View Full Version : A few thoughts on the Brain Drain, AKA Television
theeindiee
05-27-2008, 03:01 PM
For almost two years (Wow, it's been that long?) I have cut back on television almost completely. I'll watch a show or two every now and again, sometimes a movie, but I would say in one week's timespan, I spend an average of less than an hour in front of the TV.
In the past, I was a TV junkie. I'd sometimes become a total hermit and spend the entire weekend just surfing the tube, wasting my precious time watching a screen with moving pictures on it. I remember watching the Sept. 11th "attacks" on television, and that week's time period where every channel you flipped to was news. I was just riveted to the screen during that time period, and I was shocked and saddened and angered and yada yada... and I think that time period played tricks with everybody's mind. I know my whole family couldn't turn away from the television during that time period. I'm sure 3/4ths of the country was the same way.
This was an important event in television history...
Okay, so now that the niceties are out of the way, I will get straight to the point. My thoughts about television changed massively about two years ago. I consciously decided to turn the TV off one day, and ever since then, every time I turn the TV on, I feel sick to my stomach watching it. Everything on TV seems completely plastic. I'll watch the news and look at the newscasters caked with make-up, and their expressions all seem contrived, the voices are all the same pitch. I used to equate that newscaster type voice with professionalism and seriousness... but now I realize: Who the fuck talks that way when they are trying to make a serious point or relay serious information? I've only heard two types of people talk that way.... teachers giving lectures and newscasters. That brings up some serious questions. Why do we see the news and take it as gospel? Why do we believe everything we're taught in school? I've heard from some sources that this pitch is reminiscent of the voice a hypnotist uses.
Is this why it is so hard to break free of our social conditioning? Because we've all been brainwashed by hypnotic suggestion? I often times catch myself becoming very unsure of my own sanity now whenever I make the mistake of wandering into a room where a television is on, especially when the news is on. Even if I just catch one minute of newscast, I feel like I'm starting to get brainwashed again. I feel like the people on TV are right, and maybe I should just stop with all the crazy talk or go see a therapist or something. All of the sudden, I feel helpless and completely confused and scared because I start to believe that I got it all wrong.
I notice that those types of feelings only arise after I view television, even if just for a brief period of time. Lately, I've become a little more immune to the television's influence, so mostly it just frustrates me to watch. I sometimes attempt to watch a show or two that I still enjoy, but then the commercials come and it just ruins the experience. There's just so much advertising, it almost takes up more time than the actual show.
It's frightening to think about. If just a moment's glimpse of television programming can influence me that strongly to doubt my firm and stronger than ever values and opinions, imagine what it does to somebody that spends like 10+ hours a week watching television!!!
That's MOST of the country! An hour or two daily, and you're a fucking zombie preaching the word of what you think is the real world...what is presented to you from a tiny box.... and those screens just get BIGGER and BIGGER, and this new high definition.... for some reason, the picture looks worse to me. I used to watch a lot of television, so I would think I know what a good picture looks like, but maybe that's just me. Maybe my mind sees "crystal clear digital crispiness", and turns it into pixelated crap.... I dunno.
How brainwashed are you? Would you even consider yourself brainwashed if you never knew it was that easy to become open to suggestion?
I mean, what would people do right now if they all turned off all their TVs permanently? Would people look around and see the same fake plastic society as I do?
How strong of an influence do you think television has on you?
It seems to me that the influence is SO strong, that even if you try avoiding watching television in your own home, you can't avoid it in public... and it will get into your head even if you are just passing by or looking the other way.
Am I the only one who notices this?
skunk
05-27-2008, 06:30 PM
I love the song "throw away your television" by the red hot chili peppers.
TV is mind control in its most basic form. Think about FOX news, CNN, and all that other crap that is on tv. They're trying to get you to think a certain way. The reality tv shows are no better...
'They' want 'you' to think and feel a certain way. How? Like a mindless drone...It seems to be working for the most part.
How many people were bought and sold on 911 without even bothering to question what really happened? Shit, millions.
How about JFK's assassination? Hm? How about George Bush's 'recount' in Florida and his rigging of one if not 2 elections?
How many other stories are skewed to fit a certain political agenda.
I just wonder what the motives are in most cases. What are 'they' hiding? The truth? Why is the truth so scary?
"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!" Bullshit.
While I agree with some of what you said indiee, I can't agree with it all.
