Yeah, haven’t gotten around to updating in a while. My heads’ been submerged in books for the better part of a semester. In the mean time, here’s a cool vid. It’s been out for a while now but I haven’t gotten around to posting it. Ta-dah!
As is always, I’m looking for stuff to post about in between rants and news updates. Drop me a comment and a link to cool stuff and I’ll most likely do a post on it if it’s relevant.
Maybe it’s that philosophy class that’s growing on me. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve had to read Brave New World in another class. Maybe it’s because of a thoughtful post at a fellow blogger put up. And maybe it’s my own frustrations of living with A.D.D. that are starting to pile on high enough for me to notice that led me to post this today. But I don’t think I can believe in the whole “self-interested pleasure” idea anymore. You know which one I’m talking about. It’s the idea that happiness means doing whatever you want, and anything else that gets in the way like a conscience is just killing the fun. It’s the idea we’re talking about when we say we had a bad day because nothing we wanted happened. And isn’t that what freedom means in America? To do whatever you want, ever so dragged around and bound to your desires you can’t even stop yourself? And if you’ve thought you were exempt from most of the bad habits on this blog because your parents taught you better, don’t worry. You don’t need to buy $80 pairs of jeans on a regular basis to live a life that’s measured by the appeasement of your desires.
It gets worse. If you look a little deeper you see that the ways we look at freedom, morality, family, religion and law have been molded to accompany this view of happiness. Morality and religion, once standards for how people should live their lives, are slowly bending the knee to this definition of happiness. Morality is now a concept you look into if you feel like being good to people every once in a while, not a guiding standard of life, and the same goes for religion. The role of the family has diminished to make room for things like gameboys and facebook. The distinction that family is somehow different from any other distraction is gone. And finally the law is just something you get in trouble with every once in a while when you were just trying to have your fun, not a common set of coded behavior that we willingly abide by. You can see how, like a flood, our views on happiness are simply so strong that anything that stands in the way is swept away, and all that is left standing does not interfere with the river’s course. Happiness is getting what you want, and nothing pales in comparison.
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You know, despite the fact that 99% of youtube is acts of teenage stupidity, there’s rare…um..gems? Is gems really the right word? Well, shiny rocks, amidst the rubble. Here ya go.
Very basic premise. Corporations’ only function is to make money. They may masquerade it in as many fancy awards to the community as they can, but the sacrifices will be drops in the bucket compared to their enormous wealth. And when it comes to media networks and advertising agencies, they’re unfortunately no different, except for the fact that they want to change every single thing you do into a money generating activity. I’ll be updating with my own content soon enough, I’ve got a really good rant coming up.
Edit: After taking a look at this again I came at this from another angle. On a more personal level, powerful financial forces are betting on our daily internal battles. If the same company that sells you slim-fast sells you ice cream, what genuine hope do you actually have in losing weight? And not only that, but our daily struggles in being healthy and losing weight are nothing but a financial betting game to them. People are wrought with horrible self-esteem issues and to companies like Unilever, the war in people’s minds between self-restrictions and indulgence is just another way to benefit. So basically, what I’m trying to say is that Unilever watches you struggle with yourself on a daily basis and laughs.
Over at Adbusters they’re at it again, pushing for to make another national holiday for introspection and taking control of your lives. All of your lives. Your multiple lives. That you personally own. It’s called “Slow Down Week”, and encourages people to be aware of how they spend their time and whether it’s really what they want out of their lives.
I think it’s a fantastic idea. The flash movie they made to promote it me want to stuff baby lambs in my ears. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t get my volume to go lower. But check it out, and think about it.
While slightly off topic, I feel obligated to post this. The obvious recklessness, egotism and gluttony going on inside the largest banks in America is too hard for me to ignore. I saw this video that reminded me of what I think America was once like. But I’m just a college kid, so what do I know?
In this world, people who do good in the community are rewarded and people who hoard money and power for their own selfish ends are punished. In this world you’re not alone if you’re going through hard times, and only the bad guys look out for only their own. In this world people are known by the works that they do by their local community that knows them well. Wouldn’ t you like to live there? I know I would. And thanks to people like those at moveyourmoney.info it’s easier to move the world one step closer to something like that.
