This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The Schizophrenia Tormenting Our Society & Economy
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith via Peak Prosperity blog,
What can popular television programs tell us about the zeitgeist (spirit of the age) of our culture and economy?
It’s an interesting question, as all mass media both responds to and shapes our interpretations and explanations of changing times. It’s also an important question, as mass media trends crystallize and express new ways of understanding our era.
Those who shape our interpretation of events also shape our responses. This of course is the goal of propaganda: Shape the interpretation, and the response predictably follows.
As a corporate enterprise, mass media’s goal is to make money—the more the better—and that requires finding entertainment products that attract and engage large audiences. The products that change popular culture are typically new enough to fulfill our innate attraction to novelty—but this isn’t enough. The product must express an interpretation of our time that was nascent but that had not yet found expression.
We can understand this complex process of crystallizing and giving expression to new contexts as one facet of the politics of experience.
The Politics of Experience
It is not coincidental that the phrase politics of experience was coined by a psychiatrist, R.D. Laing, for the phrase unpacks the way our internalized interpretation of experience can be shaped to create uniform beliefs about our society and economy that then lead to norms of behavior that support the political/economic status quo.
Here’s how Laing described the social ramifications in Chapter Four of his 1967 book, The Politics of Experience:
“All those people who seek to control the behavior of large numbers of other people work on the experiences of those other people. Once people can be induced to experience a situation in a similar way, they can be expected to behave in similar ways. Induce people all to want the same thing, hate the same things, feel the same threat, then their behavior is already captive - you have acquired your consumers or your cannon-fodder.”
For Laing, the politics of experience is not just about influencing social behavior – it has an individual, inner consequence as well:
“Our behavior is a function of our experience. We act according to the way we see things. If our experience is destroyed, our behavior will be destructive. If our experience is destroyed, we have lost our own selves.”
How the media shapes our interpretation affects not just our beliefs and responses, but our perceptions of self and our role in society. If the media’s interpretation no longer aligns with our experience, the conflict can generate self-destructive behaviors.
In other words, mass media interpretations can create a social schizophrenia that can lead to self-destructive attitudes and behaviors.
Social Analysis of TV
By its very nature as a mass shared experience, popular entertainment is fertile ground for social analysis.
Here’s a common example: what does a child learn about conflict resolution if he’s seen a thousand TV programs in which the “hero” is compelled to kill the “bad guy” in a showdown? What does that pattern suggest, not just about the structure of drama, but about the society that creates that drama?
Analyzing entertainment has been popular in America since the 1950s, if not earlier. The film noir of the 1950s, for example, was widely deemed to express the angst of the Cold War era. Others held that the rising prosperity of the 1950s enabled the populace to explore its darker demons--something the hardships and anxieties of the Depression did not encourage.
Many believe the Depression gave rise to screwball comedies and light-hearted entertainment featuring the casually wealthy precisely because these were escapist antidotes to the grinding realities of the era.
Even television shows that were denigrated as superficial in their own time (for example, Bewitched in the 1960s) can be seen as politically inert but subconsciously potent expressions of profound social changes: the "witch" in Bewitched is a powerful young female who is constantly implored by her conventional husband to conform to all the bland niceties of a suburban housewife, but she finds ways to rebel against these strictures.
Laing saw the potential conflict between what we experience and how we’re told to interpret that experience not just in social terms but in psychiatric terms: such splits open a gulf that can lead to a form of schizophrenia.
Diagnosing Our Disease with TV
What can we make of the popular TV series of the present era? What do they say, beneath the surface, about American society?
