"Virtually every forbidden topic imaginable has been covered on television, except for one. The last taboo on television is television itself — and how it is profoundly biased toward high consumption ways of life that the earth cannot sustain." - Duane Elgin, The Last Taboo on Television
Regarding consumerism, the media moguls of television may never admit their influence on turning the average person into the average consumer. Yet, this begins as an uninformed decision for every one of us when we first watch television.
Later, as we grow wise to the advertisement and content, we learn to consciously moderate our television viewing. Figuratively speaking, after years of television consumption, each of us decides to take a diet of selectivity where we choose what to watch.
Given the increasing number of TV channels offered to most customers by cable TV and satellite TV companies, most of the companies offer you the basic package. For Cable TV, that would be from 45 to 64 channels plus from 40 to 60 digital music channels. For satellite TV that is at least 140 digital channels, plus you may or may not be locked in for two years. The two year plan may apply to cable TV, too.
Because of its limitations, I currently do not watch any television. If all I can do is just sit back and flip channels, then the excitement soon wears thin.
Instead, I rather sit in front of my computer, checking my email, keeping with my stream on GooglePlus or writing another post on my blog. After a long spell on the computer, it's wiser to rest and delay returning to sit in front of it again.
Indeed, most days I spend about fifteen minutes in meditation and about 3 hours reading.
Very rarely does the television catch my attention.
For the mind is too precious to waste sitting in front of the TV.
Every moment spent in mindful contemplation of the world free of the influence of computer and television will free your mind.
Originally posted: August 19, 2010 05:55 AM PDT
Reference:
The Last Taboo on Television: http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/future/articles/taboo/
Showing posts with label consumerism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consumerism. Show all posts
20140111
How to Cut Consumerism (satire)
People are so caught up in buying stuff they don't really need, that "spendaholic" is not a stupid joke but becoming more real.
A good example of this is the typical nerd who is a yuppie with a craving for technology, be it an $600 iPhone5S, an $1800 quadcore laptop with a 16" screen, or a phablet ranging from $300 to $500.
Imagine that that every device is crystal meth or ice or coke or pot.
Then that $600 iPhone5S is poke.
The quadcore laptop is $1800 of coke.
Even the phablet is a lot of crystal meth at $300 and enough coke to kill you at $500.
I am pretty sure $2800 of a mix of ice, coke and pot will keep you up for days into you enter your little psychotic episode brought to by amphetamine and its methylated child meth, cocaine and various THC derivatives.
In short, a technophile is addicted to technology. If he isn't making money using it, then it's just another addiction waiting for the next crisis to comfort him.
If you are a sex addict and can afford the shipping charges, then there's a sex doll for you for $3000 (vibrator optional)!
Fucking nerds, you're all addicts!
20131222
Direct Democracy or Who Needs a Leader to Run a Democracy? (satire)
Democratic communism is alive and well in the EU. Though they like to call it Christian socialism or Christian Democracy e.g. Germany, Scandanavia especially Norway.
America fears socialism because it implements the welfare state e.g. workers fund unemployment, and taxpayers fund social welfare. This requires more taxation, which is a Commie plot to steal capital from the 1-percent elites, according to the GOP.
Besides, taxation is assumed to be without representation by the 1-percenters, and thus is anathema to American free-market capitalism which funds Fabian fascism in the US.
Indeed, capitalism empowers all the ISMs that control certain governments, including Communism, facism, and good old American democracy. However, American democracy only works for the politicians you vote into office, NOT the People.
Why? Because State democracy implies that once politicians are voted in, that democracy only benefits them.
Since, historically, the People have never been allowed to run a government, except by proxy through elected representatives, it implies that the State enables a plutocracy.
Because of the assumption that the People are akin to unwashed masses who would argue about implementation of policies favoring the People at the expense of the State, it is assumed that the People are vastly more incompetent than the representatives they elect, and thus a democracy run by the People for the People would never work.
So that is seen in the eyes of the State as anarchy, which is mistaken for the actual chaos of a leaderless society.
Yet direct democracy appears to be anarchy to the State and its representatives, who are supported by lobbies such as BigBusiness, the M-I Complex, and their 1-percent backers.
Why? Because the State assumes that democracy demands a leader. Direct democracy says that an individual may be chosen to lead, but everyone — each being an individual — is perfectly capable of leadership.
