Sunday, January 30, 2011

Extended Childhood

 Yeah, Kim is baad - but I'm not keeping up with anyone on television.
I've got things to do.
 But why do so many fixate on the lives of those they don't even know.
 Of those they'll probably never even meet?
 On the lives of those which have no impact on their own lives?
Isn't this what children do?
Don't adults have real concerns?
 But while most Americans are focused on pop-culture - the world has real problems with which to deal.
 From Lebanon, to Tunisia to
Egypt.
Adults don't wish to be lulled into an extended childhood and told what to do, what to think, or how to act for their entire lives.

Why do the media continue to produce reality television?
To keep the population under control like children.
If we were forced to think and do for ourselves - maybe America would become just as volatile.
If we were forced to become responsible for our own well being - maybe we would not put so much faith in our failing institutions and beliefs.
If we were forced to learn and grow - maybe our eyes would be opened.
Maybe we would actually become conscious.

2 comments:

  1. uncle john,

    the egyptians and the tunisians didn't become conscious, they simply became active in response to an insufferable tripling of commodity food prices, which food prices have been driven through the roof, not by actual scarcity, but instead, by investment dollars flooding the commodities markets because there's no place else for them to go to yield a profit.

    this is as close to an "engineered" situation as one could possibly imagine, inasmuch as elite, establishment, institutional behavior is driving the wave of governance instability and could easily be halted if there was any political will to do so among the power elite (PE) who gathered together in their masses last week in Davos.

    what is most interesting to track, imoho, is the competing set of narratives seeking to account for what's going on without actually ever pointing out the root cause of what's going on.

    it is a most amazing paradox and a virtuoso demonstration of the still very pervasive power of the big lie.

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  2. I understand all that SeeNew and the actions would (will?) be the same in the US.
    People are easily led and by keeping them focused on that which doesn't really matter one can take from them that which really matters.

    Shows that feature people like those on Jersey Shore or any of the Real Housewives just let people imagine that they could be rich and famous for being vapid as well.
    People think that they can win the lottery and everything will be fine.
    People think that the government will take care of all their needs.

    Being Hongry is just as good a motivating force as anything else to open ones eyes to the fact that a profit driven market always fails.

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