I contend that popular TV expresses three key aspects of U.S. society and economy that are at odds with the core idealized values espoused in civic classes and the media. The three idealized values are:
1. America is a meritocracy—selections, admissions, etc., are based on the candidates’ merits
2. Anyone can get ahead if they get an education and work hard
3. America is the wealthiest nation on earth in terms of opportunity, fairness and capital
TV expresses three aspects that confound these idealized values:
1. Life is a game in which the winner takes all
2. The opportunity to “get ahead” via conventional means -- getting educated, working hard, etc. -- is a joke; only those who skirt conventions and the law get rich
3. Life is a tortuous endurance course where those in charge demand the cruel and the impossible
Winner-Take-All Talent Shows
Let’s start with the genre that has been a dominant force in American TV since the 2000s: the winner-take-all talent show (reality and game shows).
The long-running Survivor series, for example, was a winner-take-all contest of physical prowess and political guile, while the many programs staging singing/dancing contests (American Idol, etc.) put entertainment skills to the competitive test. A wide range of other entries stage competitions in cooking, entrepreneurship, losing weight, negotiating obstacle courses, and so on.
What interpretations of our experience do these highly competitive winner-take-all reality shows promote?
We could start with the fact that the stars (other than the hosts/judges) are apparently ordinary "every man/woman" Americans, i.e. people not unlike us. Watching them, it is not too much of a stretch to imagine ourselves on stage, in the kitchen, etc., trying to impress the judges with our talents. It’s easy to identify with the contestants.
These shows enable us to vicariously experience the fantasy that we, too, could be on national TV and could win the accolades of the judges and fans and be the winner who takes it all.
This natural empathy with the temporarily famous with whom we can vicariously share the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat is clearly tapping a deep cultural desire to taste celebrity and the implied financial rewards of winning in an increasing winner-take-all society/economy.
Could the financial/political marginalization of the average citizen and the widening gulf between the typical household and those at the top of the fame/wealth pyramid have something to do with this fascination for winner-take-all competitions on the public stage?
Since there have been game shows on TV for decades, it could be argued that this proliferation of winner-take-all contests is nothing new. But this fails to account for the difference between a game show in which the correct answer is a fact and the subjective votes of judges, other players and the audience that count in winner-take-all contests.
I would argue that this recent explosion of competitions (“modern gladiator,” anyone?) is an expression of deeply held shared cultural values: we accept that ours is a highly competitive society, and that it is becoming even more so as the top "winners" skim the vast majority of the winnings (media visibility, wealth, adulation, social status. etc.), leaving a few morsels for the top 5% and nothing but crumbs for the bottom 95%.
But these TV programs also project the fantasy that our fight-to-the-figurative-death society is still a meritocracy -- the best guy/gal wins, as judged by "experts" (or celebrities claiming expertise; the judges' expertise is structured to be unassailable, just like all the other "experts" in our society).
But if we can't win it all on merit, there is an alternative way to win: display superior political guile or greater popularity with the audience. (Interestingly, this echoes the coliseum audiences of the late Roman era, who also had some sway over who lived to fight another day on the choreographed battlefield below.)
Perhaps this helps explain our collective obsession with celebrity and the many measures of popularity available to everyone now -- Instagram, Facebook likes, Twitter followers (for sale in lots of 10,000), Klout scores, and so on.
In other words, as success in the real world grows increasingly distant, vicariously competing and "winning it all" becomes very compelling. Rather than deal with the vast injustices of our system, we cling to the idealized norm that meritocracy matters, even as "winning" in real life is increasingly a game of cronyism, guile, gaming the system, misrepresenting the truth, etc.
And so we thrill to these play-acting displays of meritocracy in action, as it confirms our cultural value system that that despite the predations of Wall Street and Washington, merit still counts.
And when all else fails, we have a fallback source of identity and "winning" -- our popularity. And if we don't have enough of our own, then we can share vicariously in the popularity of TV show winners and celebrities who have reached the pinnacle.
This is the core message of an interesting and erudite half-hour talk on celebrity given by Games of Thrones actor Jack Gleeson (via correspondent Yoni F.)
"During a recent visit to the Oxford Union, Gleeson took the opportunity to dismantle the ‘religious hysteria’ of celebrity worship with an appropriately epic rant, breaking down the economic, psychological, and sociological catalysts for public reverence of celebrities and their negative impact on society as a whole."
