Originally posted by SuspicionVandit
OJ Simpson beat the polygraph test.
are you sure? i thought he was acquitted of that too.
see what i did?
idoru
Chewbacca lives on Endor.
smakmagik
quote:
Originally posted by Spacey Orange
see what i did?
Spacey Orange
for the love of god, not the Chewbacca defense.
Halcyon+On+On
quote:
Originally posted by smakmagik
True, caring detracts people from real lives, but unless that thing is staged, it IS real life isn't it? I agree with the points you make about television ing things up when it comes to people and actual interaction, but when you are propped up in front of the telly, and something like this does come up, you must be affected in some way must you not? It doesn't mean I carry those feelings around wherever I go, and let them govern how I behave/think/feel, but just at that moment, I do care.
Unless as I said, you know for sure that its staged, at which point, I would just point and laugh. (or watch Oprah :) )
No, no you don't have to be affected. They want you to be affected so that you keep watching. They want you to invest a part of yourself in the program so that seeing through towards its conclusion and commercial break just beforehand becomes a personal and emotional goal. There is absolutely no reason to believe it's not staged. It's not all that dissimilar to a magic trick and, metaphorically speaking, is not an evil thing per se so long as you keep in mind that it is a manipulation of observable reality for entertainment, alone. But people become involved - their strings pulled - their sense of self all invested away as they become nothing more than mere learners before a deceptive teacher. And what pay-off exists? Well, you can become a desensitized media socialite, sure to find kinship amongst similar sheep and husks of mental anemics to share your entertainment style prospects with. After all, being human is all about connecting with your fellow man in some way, is it not? Might as well make it a safe and perpetual sort of death - keeps us safe from all that pain of living our own lives.
Don't sell my sentiment short though! I realize there is a legacy of myth as long back as the human hand can scribble happenings down and I am no small fan of this dynamic. The perpetuation of fiction is something quite intrinsic to us and I would be quite wrong to deny its affect on people whether it is in the form of epic heroes succumbing to some God-inflicted fate or the death of a beloved character in a movie - this is a different sort of empathy. It is the illustrative type used by people who wish to teach something or, perhaps to some far more cruel yet humanistic effect, to incite a catharsis of sorts. Empathy induced for the sole purpose of withdrawing consumer habituation is a far more detached and mechanical animal. It has everything to do with the human experience thus far, and that says nothing positive about our resolve as creatures unwilling to sacrifice ourselves for inedible exchange.
smakmagik
quote:
Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
No, no you don't have to be affected. They want you to be affected so that you keep watching. They want you to invest a part of yourself in the program so that seeing through towards its conclusion and commercial break just beforehand becomes a personal and emotional goal.
Television today in a ing nutshell.
quote:
Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
is not an evil thing per se so long as you keep in mind that it is a manipulation of observable reality for entertainment, alone.
Exactly. Watch it, enjoy it, go to bed. Don't carry it around with you.
quote:
Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
But people become involved - their strings pulled - their sense of self all invested away as they become nothing more than mere learners before a deceptive teacher. And what pay-off exists? Well, you can become a desensitized media socialite, sure to find kinship amongst similar sheep and husks of mental anemics to share your entertainment style prospects with. After all, being human is all about connecting with your fellow man in some way, is it not?
Tell me, with how television has progressed and wound its way into everyone's daily lives, how are people who are obsessed and dependent on it going to un-involve themselves? They are so deep into it's intricate web that they are ignorant of the fact that they can in fact think of themselves, there is more to life than 30 minutes of people you identify with and think of their life as yours everyday. Take another example, Facebook. These guys make 'friends' they never meet, never talk to in real life, but are still socially content and believe they are an intrinsic part of life's networks. How many people around you,( and I'm guessing you're from the West, which is far more affected by this),can you honestly say are aware of the points you make above, and can detach themselves for those 30 minutes, and start living their normal lives again...entertained. Television is ruining our lives because we're letting it.
Halcyon+On+On
As any other successful social process, there is no such thing as extrication. It's like trying to convince people they should stop bathing because it makes them just too damned clean. I don't consider myself one bit more free than people who do their reality television routine every night for several hours because, , I still have to put up with those people every day of my social ing life, and that is a very constricting thing. I don't actually believe it's even a question of people realizing that junk television is ing their lives up. People can admit to that all they want. So long as they continue to watch it under the guise of it being harmless and mindless entertainment - which it truthfully is - it can only exist and flourish in our world of self-affirmation and the pursuit of happiness through the social comparative and individuality so long as it doesn't hurt. I mean, when even the approved "intelligent" are drones to what truth is prescribed to us, who do we have left to fight what the majority holds to be true and life-enriching? Rebels and idiots, that's who.
Perhaps it has always been that way though. There is something so offset about the invasion of empathy though. Like, being told what to feel so that you would learn what to feel next time. I don't know, something has changed though, and whatever it is, it doesn't like to be seen.
smakmagik
quote:
Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
There is something so offset about the invasion of empathy though.
Offset??? It's bloody inhuman
It's one thing trying to modify behaviour, but if you let your feelings be manipulated, then there's something terribly wrong.
Halcyon+On+On
quote:
Originally posted by smakmagik
Offset??? It's bloody inhuman
But humans are doing it. It's as natural as anything else because it is being done. There's really no alternate basis for comparison.
quote:
It's one thing trying to modify behaviour, but if you let your feelings be manipulated, then there's something terribly wrong.
Yet behavioural modification is a directive of society in the first place. Not to be purposefully bleak, but conformity is a far smoother operant for assimilative conditioning. To intentionally bring this "too far", is realizing the supposed sense and subsequent reward for regarding social norms not just a form of behavioural modification? There doesn't seem anything too terribly "wrong" with that whatsoever - and this exactly the level of consciousness that is easy to affect people at. Imbue them with a sense of normalcy with regard to moral and behavioural consideration and you can imbue them with anything you want. Are they duped? Are they deceived? No more than the rest of us who are susceptible to believing what is normal is acceptable morality with regards to others. So what is so offset about manipulation, then?
pkcRAISTLIN
quote:
Originally posted by smakmagik
The show is stupid, that woman is a greedy bint, and the whole concept is appaling. Why would people participate in something like this?
bollocks @ "too far". she is a willing participant on a gameshow, who are you to decide what is too far?
smakmagik
quote:
Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
bollocks @ "too far". she is a willing participant on a gameshow, who are you to decide what is too far?
If that thing is staged, then the show is taking it too far
If people are affected by the show, then they're taking their involvement with television too far
If that is a willing participant, then surely she's taking her participation in a non-voluntary event too far
Then again, to each his own. I just found that clip shocking, if you don't, fair play.
pkcRAISTLIN
if its staged, then its irrelevant.
if people have a problem with it, they can take their audience elsewhere.
if she is a willing participant, it is her decision on how far she takes it.
