegal mimeographs of underground-written books and spread them around like-mided people (theme of these books being examintation of Soviet society). Basically he speaks about living in a society where a lot of forms of creative expression were banned and only some of them allowed. And then goes the phrase: "We couldnt imagine what it is like to live in this society without any creativity around us, without collective advanates of this creativity. How many Americans escape the horror and boredoom of their lives by DROPPING IN ON THE TUBE (capitalisation is mine)? Not that that is particulary creative, but nonetheless. We need it, otherwise we would be killing each other, really."