You used to the word plastic to describe people on television.
Have you stepped foot outside in the last 20 years?
Is it art immitating life or vis versa?
I don't care.
But society in the US is just as plastic as it is portrayed on TV.
Mindless pseudo-reality shows still abound the air-waves.
I say pseudo because to me it is the furthest thing from my reality.
It may or may not be mind control.
I haven't a clue.
Though I will say that all things can be used as a form of control and or a crutch.
If people do not have the mental strength to control their own minds . . .
Look at religion; super crutch there.
It is a bit of a contradiction though to spout off about television on the internet.
I am not trying to argue but the is more mindless drivel on the net then on my TV thats for fucking sure. But then again, I have most channels blocked out . . .
Who the fuck wants 54 channels of American Gladiators?
I feel better now.
Merci indiee.
theeindiee
05-27-2008, 07:27 PM
Life imitating art! Exactly! I step outside and it looks the same! If it didn't imitate television, then it would be easy to tell the difference.
I have stronger opinions about television. I was just wondering everyone else's feelings towards television....
The internet is definitely imitating the television, and it's hard to trust what you read online. Thats's why you don't just watch a september 11th truther video and instantly go "Hey I think I'll jump on that bandwagon."
But the internet is still relatively free of FCC-like government control... so you can't assume everybody online is lying to you or skewing your reality to fit their agenda. Although one must wonder "Why not here, like everything else?".
I'm sure it's data mining, but hell I am pretty transparent about who I am and what I stand for, so let them track me and build a personal profile on me. Nothing in there that I'm not aware of.
That is not what I said at all but okay.
theeindiee
06-01-2008, 07:08 PM
I understood what you said, 1972, but you seem to have things backwards.
We don't control our trends. Our trends control us. So the question is... are they really ours?
Life imitating art... but who's selling the art, making the art into homogenized production line versions of itself, and then regurgitating it back to us as "reality"?
Would we choose to do one thing to death until it's drained of it's mystique?
Or does some force compel us to repeat ourselves over and over? You say it's in our nature... but I look around, and I don't see our nature anywhere except in restricted forest preserves. Our nature has been stolen from us.
So I can't agree with you that art is imitating life. Life isn't so predictable and boring.
But somehow it's become that way.
Who's selling us this life?
Who's choosing to make commercials longer than the television shows? Who's choosing to place pretty hollywood people in the roles instead of normal average people off the street? Are these truly the best actors? Or do they represent something that some entity is trying to make us believe in? Are these symbols, these icons, representative of you and I as individual minds? I know that only I can represent myself. My clothing doesn't say anything about me, other than that I'm comfortable and used to it. Ya know... where is creativity and ingenuity anymore? it's not being displayed on a mass scale. It's being bought out and sold back to the masses, and sold to them as if it is out of their range to be able to create. Everyone is an artist, in one way or another. It's not something that only great ones can achieve... but that has been compromised by the corporations and the governments... and the single most effective tool they have at their disposal today is television. It's a giant advertising box. You aren't giving just your time and money away to the symbols being flased at you on television. You are giving your life and your soul and your personal power away to these entities, be them governmental or corporate, or possibly something all together.
I disagree that we are shaping our future. The very fact that we are living this fantasy that there will be a moment in time where it IS the future... is another lie sold to us, so we will continue to give our lifetimes away to greater entities who are not in our best interests. How many people are truly living for right now?
Barely anybody. We're all hoping to "someday" do this, and "someday" do that... and we think that if we just buy into this a little longer, and a little longer, and a little longer... that our dreams will come true. For a very few people, the luck of the draw happens.... but for most people, it's a long struggle towards a future that doesn't exist, and then you die.
Before television, this wasn't so prevalent. Most people actually MADE their livings. They weren't sold a life.
The miracle of television is that it takes your life away by selling you someone else's cruel demented imagination.
Before television, there were other methods, which are also still around today... but man, they really solidified their spell over us with the invention of the picture screen.
Now, they can cast their spells and have them almost instantly realized because millions of people are instantly aware of the ritual.
I don't know if I should be frightened that I understand the words you spews on to the screen or not. And that isn't an insult. But you say tomatoe and I say tomato.
We each have our view.
And just because you are wrong doesn't mean I don't like you.
:batman:
theeindiee
06-03-2008, 03:08 AM
I take no offense. Blah I kept misspelling offense.