Gleeson draws upon a number of intellectual sources (Weber, Baudrillard, et al.) in his discussion of the contemporary culture of celebrity, and concludes that celebrity fills the void left when development of an authentic self is stunted.
The parallel with Laing’s “lost self” is striking.
In effect, when the opportunities for developing an authentic self have been reduced to popularity, public visibility and the status that flows from these forms of recognition, then the worship of celebrity and the aching desire for a moment in the spotlight become rational substitutes for a True Self.
As these wispy contingencies can never form an authentic selfhood, even those who do "win" the competition for celebrity are ultimately dissatisfied and disillusioned.
My conclusion: the popularity of competitive winner-take-all TV programs reflects the paucity of opportunities for selfhood and the substitution of celebrity worship for the difficult task of forging an independent identity in a society that marginalizes all but the top players.
If this isn’t a form of cultural schizophrenia, then what exactly is it? The claim that this is all just good clean fun is absurd, as is the claim that it’s perfectly healthy to sacrifice one’s identity in a competition for recognition that 99.9% of us are sure to lose.
In Part 2: Desperately Seeking Substance, we examine a darker reflection of this widening divide between a handful of “winners” and everyone else. Modern culture's pursuit of celebrity, winner-take-all excess, and superficiality is resulting in a national case of social depression. A good argument can be made that we need to take stock of the rationale for our current values, as they don't appear to be serving our interests that well.
Click here to access Part 2 of this report (free executive summary; enrollment required for full access)
- 11028 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


Who cares about schizophrenia when we can have Marburg?
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/ninety-nine-in-isolation-after-uganda-marburg-death-country-trying-desperately-to-prevent-an-epidemic/
I think the more appropriate diagnosis is Bipolar Disorder.
Marburg/Ebola?
Ebola is only 50 - 90% lethal. Marburg is it's more deadly cousin.
CIA asset reporter confesses news is faked:
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/10/reporter-spills-the-beans-and-admits-all-the-news-is-fake-video-3040904.html
Deep State or Jew Media....
When Facebook changed it's pre entered text in the post box to read "How do you feel?" that was the icing on the cake.
"Deep State or Jew Media...."
Either way....they are "telegraphing" again...
...the Financial Times who quotes the IMF....
Wake up, bitchezzz....time for all rats to abandon ship!
http://en.itar-tass.com/economy/753399
...all going according to plan...
http://redefininggod.com/2014/09/mainstream-globalist-propaganda-reveals...
"TahoeBilly"...when are you going to answer my question (4 times now)...are the Macinaw biting?
You're not from Tahoe..are you. You are another paid blogger...who has never been to Tahoe or even read about it...don't bother answering with your google/Wikipedia response....Jesus. More sellouts and yellow-belly turncoats than anyone can count in this hagged-out, junkie country. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted for all who lived through the 60's & 70's. [sigh]
Only thing worth watching on TV is Doctor Who, bitchez!
I don't beleve I have schizophrenia, and so do I!
Marburg is a strain of hemorrhagic fever that originated in Uganda, central to east Africa, while Ebola has only been seen in West Africa..., until now. As Cougar pointed out the testing and naming of these things is somewhat sloppy and arbitrary. based on whether they react to anti-bodies, but the strains are moving targets anyway.
All of the strains you hear about have pretty much the same symptoms and results, except Reston 2, which IS air born, and may or may not be contagious among humans. If humans are immune, that might be a good start for a vaccine.
And the Reston 2 outbreak was in Filipino monkeys at a Reston, VA monkey-house, so I guess Ebola can be from the Phillipines as well....
Good question. No one knows for sure. Might be from Indonesia. Monkeys from both countries were, at that time, caged together for the trip across the Pacific, and caged monkeys will fight for dominance and, you see where that goes.