If you haven’t heard by now, for about two months now Comcast has been talking about buying up NBC from GE. Actually, it’s not just talk. They actually are going to go through with it. I have good reasons to suspect that the more consolidated the media market is, the more reasons we have to fear for our way of life.
The first reason is simple. If media distributors don’t understand that the media is something far greater than a money making machine, they will damage all of our psyches. Broadcasters who put content up that’s shocking and appalling for ratings miss media’s real power, and that’s the power to shape and reinforce cultural values. You can either use this technology to keep drug use and materialism in middle schools, or use it to educate to a higher calling. The second reason is equally simple. When you understand how the media industry shapes what we think, it becomes pretty clear that the power to do so shouldn’t be kept in the hands of a few people. One executive’s decision to run a particularly disturbing ad effects us all, even if we say we’re too smart to be affected by ads.
But this is no ordinary purchase. In addition to everything that’s been said, Comcast is an internet company, and NBC is a cable company. This is the first buyout to cross the two realms, I think. Not only does it create a really, really, big company that puts too much power into the hands of too few people; What this does do is make Comcast keenly interested in keeping NBC’s content only to Comcast subscribers in more ways you can imagine. Say goodbye to 30 rock!
Is it realistic? Unfortunately, yes. I would be somewhat at peace with the merger if NBC was going to bought by Verizon. Comcast has a legacy of attempting to control your actions online. If there was a company going to violate net neutrality, I’d put my money on Comcast. And I wouldn’t trust Comcast’s ability to self-regulate themselves. I wouldn’t even trust Comcast executives to watch my kids. Would you?
What can be done? Not much right now. The public hearing is happening on Feburary 4th, but all that just means is that Congressmen and Senators can ask whatever they want to the Comcast and NBC representatives, but they’re not going to bring it to a vote yet. I’ve listed the phone # before, give ‘em a call if you’d like to ask them a certain question. It’ll be filmed on Cspan, or at the least open to the public so someone’ll be taking notes and post it on the interwebs. You can always call up your congressmen and tell them you’re not a fan. That’s what I do…every day…for fun…I swear I have a life somewhere underneath all the magic the gathering cards scattered around my room…
And one final note: as much as I hate to say that the guy in the xkcd comic was wrong on my first post, there actually is a chance that an employer could read this, and without an employer I won’t have enough money to be able to post. So please don’t use my name here.
Shout outs to Cooper B. for sending this to me. Lookadis.
“For over one hundred years, we’ve been scrunching and folding toilet paper. Finally there’s a better way!”
Really. I personally use bark and thistle bushes when I do my business and it’s pretty darn inconvenient. Please, tell me more.
“Comfort Wipe! The sanitary paper extension arm and holder!”
I like how you speak. It is pleasing to my ears, as I speak in your style frequently. When I go to the cafeteria for lunch I ask for fried poultry embryos mixed with in vegetation. Couldn’t you just call it a butt-wiper?
“Think about it. Toilet paper is really archaic and disgusting. The Comfort Wipe is a modern solution”
You know what else is really archaic and disgusting? Eating. I mean, sheesh, manual breaking down of food particles with your teeth? Those outdated hunks of calcium? Screw that! I want my meals liquefied. Sorry. I mean liquified. Yum.
I’m sorry. I just can’t buy it. The whole “using your hands to wipe your butt is insanitary” makes no sense if you just wash your hands. It isn’t a problem now, nor has it ever been a problem. No. A thousand times, no. This ad demonstrates a very simple point about the world we live in: our material needs are taken care of so well that salesmen are getting desperate. Now to make a quick buck we’re actually stooping so low as to imply that you need a butt wiper. And not only will we sell things you don’t need, but we’ll sell them by any means necessary. Call you up on your phone when you come home from work? Yes. Embed them into your TV shows and movies? Yes. Illegally put fliers up around town against zoning restrictions? Yes. Convince you that you’ll answer life questions and get an identity with the product? Yep. Even advertise to toddlers, who can’t even tell the difference between TV and advertising? Yep. There’s neither a method too low nor a product too unnecessary for advertisers to try to manipulate the way you think.