Why should you be frightened about understanding what I say? If it's not somewhat true, then what is there to be frightened of?
The fact that you could be wrong?
If you viewed the world through my eyes, you'd be saying tomahtoe right with me.
Maybe we're all in separate realities... but in my realitiy, this is the opiate of the masses, invented by military/corporate scientists. I don't really know why in the world people woula actually WANT to sit in front of the TV at all, if it wasn't sold to them as "entertainment of the future" at the 1939 World's Fair.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_New_York_World's_Fair
Of course... the future is a fantasy. Fantasies may or may not come true, but the future is something we will never reach, because when we get there, it is NOW, and then it's gone.
They never just spring new technology on an unwitting public. It's always billed as "the thingamajig of the future!" at least a few years ahead of time. So anyone who believes that technology just pops out of the blue and everyone goes "Hooray! Technology!" isn't paying enough attention. You've gotta condition people to accept these things, by spreading the hot new word.
Nobody in the public knew that television was going to be hijacked by corporate America to brainwash people into consuming their petty crap until the television became a staple of neo-conservative America, but you can be damn sure the corporations and the governments were just hopping about the prospect of this kind of mass media propagandizing/"merchandising" a decade or two before the technology became officially known about in the public arena.
Almost every "revolutionary" invention made by man in the past 100 years has been for the sake of the military/industrial complex first and foremost. GFirst they use it for physical warfare against foreign enemies, and then they use it for mental warfare against the potential domestic ones.
That's how it is.
Agree with that or not, television has majorly warped and stifled our minds, and we'd be better off reading books where we can at least formulate our own vision about what is being presented to us.
Then again... before television... there was the written language. I won't get into my beliefs on how words have stifled our thought process.,,
But 1972, you are a delight to debate with. :boxing:
theeindiee
06-03-2008, 03:37 AM
I just noticed your Signature, 1972... an appropriate quote for this topic was included!
I take no offense. Blah I kept misspelling offense.
Why should you be frightened about understanding what I say? If it's not somewhat true, then what is there to be frightened of?
The fact that you could be wrong?
I was and am, not actually frightened.
We could ALL be wrong weirdo. I am usually never right.
Well, sometimes, when the moon it waxing. It is all just a matter of perspective. Or maybe perception would be better. My reality, is not your reality. We come here and visit at this, a crossroad or a waystation (thank you Stephen). But it is just a visit. I can never see the world through your eye, Nexus eyes!
You need to stop referring to the population as "unwitting". People aren't in the dark as much as you would like to think that they are. Just because they aren't as "enlightened" as you are, doesn't not me that they do not see the world around them. Sure, sure, there is a big percentage of folks that may not but how is this wrong? They are living the life they choose to live.
No one makes us do anything that we do not want to do. I have never seen a comercial and then wanted to just jump the fuck up and go out and buy shit. People have control over ALL of their actions. It is whether or not they CHOOSE to control them. There is no man behind the green curtain pulling the strings. We are on auto-pilot my friend. There is no one at the wheel and it is Thelma and Louise time.
You are using the very same technology that you spoke of in your last post. There is nothing wrong with it. Anything can be mis-used by anyone for their own nefarious purpose. Remember long ago before you were born? A single computer would take up and entire floor of an entire building, if not the entire building itself. I'll take my space age dual processor over that anyday. Just color me unwitting!
Like I said: It is all in how your reality is percieved. Being a cynic and a curmudgeon it is hard for me to act as the pessimist. Though for some reason while speaking/typing with you, I am able to do just that. In the end, it is all butter.
~B
theeindiee
06-03-2008, 07:23 PM
People all think they are choosing their actions. I guess, in a way, they are. They are choosing actions based on their presented reality... but they keep choosing the same shit over and over again, even though it's not working.
Why all the sudden is everybody all about "going green"? I certainly see people mimicking the ad agency that came up with that slogan. Save the planet by buying THESE products. People are doing just that. Obama is for change. People are crazy about Obama, but have no idea what change they are talking about, just that "change is good now".
Most people, unlike yourself, are not analyzing why they are doing things based on what they know. You are analyzing things based on what you know. It's your reality, but in the end, it's everyone's reality... and I don't know what's best for you. I'm just giving you my perspective, and maybe one day soon, you'll notice it, too.