Hemorrhagic fever can be found in lots of animal hosts, pig, rats, mice, bats, monkeys, dogs, always in the tropics. Given that, it's surprising that it isn't more common.
Yes, of course....nothing to do with the "new aggressive strain" we see....
that originated from a West African "hospital" with an adjacent "Weapons lab" run by Fort Dietrich personnel, overseen by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation....
Nothing to see here...stay in your homes...keep away from monkeys and dirt...mother nature to blame...
Just stay fearful, remember to let anyone in a lab coat inject you with whatever they deem "necessary"....
Its all for your own good...what? Your baby died...it wasn't the "injection"...understand? Yes that is a FEMA camp....
It wasn't the injection...got it?!?
Back on topic, from what I see my wife watching I see twenty something hot .gov gun toting chicks tossing "white terrorist" around and their yuppie starbucks drinking male side kicks saving the world from evil white guys trying to conspire against "amarca"
Federal boot stomping using moral dilemmas to justify violation of civil rights. That is the brine they are soaking the brains of america in today. Tomorrows brown shirts will be primed by prime time.
The key point is that your wife is watching. TV is made for women. Older men who can't be bothered to think watch too, but they'll watch anything, so who cares.
More like society and the economy are tormenting Americans into mental illness.
Unplug the f**king TV and Hollywood. The mind control BS.
Look at the signs of Schizophrenia.
If you believe the government is corrupt, or out to get you or your family.
Reality is different to you than to other people. (Sheeple's not seeing the 'signs' like you do. Banking cartel, conspiracys, current economical situation, ect.)
A constant feeling of being watched. (NSA, DoD, DoJ, ect)
You may schizophrenia.
"You may schizophrenia."
Your lack of grammar skills clearly reveal you are indeed a "90's Child"...
My sympathies....
You want to get a feel for the zeitgeist you won't get it on TV. Go to a mayhem festival or one similar.
I think Charles is right on the substance, but it doesn't matter. Television is dying a well deserved death from too may choices. It will never again have the power and influence it had for some fifty years.
Thank gawd.
Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.
Much of the origin of "reality" shows comes from the desire of production companies/TV conglomorates to reduce the cost of providing entertainment via TV yet reaping every expanding profits.
Cost to make a decent TV series? Lots....writers, directors, designers, all the film union artisans.
Cost to make an idiot reality show? likely 25% of that or less. So you habituate the masses to this garbage and cash on out. Appeal to the lowest and charge the most. Sort of like the Big Mac/GMO of the airwaves.
No substance; all lies and manipulation and fairly low paid main characters.
But I think they are truly reaching into the sewage tank with any new idea. I mean really? Baby BooBoo or Tuna Wars? YOU have to be an idiot to even pitch this idea; pick it up and throw money at it; watch it.
Like that idiot company that thinks it can float an IPO for some idiot app that sends "YO".
We have reached the bottom here. It astounds.
That's because the revenue just isn't there any more. A lot of the revenue has migrated to premium channels with shows like Breaking Bad or Sopranos, so networks have had to find cheaper ways to fill the time between commercials.
I would like to hear someday that:
- The Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to the TV programmers.
The reason is that managed to turn something interesting into pure shit.
hehe.
Call it the hive mind - consciousness 'as' interpolated through the media matrix.
You have disproportionate corporate influence and perhaps control.
You have disproportionate government [or intel agency] influence and perhaps control.
And you have disproportionate Jewish influence and perhaps control.
This is all frustratingly obvious, but the media itself simply never discusses any of these. It won't discuss the last one at all, and I'm not race baiting or suggesting a "conspiracy" I'm plainly and soberly relating an obvious fact as to mass media that is absolutely forbidden for discussion,
Consumerism/Debtism // Militarism/hyperinterventionism // Judeonormativism/Zionism.
