Because my friends, that is exactly what is happening. It is nauseating to see displayed daily what tops the agenda for the majority. For the past few weeks the Evening News has started with Iraq and ended with the Anna Nicole Cadaver sweepstakes along with the daily ,ÄúWhat past-it-pop-princess is wigging out now?,Äù report.
It,Äôs enough to make you just want to kill your TV with an RPG. And then deliver a package of C4 to your local affiliates, just so they,Äôll stop broadcasting the shit. Of course, I know what you are saying, just turn it off. Well, no shit Sherlock. That,Äôs not the point.
The TV might as well be a fucking mirror for ourselves. It is only showing us what we are. It is constantly reminding us of the shortcomings and how many of them are walking this hunk of rock. When did the lives of so many become so empty that they have to fill it with the fallout from others lives? Why are so many so vapid that they must live vicariously through others? To me, it,Äôs not even funny. I know how much mediocrity exists in this mortality. I am constantly doing my best to keep it out of my sight and out of my home. Why can,Äôt we just kill celebrity and infamy and let it fester in obscurity?
There are too many walking voids without imagination in this world. It,Äôs all autopilot scavenging. Devouring whatever is most easily available to satiate the hunger for something. Escaping from one horrible existence to another,Äôs. Wanting, so badly, to get out of one,Äôs skin, even if it means slipping into the decay of someone else,Äôs. Not a thought to foraging for their own freedom. Not a though to seeking out something that can bring them personal fulfillment, created from their own will and mind. Not a single consideration to escaping the crass current for the jet stream of self-worth.
I don,Äôt know the answer. I don,Äôt know that anyone knows the answer. I don,Äôt know that there even IS an answer. All I know is there are days I seriously just want to get as far away from all of this as I can. I imagine there has to be some prime real estate in Greenland.
:mittens:
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on February 22, 2007, 04:35:20 PM
I don,Äôt know the answer. I don,Äôt know that anyone knows the answer. I don,Äôt know that there even IS an answer. All I know is there are days I seriously just want to get as far away from all of this as I can. I imagine there has to be some prime real estate in Greenland.
The answer is - it's funny, laugh. If the world wasn't a fucked up radioactive shithole it'd be boring. So many people bitching and whining about "I wish it was better", world peace and equal rights and feed the world and save the fucking dolphins...
You wanna see utopia? Take a look at middle america, wealthiest, powerfullest, most ass kicking nation on the mudball. They got all the food, all the colour tevee's and all the guns. Fat, lazy, useless vermin, content to sit in front of the tube with a glazed expression and some microwave leftover, dribbling out the corner of their fat stupid mouth. That's what utopia does to you. Fuck utopia, hell on earth might kill you quicker but at least you get to keep your nuts.
I think you are missing the point. What I'm talking about has nothing to do with saving dolphins or world peace. I'm talking about individuals and the emptiness that consumes them to the point that they need to consume emptiness. And how the collective of those individuals creates a nauseating culture of crap. To me, it isn't funny. Have you seen any of the shit that is going on with the Anna Nicole deal? Oh sure, it's funny at first. Then it is just sickingly sad. A bunch of fucktards fighting over a dead broad's body like they give a shit about the person who had inhabited the body. And then you think about how many more empties are glued to the tube to get the latest headlines, like their world hinges on it.
I don't want utopia. It just would be nice if just a few more people could take up ukele instead of finding fulfillment in this bullshit.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on February 22, 2007, 05:57:05 PM
I think you are missing the point.  What I'm talking about has nothing to do with saving dolphins or world peace.  I'm talking about individuals and the emptiness that consumes them to the point that they need to consume emptiness.  And how the collective of those individuals creates a nauseating culture of crap.  To me, it isn't funny.  Have you seen any of the shit that is going on with the Anna Nicole deal?  Oh sure, it's funny at first.  Then it is just sickingly sad.  A bunch of fucktards fighting over a dead broad's body like they give a shit about the person who had inhabited the body.  And then you think about how many more empties are glued to the tube to get the latest headlines, like their world hinges on it. 
I don't want utopia.  It just would be nice if just a few more people could take up ukele instead of finding fulfillment in this bullshit. 
I took it as a general rant against insipid bullshit on the news.
Well, mainly yes but it's just the top layer of a rancid onion. After all, that shit is on the news because it's "what the people want." Blah!
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on February 22, 2007, 06:11:47 PM
After all, that shit is on the news because it's "what the people want."  Blah! 
Other way around.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on February 22, 2007, 06:11:47 PM
Well, mainly yes but it's just the top layer of a rancid onion. After all, that shit is on the news because it's "what the people want." Blah!