How can you really have a choice, or even know that you don't have a choice, if you've been given this limited set of options and realities since you were born?
I mean... no offense, but who would you be if you were born in an environment away from all of this stuff, and your parents let you learn about the world completely on your own?
Would you identify with yourself in this reality? Or would you think of yourself in this reality as a tool? You didn't decide on exactly what you know about the world. Others taught you most of what you know, and your own free will only plays a small part, but filtered through the eyes of an education not of your own discovery. Filtered through the control mechanisms of law and currency, filtered through the eyes of others looking upon you and deciding your sanity.
Filtered through what you've been presented as reality.
I'm very similar, and it's hard to function in this world unless you retain these filters... but if we retain these filters to death without ever questioning them, and we continually force these filters upon each generation to come, and we continually gain more and more apathy as we let government and corporate America make more and more choices for us, nobody will ever know who they truly are.
I'm not a Christian... but the biggest secret lies within the Bible and other religious texts, although obscured so badly because of all the contradictions.
Jesus said these two quotes, which are very much a clue:
"Be ye not Gods?"
"Truly, truly, I say to you,
He who believes in me will also do the works that I do;
and Greater Works than These will he do..."
We all have the power of "God" inside us, because THAT is who we truly are.
Our personalities are sold to us through this illusion that is so adamantly pushed upon us... and television is just another one of these tools.
Why do other animals not question their existence? They can just be. Dogs are truly Gods because they have unconditional love, and they are not chained down by the fallacy of self worship and material worship. They don't have the need to defy nature. They work with nature, and I've never heard a dog complain, no matter how cruelly they are treated.
Most dogs, even after severe trauma, continue to be sweet and loving creatures. Why is it that we cannot grasp this?
Because we have not accepted the being we truly are. We've accepted the being that society has given to us. We rarely create anything of our own design. We say we are ourselves, when really we are a shattered splinter trying to portray an illusion to comensate for the illusion portrayed to us.
We can never have free will until we let go of the prison of self and the cult of personality... and this is why television is such a dangerous mental warfare weapon. The box. The brain drain. The personality dispenser. The you tube. The tank that thinks for you.
One world view to rule them all. You have been given your small slice of a finite world, confined from an infinite universe that is as within your grasp as it is without. Do you choose confinement, or do you choose freedom? I'm not pushing you to believe. I'm questioning you so that maybe you will question yourself a bit more. The problem with adulthood is that we become closed. I will never be an adult for that reason. I will always question why, because that's how thought and therfore matter evolves. Evolutuion of thought is what is is all about, not the stagnation of meaning.
I'll refer you to this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2085&hilit=the+tao+and+fractals (http://amkon.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2085&hilit=the+tao+and+fractals)
Before you shoot the messenger, give the message a shot. Really think about the message, and then look around you. Are we being taught infinite possibilities, or are we being sold limited truth?
People all think they are choosing their actions. I guess, in a way, they are. They are choosing actions based on their presented reality... but they keep choosing the same shit over and over again, even though it's not working.
We are, as most animals are: creatures of habit. who said it isn't working? You? what are you basing this logic on? We have been killing each other since the dawn of time, over shiny metal rocks. But we have come so far; we have so much farther to go.
Why all the sudden is everybody all about "going green"? I certainly see people mimicking the ad agency that came up with that slogan. Save the planet by buying THESE products. People are doing just that. Obama is for change. People are crazy about Obama, but have no idea what change they are talking about, just that "change is good now".
Everybody? do you broadly generalize much? Fuck Al Gore; fuck global warming. The planet is actually cooling down. Do we speed shit up? I bet we do. Are we destroying the planet? Nah, once we get to far, Mother Earth will get pissed off and take care of the problem.
Obama is an asshat. I buy what I want. You're not going to sell me a lifestyle. Christians tried that on me once; ONCE.
Most people, unlike yourself, are not analyzing why they are doing things based on what they know. You are analyzing things based on what you know. It's your reality, but in the end, it's everyone's reality... and I don't know what's best for you. I'm just giving you my perspective, and maybe one day soon, you'll notice it, too.
Speculation and conjecture on your part.
How can you really have a choice, or even know that you don't have a choice, if you've been given this limited set of options and realities since you were born?
I mean... no offense, but who would you be if you were born in an environment away from all of this stuff, and your parents let you learn about the world completely on your own?
