You know you are in trouble when the Evening News airs reruns.

[LMNO]

::looks up from his bag of chips::

::turns volume down on plasma TV::


Sudan?  Whut's that?


::goes back to watching Entertainment Tonight::

[AFK]

Sudan should set up some fake oil pumps or something. 

[Cain]

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!!

[AFK]

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. 

[Cramulus]

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.

[AFK]

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. 

[Cain]

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.

[Cramulus]

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

?

[LMNO]

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.

[Cain]

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.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

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?

[LMNO]

It gets creepy when you start thinking about it.

[AFK]

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. 

[Cain]

My school built a massive new creative arts block.

A year after I left and 3 years behind schedule.

[LMNO]

In true conspiracy theory style, I shall ignore any evidence that points to a different conclusion.