I think the corporate/MIC angle in movies and films is most worrying. But we should be able to talk about all of it, especially as all 3 were surely at work lying the US into Iraq, and with the ongoing efforts to lie the US into wars on Syria, Iran, and arguably Russia.
Don't read Freud or Jung. Read Joseph Campbell and Daniel Dennett.
or read Goebbels.
and read Edward Bernays
"Corporate"..."Government"...
Set your sights a little higher...these people are the "lackeys"...the masses are the "dirt"...
Joseph Campbell, while eloquent, was a tool of the NWO, striving to convince everyone that "ancient history" was "myth"...and not a technology-challenged interpretation of real events...
I gave you a downvote for saying "don't read Freud or Jung"
Read Freud and Jung's original works. Don't read some APA watered down spinner rack rubbish about Freud and Jung. Read their actual work.
Carl Jung's "Undiscovered Self" is the most Zero-Hedgean psychology book there is. He is up there with Ayn Rand when it comes to criticizing the state and authority.
TV = boob tube
msm = pravda
"esum" = paid stooge.....
MSM is the 1%...."alternative media" = owned by MSM....
All according to "plan"....
http://redefininggod.com/2014/09/mainstream-globalist-propaganda-reveals...
BREAKING BAD ROCKED !!!
WE still got that.
Deadwood. Best ever, IMO. After they shitcanned that gem, have not watched a series since.
I became very averse to telivision in the late seventies with the avent of sticoms. The laugh tracks caught my attention. I found myself not laughing and knew I was odd man out. Glad of that. I almost puke when I have to sit in front of a screen at my daughters or anywhere I am a social captive. Total shit.
Did Carole Burnett have a laugh track? I can not remember. I could laugh at that show with the volume off. Not a sitcom mind you.
It's all this man's fault. Read and weep
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Douglass
>>> I almost puke when I have to sit in front of a screen at my daughters or anywhere I am a social captive.
I get the same gut-wrenching feelings when immersed in someone else's perpetually-on broadcast media experience. I've had minimal exposure to TeeVee in thirty-plus years, and find it absolutely mind-boggling that many, many people, even those who are well-educated, will spend hours upon hours of their precious life marinating in this crap, decade after decade. Talk about a waste of life!
I undertand that some escape from the hum-drum of everyday life may be helpful now and then, but how about a book, or a walk in the country?
Freddie is right!
Agree. Woke up to the laugh track shit with "Family Ties" when I started dating a girl who's family watched it back in 84. Never seen it before then and never looked back. The spitefulness in it as well was a big turn off as opposed to MASH which did have a laugh track but was funny IMO.
These TV watchers would be better off learning a skill to help pay for old age. What are they going to do when they can't afford cable? Maybe we will finally get our Revolution.
Bah !
Winning is for wimps !
It is much harder and more rewarding to coast in the windbreak of no 2 position .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-long-revenge.html
For good measure , read http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2006/03/revenge-of-gaia.html
Number 2 is the spot to be if you want a half-way decent life .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2014/10/prodigies-update-ii.html on exactly how to do it .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2012/11/optimizing-professional.html
Listen Zero's.
You have to agree that your American TeeVee has been "FULLY" captured. Fully captured. And as such, "THEY" have full control over the sheeple.
PS. It's happening on the Internet too. You would not believe some of the websites that are controlled by "THEM".
But "WHO" gives a shit. It's America afterall. GO "THEM"!
Maybe it's just a cultural thing. When I get invited into someone's house, I don't pee in the corner of the living room so I have trouble understanding why you America haters hang out here. You never have anything nice to say about the US, even though it is your "host" here.
Where's the Indian Zerohedge? Where's the Russian Zerohedge? Non-existent entitIes. Instead, you come over to this American site crammed full of dissenters and make sure that you call them out as boobs, tools, and idiots. Since they tolerate you in silence, you may have a point but it makes me sad to see such an opportunity for building up some genuine popular momentum ruined by guys like you who make sure that the site remains thoroughly tarred as full of nazis and foreign agents.
