Re: TWIMC -- The Chimneyville Discussion Forum

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4, 5, 6 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 04:34:19 08/18/04 Wed
Author: Pot
Subject: Re: TWIMC
In reply to: Marv 's message, "Re: TWIMC" on 16:12:52 08/17/04 Tue

>>>Pondering The Telescreen
>>>
>>>A Tale Of Two Cities
>>>August 15, 2004
>>>
>>>Denunciations of television have become as routine as
>>>breathing: the programming is crass, stupid,
>>>propagandistic, so bad that only an idiot would watch
>>>it yet everybody does. Actually things are worse.
>They
>>>are much worse.
>>>
>>>To see what is happening, start with what may be the
>>>crucial truth of our times: People will watch a
>>>screen. They will watch anything in preference to
>>>nothing, watch programs they don’t really like,
>>>comedies so unfunny that only the laugh track tells
>>>them when to respond. The bright know that the fare
>is
>>>witless, that it is directed at fools. The ads
>>>irritate them. Yet they too watch.
>>>
>>>People cannot not watch television.
>>>
>>>The flickering screen is everywhere. In millions of
>>>living rooms the lobotomy box rattles, often not
>>>consciously watched, hardly noticed, but always on.
>>>Every bar has at least one television, often several,
>>>sometimes with the sound turned off, but always
>there.
>>>Television is the national babysitter, more important
>>>than absentee parents in shaping the young. The
>>>chattering tube sits in the lobbies of hotels, the
>>>rooms of hotels, in barber shops, in restaurants and
>>>dorm rooms. In my gym in suburban Washington, rows of
>>>screens hung on pipes in front of the exercise
>>>bicycles. The box is everywhere, whispering,
>babbling,
>>>urging, suggesting.
>>>
>>>Watch the eyes of a man quietly having a drink in a
>>>bar. Often his gaze wanders to the screen because it
>>>moves, it changes. Even if the sound is down and he
>>>cannot follow what is happening, even if he isn’t
>>>interested, he watches. People cannot not watch a
>>>screen.
>>>
>>>No dictator has ever enjoyed such a tool for social
>>>control, for near absolute power over what people
>see,
>>>over the news, over a culture. Like the bite of a
>>>leech, television is painless. Two decades later, the
>>>country is unrecognizable.
>>>
>>>We underestimate the box. It is tasteless,
>>>dumbed-down, and commercial, yes, yes. All the
>>>adjectives apply. We have heard them. We agree with
>>>them. But we miss the point. We miss the point
>because
>>>the fare is so contemptible: Nothing that stupid can
>>>be dangerous.
>>>
>>>Oh yes it can.
>>>
>>>The lobotomy box gives to Hollywood and New York
>>>limitless sculpting access to the minds of our
>>>children, limitless power to condition all of us. For
>>>hours a day, week after month after year after
>decade,
>>>each generation sees what the two cities want it to
>>>see. It sees nothing else. Because the programming
>>>does not come from the formal government, because it
>>>seems to counsel only the purchase of New! Improved!
>>>Whatever! because we hold it in contempt while
>>>spending our lives before it, we—many of us—do
>not
>>>see what it really is.
>>>
>>>The content of television is neither merely banal nor
>>>merely commercial. This would not matter. Instead it
>>>is subliminally didactic, unendingly instructive. It
>>>has agendas unrelated to soap. Remember that the
>>>advertising and television industries are tightly
>>>entwined. Those commercials, seemingly almost
>>>invertebrate in their tiresomeness, in fact are the
>>>product of decades of manipulative experience by
>>>highly intelligent people who have studied the
>>>psychology of the audience.
>>>
>>>If you want to change the behavior of an audience or
>a
>>>country, if you want to replace their deeply held
>>>values with your own, you don’t tell them what to
>do
>>>or what to believe. They might resist. We do not like
>>>getting orders. No, you show the things being
>>>done—over and over and over. In the beginning you
>>>only imply the desired behavior or point of view,
>>>leave it in the background so that it is hardly
>>>noticed. Over and over and over you imply it.
>>>Gradually you make it more explicit. It takes years,
>>>but people come to accept whatever they see, and then
>>>to imitate it.
>>>
>>>They cannot resist any more than a paralyzed
>>>caterpillar can resist being eaten by a wasp’s
>>>larva. They cannot do without the electric
>babysitter,
>>>cannot toss the damned thing out the window.
>>>
>>>They cannot not watch a screen.
>>>
>>>What does Hollyork promote? Toleration of foul
>>>language and a concomitant coarsening of society;
>>>hostility between men and women; truculent illiteracy
>>>and the values of the black ghetto; the elevation of
>>>homosexuality and promiscuity; disdain for religion;
>>>use of drugs, interracial sex, destructive feminism,
>>>eradication of the remnants of Anglo-European
>>>Christian civilization. It is not accidental.
>>>
>>>Do I exaggerate? Think. Every night you see blonde