Who really needs a leader to run a democracy, except for Statists who are demanding total control over the People so they can continue to run their Fabian facist fantasy?
Is it not time to overthrow the State?
Yes, but the Occupy movement and even Anonymous falsely believe revolutions should be non-violent. This is silly because non-violence successful revolution like the one in the UKraine did not remove the Communists and other Statists, including oligarchs who are merely sharks (robber barons) looking for schools of fish (the People). Thus, colored revolutions are ineffective in making permanent changes to prevent a despotic regime (the current Ukrainian leadership) from being elected and ally with their fellow despots (Putin) rather than their socialist counterparts (the EU).
Both the EU and Russsia along with the Commonwealth of Independent States are both Statist but the EU is a soft form of Communism called democratic socialism, mainly due to religious tolerance, and Russia et al still practice the hard form of Communism whilst pretending to be democratic.
Is it not time for the Ukrainians to overthrow the State? YES! Because keeping its ties with Russia is only bringing evil karma upon its current regime.
As for the rest of the world, the Middle East demonstrates that Islam and Western style democracies are compatible as long as democracy does not offend Islam. Like the Christian Socialists and the Christian Democrats of the EU, the Muslim democrats have to walk on egg shells, due to the fact that the military apparatus is used by the Muslim clerics to ensure that no one who believes in Allah offends Him by becoming secular and thus tainted by consumerism. They do so to protect their people's souls from burning in Hell.
It is our atheist mindset in the West that filters this out of the mass media propaganda, which misrepresents Islam as Salafists oppressing Christians and secularists in the Middle East. This is similar to the way Catholicism and fundamentalist Protestant churches oppress homosexuals and people in common-law marriages. Yet because we have been taught in the West that politics and religion do not mix like oil and water, the Western mass media ignores the religious basis for Middle Eastern society and propagates the myth that political factions are duking it out in Syria.
However, al Qaeda is a militant part of Salafi groupthink. It is funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait along with military advice by the US. Additionally, the US also supports the Syrian National Committee, which thinks it's a coalition of Christian, Shia and Sunni militants fighting jihad against a regime which is clandestinely supported by the US and is supported by the EU, which depends on Syrian oil.
Yet infighting proves that the SNC is unstable enough to implement a civil war with the foreigners who called all Syrian Sunni militants into their al Qaeda of Syria and Lebanon (the Levant) to counter Hezbollah and its patron Iran.
Theirs is truly a holy war, or so the Sunnis think. So when Bashar al-Assad is dethroned, revolution will come and the al Qaeda will launch a real civil war, rather than the proxy war now being fought.
Even so, it is time for a revolution in the West. It cannot be done through non-violence because that does not rid us of the true enemies of democracy, which is not Salafi militants of even al Qaeda. Rather, the true enemy of democracy is the 1-percent elites. Until each of us takes up arms against the elites, there will be no revolution in the West.
Even so, the NRA will not support us. They support the GOP. Likewise, the Democrats will not support us, because they think non-violent confrontation works especially in the form of diplomacy. Yet diplomacy still requires a lot of taxpayers' money to work. Two examples spring to mind: Afghanistan and Iraq. Through the use of bribes and big fucking guns, the US-led coalition in both countries reduced the influence of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein.
So, the Western revolution against the 1-percent elites will also require money and big fucking guns. It is the pacifist stance of the Democrats that will prevent revolution in America. Likewise in Canada, there will be no revolution.
Even so, it is time to overthrow the State.
America fears socialism because it implements the welfare state e.g. workers fund unemployment, and taxpayers fund social welfare. This requires more taxation, which is a Commie plot to steal capital from the 1-percent elites, according to the GOP.
Besides, taxation is assumed to be without representation by the 1-percenters, and thus is anathema to American free-market capitalism which funds Fabian fascism in the US.
Indeed, capitalism empowers all the ISMs that control certain governments, including Communism, facism, and good old American democracy. However, American democracy only works for the politicians you vote into office, NOT the People.
Why? Because State democracy implies that once politicians are voted in, that democracy only benefits them.
Since, historically, the People have never been allowed to run a government, except by proxy through elected representatives, it implies that the State enables a plutocracy.
Because of the assumption that the People are akin to unwashed masses who would argue about implementation of policies favoring the People at the expense of the State, it is assumed that the People are vastly more incompetent than the representatives they elect, and thus a democracy run by the People for the People would never work.