We need men, real men, willing to stand up and be counted. But they aren't willing to risk their careers and personal lives by standing up in a swamp filled with useless serpent-tongued Iagoes such as yourself. Their help is desperately needed. You make it all but impossible for them to risk it, so thanks for everything you NWO tool. Go fix India.
tarabel, there's quite a wide gamut of non-MSM sites that cover similar sets of concerns. ZH content, and especially the comments, is more acidic than most. But that also means that it sometimes really does scrape away the obsfuscation to reveal the real. The acid is a small and necessary nuisance.
I suggest you watch the film/read the book "Fight Club" to get a better sense of the context here. If your sentiments are still too sensitive for ZH, I suggest another great site, where the author of this article is a regular contributor: peakprosperity.com. The author also has his own excellent site -- oftwominds.com.
Listen Tarabel.
I do have my days. We get different news feeds here in India and so many time we hear about American Exceptionalists killing more people in the world. And more, and more.
It's just frustrating you know? These people had families, they were just trying to make it through this tough life.
All these odd things happening in the world. Ebola is an engineered virus released into the wild by America to solve your debt crisis after the economy crashes.
I know I should be singing praises to your name, O Most High; To declare your loving kindness, but......
"DON'T" drone me bro.
“All those people who seek to control the behavior of large numbers of other people work on the experiences of those other people. Once people can be induced to experience a situation in a similar way, they can be expected to behave in similar ways. Induce people all to want the same thing, hate the same things, feel the same threat, then their behavior is already captive - you have acquired your consumers or your cannon-fodder.”
Kinda like, save us Big Brother from the nasty ole Ebola Squirrel? ;-)
"...Once people can be induced to experience a situation in a similar way, they can be expected to behave in similar ways..."
A lot of those situations are either the U.S. government royally screwing something up and lying about it, or the U.S. government bullying citizens to "obey".
I don't think that captive behavior is going to turn out exactly the way the current government is expecting...
It works both ways, friend. Arm yourself.
No friend will ever ask you to lay down your arms.
Just watch the Nightly News or view the MSN or Yahoo! main pages.
Observe the headlines and the advertisements.
The society has lost it's mind.
Schizophrenia has NOTHING to do with split personalities or even associations with anything that is split. Cut this Hollywood BS and the perpetuation of this denigrating stigma. Main signs are debilitating hallucinations, hearing voices, thought/movement disorders. It's a severe chronic illness that should not be taken lightly.
Totally. Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with split/multiple personality. Think of it like being on a permanent bad acid trip - complete with frightening auditory and visual hallucinations, confused thought patterns, and a terrifying loss of sense of self.
I get very annoyed about articles like this that continue to peddle the popular misconception that schizophrenia is the same thing as split personality.
"Schizophrenia is a normal response to an abnormal world"
-Michael Tsarion
Television elected Obama.
Thats all you need to know about television.
This should be titled Delusional Paranoid instead of Schizophrenia.
Yet another article crucifying us Schizos.
Robert Pirsig (author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence and Lila) describes most schizophrenia as a good deal of "culture shock". He should know - he wound up committed getting ECT's before he realized he wasn't the crazy one and schmoozed his way out of the nuthouse by telling them what they wanted to hear. But he still held that it was most of the rest of the world that was fucking nuts, not him.
Hence his conclusion:
Sanity is not truth. Sanity is conformity to what is socially expected. Truth is sometimes in conformity, sometimes not.
1. America is a meritocracy
That is the root cause of the problem, Meritocrats are self selecting, any kind of non-conformism is rejected.
Meritocracy inevitably leads to dullness and stagnation, the very oppostite of what its adherents wish.
The phrase 'meritocracy' was introduced in 1958 by Michael Young in his book The rise of the meritocracy, here's what he had to say in 2001 about it.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/29/comment
The phrase 'meritocracy' was introduced in 1958 by Michael Young....
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/29/comment
Thanks for the link.