I could easily blow you off and just say you are a tool but I won't since you're not.
But what the fuck are you saying? What has been limited? If we, as beings, continue this need to grow and learn how are our options limited? They are only limited if we forget who and what we are. And yes after we leave the nest, we continue to learn about the world. My family may have provided the "base" to start with but it is my job to finish myself off.
Would you identify with yourself in this reality? Or would you think of yourself in this reality as a tool? You didn't decide on exactly what you know about the world. Others taught you most of what you know, and your own free will only plays a small part, but filtered through the eyes of an education not of your own discovery. Filtered through the control mechanisms of law and currency, filtered through the eyes of others looking upon you and deciding your sanity.
Filtered through what you've been presented as reality.
Again with the speculation! Other may have taught me. And then I may have learnt on my own. Then we combine it all together in a big pot and VOILA! My world. My views. My opinion. See I said earlier in another post above: tomatoe; tomato.
What I really should have said was I say tomatoe; you say nuclear warhead.
I won't comment on the rest since you brought up someones Lord.
For all I know, God could be Frodo fucking Baggins.
theeindiee
06-09-2008, 06:21 AM
Someone else's lord?
I'm not trying to sell you a religion here.
I'm trying to tell you about yourself.
I've struggled with the knowledge for a little while now... but I feel it's the way of things to pass it on.
The things said by Jesus, which I do believe he was who he said he was now, are just one example. All religions say the same thing, in a roundabout way.
Why do I bring up spirituality in a debate about television? Because it's ALL related, and this is a very important grand finale of realization that I'm trying to convey over the course of my presence on this site.
The point for this thread is that society is set up to solidify and shape your identification with yourself and propel the status of the self, and the television is the most successful tool in known history to be used for that purpose.
It may be that we don't even want to hear true words, and even if we see some things as lies and accept it openly, whatever remains standing as real truth may just be another layer of this grand illusion.
skunk
06-09-2008, 03:41 PM
Indy, you're confusing 'self' with 'ego'. They are 2 distinct aspects of oneself. While the ego is contained in the self, the self is not contained in the ego. Ditto with the persona (a little Jungian psychology thrown into the mix :) ).
Carry on. TV is mind control.
vckums
06-09-2008, 06:09 PM
I'm sorry but me watching the Alaskan Experiment or an episode of Family Guy isn't mind control.
My way isn't your way, and that doesn't make it wrong. It's just not what you choose for you. So stop saying people are wrong for doing something you don't wanna do.
Someone else's lord?
I'm not trying to sell you a religion here.
I'm trying to tell you about yourself.
I suggest you stop.
I am comfortable in my own skin.
I am who I am.
I have worked at becoming me for 36 years.
I am still here.
I need no advice or assistance.
Maybe it is you who needs to learn about yourself?
It may be that we don't even want to hear true words, and even if we see some things as lies and accept it openly, whatever remains standing as real truth may just be another layer of this grand illusion.
Substitute "you" where you place "we".
Your true words are not mine; I am mine.
Your beliefs may not be others. This does not mean that you shouldn't speak your mind; by all means, have at it. but you really need to stop assuming that others think the same way that you do. That is a grave error on your part. Just because I do not see the world through your eyes does not mean that I am wrong in my way of thinking. Again, it all goes back to what I said above: Perception. You percieve your world; we all percieve our OWN world. You may be wrong. You maybe be right. Or, you may be be crazy. Just as we all may be crazy. I know I am but I am okay with it. I think that you need to find that. You will most likely disagree but I think you need to find that comfort zone. To be you and comfortable in your own crazy...
Or not.
GhostOfCaptSpaulding
06-09-2008, 07:55 PM
There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past.
The future isn't here, the past is but a memory.
Live for the present - which doesn't exist - but for a brief moment: a lifetime.
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
In general, teevee keeps everyone up to the average person entertained, the above average quasi-informed, and the enlightened person thoroughly pissed-off...
Turn it off; it's better for your blood pressure.
Enlightened.
There's a real gem.
Not trying to argue goos.
Because I am very pissed off but I am in no way enlightened.
Just refusing to view life through rose colored glasses.
GhostOfCaptSpaulding
06-09-2008, 08:20 PM
Oops!
Forgot the quotation marks around "enlightened."
Forget the rose-colored glasses; some of us are just striving to see through the shit-covered blinders...all while the incessant feces heapers, heap anew.