That's kinda where I was going with the reply. Laugh at the news because it really is what the slugs want to watch. For them tv and nacho's are as good as it gets. Laugh because you're not like them. I agree more cool people would be cool but I'm kinda resigned to the fact that most people will prolly remain assholes. If the only purpose they ever serve is to make me feel better about myself in comparison then I guess they are worth something.
Eh, but I don't judge my self-worth based on other people. Again, one of the points of my rant. Sure, some people get plain and simple entertainment out of the tabloidism of the Evening News and the cable news stations. But, others get so caught up in the shit because it makes them feel better, for some reason I can't identify with.
And it's all well and good to say "fuck 'em" but it isn't always that simple. Refer to the "Family" thread of the BIP section for more....
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=11058.0
Yeah family is a tough one. You tend to find yourself caring about those people for no good reason. Unconditional they call it. Point you make tho is general population. Some people are wracking their brains trying to find a way of waking them all up at the same time. Good luck to them I say (and I really mean it) Me, I tried for years to think of something and gave it up as a lost cause, my brain just aint up to the task. Settle for helping as many people as I can to see through the bullshit. Prolly wont turn out to be a big number, may just as likely turn out to be a fat 0. I aint hung up about that tho. Getting hung up on enlightening the world didn't really work out for me.
Enlightening is one thing. I'd settle for more people tuning out.
All I'm saying is 1 or 2 is more. I found places like this - most of the people here are cool, little oasis in a desert of banal bullshit. Place makes me happy. Other side of the half empty glass - "Fuck sake is this all the people who made it??"
The original rant, and Silly's reply both get some :mittens:
To me you are talking about 2 different things, but both are valid rage points.
Anna Nicole: week 3 is getting to be shitty. Who gives a fuck where that kid goes?
Either way it'll be treated alot better than any of the kids in Cambodia that Angelina Jolie misses. Noone weeps for Elian Gonzalez anymore.
Fuck that Smith kid.
A quote from a recent meeting of a club on campus...
"Nobody is going to grab you like Eilian Gonzalez...unless you are Eilian Gonzalez"
during a debate concerning whether or not the government should be able to make vaccinations mandatory for children.
All in all, I find much truth in this statement, and reflect upon it daily when I meditate.
I wish somebody would grab me like Eilian Gonzalez. :cry:
Quote from: hunter s.durden on February 22, 2007, 08:39:24 PM
The original rant, and Silly's reply both get some  :mittens:
To me you are talking about 2 different things, but both are valid rage points.
Anna Nicole: week 3 is getting to be shitty. Who gives a fuck where that kid goes?
Either way it'll be treated alot better than any of the kids in Cambodia that Angelina Jolie misses. Noone weeps for Elian Gonzalez anymore.
Fuck that Smith kid.
Or all of the kids in the Sudan who are getting blown up just trying to buy a loaf of bread for breakfast.
::looks up from his bag of chips::
::turns volume down on plasma TV::
Sudan? Whut's that?
::goes back to watching Entertainment Tonight::
Sudan should set up some fake oil pumps or something.
Never mind Bush just passed another bill to bankrupt the country, that "TEH SURGE!!" is having no tactical effect (let alone strategic), that Iran just told the world to go fuck themselves with their enriched uranium ore, that the Son of Star Wars weapons system is going ahead or that Afghanistan is falling apart at the seams.
RICH GOLD-DIGGING HO DIES, OMFG!!
Yup, and now that they know where they are gonna bury her it's on to...
"Who's The Daddy?"
We should start a pool to say when this all ends. I'm putting my money down on sometime in the year 2010.
Good rant, Rev.
It's pretty awful out there in TV Land. I agree that it's not entirely the fault of TV producers and execs that television is a barren wasteland of idiocy. It's like this because people are easily lulled into complacency. It's like this because they're satisfied with it. We, as a culture, have bought awful television, senseless and sensational, bored and boring.
I've gotta refer again to the melioration principle - the notion that organisms just do whatever gives them the best reward. And they engage in that behavior until something else gives them a better reward. I think most people who we might call complacent are in danger because they've never gotten a reward for taking risks, or thinking about their own thought, or really caring about advancing themselves. Every venture out into the world seems like punishment - jobs that suck, awful traffic conditions, a bunch of strangers that want nothing to do with you and vice versa... Can you blame people for zoning out in front of the Happy Color Network? No one ever told them that their brains are tools they need to learn how to operate, so they've never even tried.
