Friday 12 September 2008

It's television
Edited on Thu Sep-11-08 12:54 PM by nichomachus
Americans are addicted to television. Many people -- my sister is one -- put it on when they get up and turn it off when they go to bed. Go to the doctor -- you have to watch tv. Go to get your oil changed -- tv while you're waiting. My last dentist even had it in the treatment room.

The thing about TV is not so much that they tell you what to think, but -- and this is worse -- they tell you what to think about.

I went to my favorite bar for happy hour yesterday. It's an outdoor bar, but they had four TVs. Fortunately, no sound. However, three of the four had people, according to the captions, talking about fucking LIPSTICK. (The other TV had the Red Sox-Devil Rays.) Who the fuck cares about lipstick? The economy is dying. We are becoming a debtor nation. Unemployment is rampant. 4,200 American dead in Iraq. North Korea about to become destabilized. The Middle East still a boiling cauldron. Dick Cheney and Condi Rice skulking around in secret doing God-knows-what. And all the pundits were talking about fucking lipstick.

Ask any of the Sheeple today what the hot item is and they will tell you either the hurricane or lipstick.

That is insane!
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Lorien Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Sep-11-08 12:54 PM
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11. This seems to be the more pertinent paragraph:
Those comfortably atop societal hierarchies have difficulty recognizing that many American institutions promote helplessness, passivity, boredom, fear, isolation, alienation and dehumanization for those not at the top. One-size-fits-all schools, the corporate workplace, government bureaucracies and other giant, impersonal institutions routinely promote manipulative relationships rather than respectful ones, machine efficiency rather than human pride, authoritarian hierarchies rather than participatory democracy, disconnectedness rather than community, and helplessness rather than empowerment.

So true. :-(
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Romulox (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Sep-11-08 12:58 PM
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13. Complete disconnect between "every man for himself" capitalism and cooperative society
If a man loses his home due to a flood, this is a tragedy, and the taxpayers should rebuild it for him; if a man loses him home due to trade policy, it is simply "efficiency", and we have no compassion.

It is a schizophrenic p.o.v. that obviously breaks down when under stress.
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AchtungToddler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Sep-11-08 01:25 PM
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16. It seem to me that too many of our fellow citizens are willing, eager even, to....
...give away their vital bodily fluids. This is leading America to the brink of catastrophe.
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radfringe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Sep-11-08 01:34 PM
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18. to answer that question - yes
the big "uproar" is who is or isn't wearing a flagpin, who has hand over heart and who does not when saying the Pledge of Allegience, and what color lipstick looks best on a freaking pig

and people wonder why the country is going to hell in a chinese knock-off of a gucci handbag

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