True dat!
Tru dat!
I didn't forget.
I didn't want them there.
So say we all.
GhostOfCaptSpaulding
06-09-2008, 08:48 PM
In my current situation, if I wish to use the computer in the evening, it's with the teevee blaring in the background from 4:00 until 11:00pm every single fucking day.
Thank science for iTunes, internet radio and decent headphones; drowns out the noise of brains melting...
The people glued to the box get very angry and nasty if I even attempt to point out how misled they are even if they mute the commercials.
It's a lost cause trying to force the red pill on those who enthusiastically embrace the blue.
Ignorance is bliss...
You move soon?
You have job now no?
There is always redrum.
skunk
06-09-2008, 08:53 PM
I'm sorry but me watching the Alaskan Experiment or an episode of Family Guy isn't mind control.
My way isn't your way, and that doesn't make it wrong. It's just not what you choose for you. So stop saying people are wrong for doing something you don't wanna do.
No not every TV show is intentionally controlling your mind, but look at the 'mass media' culture. That is what I believe indy is talking about, and is generally how I feel as well.
There is quite a deal of subliminal messaging in most shows though, which are interesting to discuss when found. How many shows have you watched that have 'ads' in them? For instance, the Simpsons has 'Duff' beer aka Budweiser. There's many cues and hints that will influence people on a subconscious level. Oftentimes, the conscious mind has no idea what is happening, but that's not important. If the subconscious mind picks up on the audio/visual cue, the person might respond to a certain advertisement or whatever the thing is without even knowing about it.
Its a mind fuck, it truly is. I can't watch tv for very long as it is, but especially mainstream bullshit. I've found myself wanting to watch tv less and less the past year or two.
vckums
06-09-2008, 09:55 PM
Someone else posted in here, cant remember who, that watching tv doesnt make them go out and buy stuff. I'm the same way. I see an ad, I watch it, I may make a comment for or against it to hubby, but I'm not going oh man how/when can I go get THAT!
There's more bullshit on the internet then tv. Unplug your puter.
GhostOfCaptSpaulding
06-09-2008, 10:00 PM
I haven't watched primetime tv on a regular basis since the late 70's...
And you can "turn off" the ads on the internet with the right set-up...Firefox/Adblock Plus/NoScript.
Someone else posted in here, cant remember who, that watching tv doesnt make them go out and buy stuff. I'm the same way. I see an ad, I watch it, I may make a comment for or against it to hubby, but I'm not going oh man how/when can I go get THAT!
There's more bullshit on the internet then tv. Unplug your puter.
I said it Vic.
I have no proof but my word. I consume only what I need to sustain myself. My own personal level of comfort. I have my vice's just like the next person. We all do. But I do not fall in to the consumerism trap. I feel no need to just buy shit. It is not our god given right to buy in bulk. There is no need for EXCESS. But people are so empty that they are trying to fill some imaginary void maybe, I don't know. Just basing it on what I have seen with my own eyes. Though according to some, even that isn't my own.
::shrug::
All I know is I refuse to live in some false reality. I refuse to be them. Of course, who they are is a grey area. Sometimes. When your sole goal is to be on American False Idol and other shit, you need to check yourself. If you think that that is entertainment, you need to check yourself. We've lost part of our minds. I'll give it that. But we let it happen. It can be stopped. But they/you/me need to want it to stop. And if you do not know that something is wrong, then where do you start?
I am no better than the next guy. (For those that say I have a huge ego, fuck you Fox) But I do know how to think for myself. Half the time my TV isn't even on. I much more prefer silence or music. Though I do watch movies. I said I had vices.
Fuck I am chatty.
You can call it some sort of control.
I am going to call it lack of control on our part.
Society.
If we are even one anymore.
And as for turning of the computer.
Even if there are no adds goos, you are still exposed to all of these different individuals on a daily basis. Spewing their thoughts and opinions on life and bullshit. At some point, this to affects the way you/I think. Refuse to admit it or not, I believe it to be true. So how is that different than a shit program on a shitbox? See, I just wasted 3 minutes of your life. You can't have it back.
GhostOfCaptSpaulding
06-09-2008, 11:27 PM
The prime motivation of the shitbox is to keep you entertained long enough to slip the ad to you and sell you stuff.