Yup, and it isn't taught in schools. No one really ever teaches you how to use your imagination. Maybe you get a smattering of it in art class and music class, but really it's not taught in any meaningful way.
Life doesn't come with an instruction manual. So, people rely on customer support. Too few try to figure the damned thing out for themselves.
The media creates the standard however. Why do people give a shit about people they have never met and have no effect on them?
Because the media creates the conditions for it.
Quote from: Cain on February 23, 2007, 03:14:13 PM
The media creates the standard however. Why do people give a shit about people they have never met and have no effect on them?
Because the media creates the conditions for it.
Are you talking about celebrity worship
or wanting to wake the sleepers
or neither
or both
?
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on February 23, 2007, 03:13:14 PM
Yup, and it isn't taught in schools.  No one really ever teaches you how to use your imagination.  Maybe you get a smattering of it in art class and music class, but really it's not taught in any meaningful way.
Life doesn't come with an instruction manual.  So, people rely on customer support.  Too few try to figure the damned thing out for themselves. 
Lightbulb (hey, do we have a smiley for that?).
New conspiracy theory: The reason arts and music in schools are always so underfunded is because Big Media doesn't want kids to know that it's possible, and easy, to
entertain themselves with nothing more that a pencil and paper, or a keyboard.
Quote from: Professor Cramulus on February 23, 2007, 03:16:19 PM
Quote from: Cain on February 23, 2007, 03:14:13 PM
The media creates the standard however. Why do people give a shit about people they have never met and have no effect on them?
Because the media creates the conditions for it.
Are you talking about celebrity worship
That one.
Quote from: LMNO on February 23, 2007, 03:19:37 PM
Lightbulb (hey, do we have a smiley for that?).
New conspiracy theory: The reason arts and music in schools are always so underfunded is because Big Media doesn't want kids to know that it's possible, and easy, to entertain themselves with nothing more that a pencil and paper, or a keyboard.
You noticed that, too, eh?
It gets creepy when you start thinking about it.
In my high school it basically came down to: fund the music program or fund the shiny new basketball court floor. And so, my music teacher had to find a new job.
My school built a massive new creative arts block.
A year after I left and 3 years behind schedule.
In true conspiracy theory style, I shall ignore any evidence that points to a different conclusion.
They even had a professional music studio built.
blasphemer!
damning evidence:
Current campaign by VH1 to encourage people to reintroduce music progams in schools.
Rebuttal: VH1 has been doing that for over a decade, and what do we get? Battle of the B-List Celebrities.
QED.
Heh, VH1 should reintroduce music programming to itself.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on February 22, 2007, 04:35:20 PM
I don,Äôt know the answer.¬† I don,Äôt know that anyone knows the answer.¬† I don,Äôt know that there even IS an answer.¬† All I know is there are days I seriously just want to get as far away from all of this as I can.¬† I imagine there has to be some prime real estate in Greenland.¬†
There is no answer. Give up, smoke up, and enjoy the show.
Umm, okay. :lulz:
Quote from: LMNO on February 23, 2007, 07:18:20 PM
Rebuttal:  VH1 has been doing that for over a decade, and what do we get?  Battle of the B-List Celebrities.
QED.
i didn't know that. (having only had the most minimal exposure to VH1.
consider evidence retracted.
RWHN:
> Have you seen any of the shit that is going on with the Anna Nicole deal?
no i haven't. and if it weren't for this messageboard it would have known nothing more than some remark by my gf "did you know annanicole died?" - "who?" - "some model" - "oh."
really people. the world is big enough without TV as it is already. just throw the damn thing out of the door if it's giving you so much pain.
then it's limited to the poor sods trying to tell you about inane bullshit news. and what do you do with poor sods telling you about inane bullshit news? that's right, you make fun of them.
last wednesday evening, some poor sod making some half-assed non-funny reference to some piece of corporate brainwashing: ".. or don't you know that advertisement jingle?", me irritated: "I don't watch advertisements" *glare*
RWHN:
> No one really ever teaches you how to use your imagination.
this is an interesting notion.
i do this often, try to get people loosen their mind a littlebit:
me: *something*
them: "but that's bullshit, simply not true"
me: "yes but imagine if it wasn't", *other funky bullshit example*
(if they take the bait, interesting discussion ensues)
important here that you don't go into mystical esoteric land btw. at least, not with people of which you aren't 100% sure have a healthy skeptical outlook on it. (unless you're out to make fun of them of course)
LMNO:
> New conspiracy theory: The reason arts and music in schools are always so
> underfunded is because Big Media doesn't want kids to know that it's possible,
> and easy, to entertain themselves with nothing more that a pencil and paper,
> or a keyboard.