>>>women reading the news. When did you last see a blond
>>>man on the screen? Do you think this a coincidence in
>>>an industry that calculates motivations to four
>>>decimal places? Consider the constant scenes in which
>>>women slap men around, kick them in the crotch,
>>>participate in gunfights while men cower. Can you
>>>believe that the sudden disappearance of the word
>>>“Christmas” from permissible discourse wasn’t
>>>deliberate? That the rigid exclusion of any but
>>>politically correct views from discussion is a
>>>coincidence?
>>>
>>>My point is not that all these things are in all
>>>respects bad, but rather that they are being decided
>>>remotely and imposed without consent. American
>society
>>>is being carefully, calculatedly sculpted. A small
>>>group of unelected people, having no obvious
>>>qualifications of morality or taste, now control the
>>>culture of the United States. Our souls belong to Ted
>>>Turner and Jane Fonda.
>>>
>>>But things are yet worse.
>>>
>>>Television is infinitely scaleable. With satellites,
>>>Hollywood bathes the world in the same mire. In
>>>Mexico, where I live, television and cine are heavily
>>>American. A month ago I was in Chile for a couple of
>>>weeks. Television was heavily, heavily American—CNN
>>>in Spanish, for example. Crossing into Argentina at
>>>Bariloche, I found the same. In Thailand, things are
>>>little better.
>>>
>>>In the living rooms of the whole world, Hollywood has
>>>a little window open to the minds of the people.
>>>Nobody can escape. In remote towns in the Bolivian
>>>altiplano, the values of Hollyork dance on screens.
>>>Children in India, in Iran and Uruguay, day after day
>>>gradually become what Barbra Streisand and Sylvester
>>>Stallone think they should be. Such people know and
>>>care nothing for civilizations that have existed for
>>>thousands of years.
>>>
>>>Other nations know what is happening. The Thais are
>>>not happy at the slow, relentless imposition of the
>>>tastes of the slums of Brooklyn. But they can do
>>>nothing.
>>>
>>>How perfectly incredible that a group of—what? A
>>>hundred producers, studio heads, and network CEOs? A
>>>thousand to be conservative?—can bypass
>governments,
>>>subvert ancient cultures, and make the world as
>>>unhappy and divided as they have made the United
>>>States.
>>
>>
>>Every word is true... Good read MG. Following is my
>>outlook on the subject and before some wag comes on
>>and asks if I'm bragging or complaining, well, I
>>guess I'm bragging.. I subscribe to cable mostly
>>because of the high speed internet. The TV is on most
>>of the time but it's tuned to the Weather Channel. I
>>only watch baseball (I'm sure Pot only watches
>>NASCAR). I do not subscribe to any of the
>>movie(trash,porn) channels. The last movie I saw in a
>>theatre was a James Bond movie back in the sixties. I
>>never watched one episode of Seinfeld or any of the
>>other so called sitcoms, even before the cartoon
>>versions like King of the Hill, Simpsons etc. came
>>about. In fact even the promos which you can't avoid
>>turn my stomache. I did watch a few episodes of
>>"Frasier" but lost interest pretty fast. I will check
>>Fox News Channel for breaking news. My wife always
>>watches the Local News (which is usually just a rehash
>>of national, international bytes, nothing ever happens
>>here except sometimes a few illegal greasers die
>>crossing the desert or crash an SUV with 26 cretins
>>crammed into it). Someone on this bbs once was
>>extolling the virtues of "Whoopie" (that was before
>>her comeuppance) Can't remember who it was but I
>>remember I was disappointed because I had always
>>respected that poster. Still do but with
>>reservations....anyway, enough for now. The article
>>was right on....BTW did you see on Drudge where
>>Foghorn Cronkite (part of the problem)is quitting the
>>airwaves?? He warns of the "recklessness of the
>>internet" HAAAA!!! That bastard has done as much or
>>more to destroy our culture as Brokejaw, Blather and
>>Ginnings.... see ya....
>
>> > I confess, I was the one talking about
>"Whoopie"... I liked the lack of "political
>correctness", but that was about the extent of it. My
>tv only picks up one channel..(NBC) therefore it stays
>OFF most of the time except for local news and
>weather. (I have an outside antenna, and no
>dish...had one for a while, but got tired of
>threatning to shoot the TV.) :) MG

Ain't nuttin' wrong with watching NASCAR. Well, OK, some people do feel a little dizzy from the cars going around in circles.

Me too on Fox News, but I check out what the numbnuts on the other side are doing by checking CNN and MSNBC occasionally. I even suppress the almost uncontrollable urge to hug the commode and tune in on Dick Jennings once in a while. Gotta know what the real extremists are up to, doncha know.

I usta like Whoopie also. But now, she leaves a bad taste in my mouth...so to speak. Can I get a collective "patooie"?

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Re: TWIMC -- Hock...SPITTLE!!! N/T, 16:24:22 08/18/04 Wed