I believe Carol Burnett was filmed before a live audience and the laughing was real folk reacting to real events. Not sure it that was thcase for the whole run of the series.
No. Charles Douglass sweetened Carol Burnett's show up with his laff box.
Those still watching the idiot box, especially for "news," WANT to be dumb and blind.
An American, not US subject.
I don't own a t.v. or read a paper and get all my news from ZH and Drudge
Never have owned a TV either:
Talmudvision, turn it off.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/who-owns-the-media-the-6-mon...
http://davidduke.com/who-runs-the-media/
talmudvision
lmao
that was funny. I like that one!
Live abroad for a time and return and you see it.
MSM:
-The usage of military terms when describing the weather
-The mindless news, local and national
-Following a serious story about foreign wars with one about puppies. Oooh so cute!
-The WWE everywhere, MMA everywhere, tattoos everywhere, piercings everywhere, reality shows, and everyone has the TV on all the time.
--The above used to be signs of the lower class, but now everyone has these signs, Thus the USA is a lower class nation in values, not even middle class any longer let alone the aspirants to higher values (NOT money). Being polite is now rudeness and weakness.
-Everyone dresses like a child with baggy shorts. t-shirts and tennis shoes. There are no adults any longer.
-Those on TV dressed as adults are in a Theatre Play - no one really looks like that on the streets of America any more and is ridiculed if they dress in a suit. Obama has made no tie with a suit the standard, soon no suit coat, then no suit.
-Reality TV Shows have a ''They Shoot Horses, Don't They?..." quality to them...or Panem if you prefer...
SOCIAL MEDIA:
-Just the media is the message of this is destroying the USA, and much of the world
-Film that shows people all on their smart phones (""Her"", etal), heads down, no conversation, is not fiction on Asian subways. it is reality. Saw this in a Starbucks a few days ago, took vidieo. Appalling. Apparently true in USA also.
-Smartphone and tech gadget addiction is ruining America and the planet. People cannot converse or be civil any longer.
I could go on but it is all negative and I have a life to live, have a good day...
>>>...everyone has the TV on all the time.
--The above used to be signs of the lower class, but now everyone has these signs, Thus the USA is a lower class nation in values, not even middle class any longer....
Quoted for truth, at least in my experience. I've known too many people, with doctoral degrees and upper-middle class incomes yet, who leave the radio or television playing while dining with their families. The philosophy seems to be "I don't actually want to know what's on your mind, so listening to NPR (or FOX) is easier and safer than talking to one another."
Oh my yes. I flew across the planet, literally, sitting and visiting with relatives and had to ask them to turn the TV off so that I could speak with them after, you know, flying 12,000kms.
In transportation hubs and in some businesses, one becomes the captive of blaring commercial television where the mass-market content and loud volume is an institutional diktat.
I was once the only person in the waiting area of a Jiffy Lube and asked the manager to turn off the volume/TV. He said he couldn't do that. In airports, the sonic pollution from the pervasively suspended televisions is so noxious that my earplugs for the flight go in once I sit down to wait for boarding.
Impeach Obama.
The better drama entertainment is now on Netflix's original series shows. I also like what comes from Australia and the UK-- both new and old drama series.
US television drama is just car chases and shootem up bang bang mayhem---which is why I haven't had TV in 3 years.
it happened on tv, the normalization of the lgbt groups.
it all started with a different aunt, or uncle who lived alone, to the neighbor, now into the main family.
now young people question why isn't there one of the lgbt living in our house, why is my family different.
Its not schizophrenia its Washington D.C.
Personally, what I find far more disturbing in TV programming is the sheer onslought of crime/security related series that clearly and blatantly aim to project the entire military/security complex as morally impeccable and righteous whilst overtly suggesting that anyone attempting to advance privacy issues is a criminal.
Listening to and parsing the dialogue of these sitcoms is maddening and infuriating for those that understand the undelying motives.