Just as for the movie theater business, the basis of the entire film industry comes down to selling you overpriced greasy popcorn and carbonated HFCS-laced beverages.
But with the intertubez, I can choose how I waste my time; if it bores me, I move on...
I make the conscious choice to engage or disregard.
Additionally, I can personally vet the sources of the information that I consume.
And I do.
One is undeniably affected by the sum result of all the interactions in which one chooses to participate.
It's vitally important to be self-aware and adjust your behavior/beliefs/reality according to what you choose to accept or deny.
With teevee, you're a largely passive consumer; with the intertubez, you're a participant.
Teevee is a window, whereas the web can be a mirror.
I like beer as well goos.
I shall have one after work.
Spudz told me to.
And if that were true I would be insane from all the crazy people I speak to everyday.
And then the crazy people I talk to in real life.
Those that we have no choice be to deal with.
Yeah, if they don't drive me insane, no one can.
theeindiee
06-14-2008, 03:51 AM
Like I've always said... shoot the messenger before you hear the message.
I like chips ahoy and chef boyardee. I am not overthrowing governments here. Bit I also realize the very impermanence of it all, and I am ready and willing to do without.
I cannot watch television, though. Family Guy is alright. I'll slip one of those episodes in for old time's sake every once in a while, maybe watch a show about animals every once in a while.
But yeah, as biggiesmalls was saying, I'm talking about Mass Media as an entity, and television being the ugly fake silicone implant head of the whole cosmetic beast. Propaganda, distraction, and mind control.
1972, I can agree with you. I'm sure you are who you are saying you are. When I say "you" in one of these threads, I am rarely if ever referring to you... but your points are feeding my thoughts... so I spin off of them. Sorry if I'm sounding like I'm always addressing "you". I may be every once in a while, but you have to realize, I go off on tangents.
Just because you are immune to having a percieved self (the "self I was talking about, BS... not the actual "self". I lump ego and self together so much when refering to most people, because that is mostly the ego at work) which you adamantly don't convey to others that which isn't genuinely yours, and you are immune to influence by the media and society's strict standards of acceptable intelligent civilized human behavior, and you are just so flipping original to think you are (no offense, but sense the sarcasm, because I think even a professional Matt Damon look alike would argue the same thing)... doesn't mean other people aren't. If this does not apply to you, don't subscribe. The very fact that you are arguing unprovoked means that I've touched some deep seeded conflict within you. I would say only a few very wise people are alive in the world right now that have completely cut themselves off from any for of mental manipulation and removed all masks they subconsciously imposed upon themselves in response to society.
I am not one of those wise few. I still struggle with ego and outward influence corrupting my true being... but I say to you that I have identified why I am the way I am, and I'm no more knowledgeable than you. I'm actually let's see 14 years younger than you, 1972. I'm not telling you what to be. I'm not telling anyone what to be. I'm telling you and everyone that you are not who you believe you are, and neither am I... but if you choose to revel in the image, whether it be the mental or the physical... I will not change your mind. This is not for you, then. So don't take it personally if it's not for you.
I rarely ever ran out and compulsively bought shit on the teevee when I was an addict, either.
Lots of people do, though. I know enough females who see a cute little commercial and they think that "this foot creme really speaks to me" and they go out and purchase it like a drone. My sister is the worst fucking example. She'll watch an infomercial, and won't even remember that she bought things off it, or she'll get really embarrassed and try to hide it from her husband. She's not stupid at all! She's just mind controlled by the media and the whole socio-economic....thinnnggg.
Although, like many others... I'm sure she would beg to differ. Because there's the part in everyone that wants to be original, yet struggles to find their outlet, in a world full of plugs.
If this does not apply to you, don't subscribe. The very fact that you are arguing unprovoked means that I've touched some deep seeded conflict within you. I would say only a few very wise people are alive in the world right now that have completely cut themselves off from any for of mental manipulation and removed all masks they subconsciously imposed upon themselves in response to society.
It isn't arguing and it sure as hell isn't unprovoked.
You post, I post, we all post.
There is not deep seeded anything in me.
I speak because I disagree with you and your line of thinking. Isn't that what this is for: discussion and debate?
I do not think, nor have I ever thought I was "original". I am just me. Take it or leave it. Though I am a funny, sarcastic fucker. I am okay with this but "original"? If that translates to me being me than so be it. I have no issue with you or anyone else. We, are just talking.