OFUK, i didn't even read your lightbulb before i wrote the above.
well, obviously we gotta do something with this then eh?
how about going to christian fundie kids fora and very kindly troll the little robots into a creative MS Paint Compo?
any ideas on how this ties in with the fact that this messageboard seems to be exploding with creative arts stuff?
is it maybe because a lot of us are--at least a tiny littlebit--getting better, not buying into the shit, and thinking for ourselves ?
Quoteme: *something*
them: "but that's bullshit, simply not true"
me: "yes but imagine if it wasn't", *other funky bullshit example*
(if they take the bait, interesting discussion ensues)
I do that all the time. Alternative history, mostly. Not only is it a great tool for examining how things work (why would this not happen? does one man have that much influence? etc), intellectually stimulating and a good way of learning more, its also very, very fun.
you mean the "what if the nazis had won" stuff?
i find that quite difficult actually, usually when i get to such a point in a discussion i say, "never say if", cause it's almost impossible to predict what happened, too much variables, chaos theory etc.
especially things like "what if, before i was dating my current gf i would have done X instead of Y" ... really no telling what could have happened :-D
i usually use the technique to get people jump past an apparently impassable obstacle. like "but you can't XXX while YYY", then "ok but now let's pretend we can".
then once they see the value of being able to XXX while YYY, because of having imagined the possibility and (good? desirable? interesting?) results, they are more likely to go actively search for a way to at least emulate or approach XXX while YYY.
oshit this is the intellectual masterbating happening again right?
Yeah, but we do it smaller scale. Much smaller scale. So, for example, what would have happened if Erich Honecker had not been taken ill during the summer of 1989. Little things like that.
this is popular pass-time on history students parties, i presume? :-)
Sadly yes. History students = not known for their wild parties.
Anyway, its important because it makes people think about what could be, instead of what is. And thats the key to imagination "could, maybe, possibly". Of course, if you want to build castles in the sky, it does help to have your feet on the ground too.
or rocket boots.
- 000,
using his just new found imagination
Quote from: triple zero on February 25, 2007, 12:16:10 PM
RWHN:
> Have you seen any of the shit that is going on with the Anna Nicole deal?
no i haven't. and if it weren't for this messageboard it would have known nothing more than some remark by my gf "did you know annanicole died?" - "who?" - "some model" - "oh."
really people. the world is big enough without TV as it is already. just throw the damn thing out of the door if it's giving you so much pain.
then it's limited to the poor sods trying to tell you about inane bullshit news. and what do you do with poor sods telling you about inane bullshit news? that's right, you make fun of them.
last wednesday evening, some poor sod making some half-assed non-funny reference to some piece of corporate brainwashing: ".. or don't you know that advertisement jingle?", me irritated: "I don't watch advertisements" *glare*
Well, yes, except what I was trying to get at in my rant was TV as a symptom or as an electified mirror of society. Exemplifying what a lot of empty people use to fill their lives. Obviously, I can turn it off, or at least, ignore the things such as I talked about in my rant. But that wasn't the point really. Some may view that TV is dictating what people think about and value. And I suppose to some degree that's true. But, I also believe there is a huge component of TV showing the people what they want to see. There's obiviously an insatiable thirst for the down and dirty on Dead Anna and the Motley Crue of Degenerates fighting to get their paws on her dough. There's obviously an insatiable thirst for what Britney does to herself.
No one talks about their "talents." They don't focus on Britney's "music" or Anna's "whateverthefuckshedoes". It's about their human wreckage. People need this human wreckage so they can forget about their own. TV is the most immediate medium to get it and that constant desire to have that diet of detritus assures that there is a constant resupply of the goods. It's there because "the customer is always right." Even when they are just plain fucked-up wrong.
QuoteRWHN:
> No one really ever teaches you how to use your imagination.
this is an interesting notion.
i do this often, try to get people loosen their mind a littlebit:
me: *something*
them: "but that's bullshit, simply not true"
me: "yes but imagine if it wasn't", *other funky bullshit example*
(if they take the bait, interesting discussion ensues)
important here that you don't go into mystical esoteric land btw. at least, not with people of which you aren't 100% sure have a healthy skeptical outlook on it. (unless you're out to make fun of them of course)
I'm more focused on my daughter when it comes to imagination. Of course, kids naturally take to this so its not like she needs any encouragement. But, just trying to let her know how cool it is that she explores her world her way. It seems, as soon as you lose access to that, you stop making your own map and start following someone elses without ever stopping to consider its validity and reliability.
Only marginally related, but http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2303471.ece