Oh, Supreme Court…I have have no clue what you guys are playing at. What you give to the public with one hand, you take away with the other. Three days after their ruling to screw over American voters, the Supreme Court decided not to challenge a lower court’s ruling that California can have sections of the highway billboard free. California has had this policy in place for a very long time, where sections of the highway labeled “landscaped highway” are mostly free from billboards. As a result, I bet you can enjoy the fantastic California landscape a lot more. Hey, who knows, maybe there are less accidents because people are paying more attention to their surroundings. The story is that Nano Maldonado lived by one of these areas and wanted to put a billboard on his roof but was told he couldn’t. Over the past 10+ years he’s been challenging the policy, moving up the California court system pushing his luck only to be struck down by the Supreme Court recently. I don’t know what to think about the Supreme Court. And this isn’t a victory for people who want to see less ads, it’s a defeat of an advance of ads. Nothing’s going to change. But for right now, I’d say that’s pretty good.
There’s a fantastic article over at Clean Cut Media about how TV makes you stupid, specifically children. Childrens’ minds are more malleable compared to adult minds, and what they see on TV dramatically shapes them. Children in between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average of 6 hours 21 minutes interacting with TV’s and other media. More time than they spend with their parents. For the average American family with a busy life and not enough time to see the kids, television starts to fill the role of caretaker and teacher of morals and values. A couple highlights from the article.
“If children watch ‘edutainment’—shows that teach through song and dance—they begin to associate learning with an entertainment format and expect that format when they go to school,” he says. “But teachers aren’t going to sing and dance for them. So then children complain that school is boring. Compared to the fast-paced, exciting shows they’re used to on television, it is boring. Nothing will meet that standard. Television constantly ups the ante.
“Kids who watch the most television don’t do as well in school,” says Poussaint. “Television is not the best way to learn; it’s too passive and noninteractive.” A 2003 study found that toddlers and older children with screen media in their bedrooms learned to read later and read less than those with no screen media in their rooms
…many parents don’t know that the American Academy of Pediatrics has established guidelines that recommend no televisions, video games, or Internet access in children’s bedrooms; no screen media for children under two; and no more than two hours of educational television a day for children older than two.
“In the first 18 to 24 months of life, the brain is developing rapidly, primarily in response to environmental stimuli,” Strasburger says. “Stimuli that optimize the development of brain architecture include personal interactions, motor skills practice, and problem-solving activities. And the best way to teach these skills is not through screen media.”
Basically, by putting children in front of a TV not only are we harming their ability to live life outside of TV, but we’re actually hurting their brain development. And keep in mind the damage done to their minds is partially the result of individuals at television networks and video game companies looking to maximize a return on their investments by using the most explosive and horrific imagery. (I don’t don’t know what I think about the idea that video games make you more violent. I do think that unnecessary violence in media is just unnecessary).
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You probably have heard it from other people. Maybe. If they’ve got a single brain cell working or not. If not, let me spell it out for you: American elections have officially been round up, taken out back, shot and then sold to the highest bidder. The Supreme Court ruled today that corporations and unions can give as much money as they want to candidates, with no limitations. None. And yes, the Supreme Court did this. The Supreme Court? Are you sure? The most powerful and respected judges in America? With decades of experience under their belts and degrees from prestigious universities? Those legendary arbiters of truth and reason? Yes, they did this. They did this to us. The most powerful court in America has failed its citizens.
You don’t need to be a Political Science degree to know this is bad. You don’t need a seal of approval to have an opinion about where you think your country is going. You don’t need a goddamn permit to be outraged at this. You don’t need to be afraid of being called a conspiracy theorist if you’re worried about your country. The battle lines have been drawn. Our government has been so thoroughly infiltrated by Wall Street business executives that even appointed Supreme Court judges have been bought, and the politicans have been routinely dismantling everything this country stands for.
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