So that is seen in the eyes of the State as anarchy, which is mistaken for the actual chaos of a leaderless society.
Yet direct democracy appears to be anarchy to the State and its representatives, who are supported by lobbies such as BigBusiness, the M-I Complex, and their 1-percent backers.
Why? Because the State assumes that democracy demands a leader. Direct democracy says that an individual may be chosen to lead, but everyone — each being an individual — is perfectly capable of leadership.
Who really needs a leader to run a democracy, except for Statists who are demanding total control over the People so they can continue to run their Fabian facist fantasy?
Is it not time to overthrow the State?
Yes, but the Occupy movement and even Anonymous falsely believe revolutions should be non-violent. This is silly because non-violence successful revolution like the one in the UKraine did not remove the Communists and other Statists, including oligarchs who are merely sharks (robber barons) looking for schools of fish (the People). Thus, colored revolutions are ineffective in making permanent changes to prevent a despotic regime (the current Ukrainian leadership) from being elected and ally with their fellow despots (Putin) rather than their socialist counterparts (the EU).
Both the EU and Russsia along with the Commonwealth of Independent States are both Statist but the EU is a soft form of Communism called democratic socialism, mainly due to religious tolerance, and Russia et al still practice the hard form of Communism whilst pretending to be democratic.
Is it not time for the Ukrainians to overthrow the State? YES! Because keeping its ties with Russia is only bringing evil karma upon its current regime.
As for the rest of the world, the Middle East demonstrates that Islam and Western style democracies are compatible as long as democracy does not offend Islam. Like the Christian Socialists and the Christian Democrats of the EU, the Muslim democrats have to walk on egg shells, due to the fact that the military apparatus is used by the Muslim clerics to ensure that no one who believes in Allah offends Him by becoming secular and thus tainted by consumerism. They do so to protect their people's souls from burning in Hell.
It is our atheist mindset in the West that filters this out of the mass media propaganda, which misrepresents Islam as Salafists oppressing Christians and secularists in the Middle East. This is similar to the way Catholicism and fundamentalist Protestant churches oppress homosexuals and people in common-law marriages. Yet because we have been taught in the West that politics and religion do not mix like oil and water, the Western mass media ignores the religious basis for Middle Eastern society and propagates the myth that political factions are duking it out in Syria.
However, al Qaeda is a militant part of Salafi groupthink. It is funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait along with military advice by the US. Additionally, the US also supports the Syrian National Committee, which thinks it's a coalition of Christian, Shia and Sunni militants fighting jihad against a regime which is clandestinely supported by the US and is supported by the EU, which depends on Syrian oil.
Yet infighting proves that the SNC is unstable enough to implement a civil war with the foreigners who called all Syrian Sunni militants into their al Qaeda of Syria and Lebanon (the Levant) to counter Hezbollah and its patron Iran.
Theirs is truly a holy war, or so the Sunnis think. So when Bashar al-Assad is dethroned, revolution will come and the al Qaeda will launch a real civil war, rather than the proxy war now being fought.
Even so, it is time for a revolution in the West. It cannot be done through non-violence because that does not rid us of the true enemies of democracy, which is not Salafi militants of even al Qaeda. Rather, the true enemy of democracy is the 1-percent elites. Until each of us takes up arms against the elites, there will be no revolution in the West.
Even so, the NRA will not support us. They support the GOP. Likewise, the Democrats will not support us, because they think non-violent confrontation works especially in the form of diplomacy. Yet diplomacy still requires a lot of taxpayers' money to work. Two examples spring to mind: Afghanistan and Iraq. Through the use of bribes and big fucking guns, the US-led coalition in both countries reduced the influence of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein.
So, the Western revolution against the 1-percent elites will also require money and big fucking guns. It is the pacifist stance of the Democrats that will prevent revolution in America. Likewise in Canada, there will be no revolution.
Even so, it is time to overthrow the State.
20130525
The Aftermath of a Good Concert
Rumor has it that 25,000 Mumford & Sons fans descennded on two beer gardens after becoming a captive audience with money. They left behind mountains of plastic cups and lots of pop bottles & food wrappers and the like.
It's estimated to take all Saturday and Sunday to clean up Holland Park in Surrey.
Sorry, but I decided not to snap photos of the mess.
IMO the only good to come out of the concert was Surrey may make money on the food sold as a lot of Mumford & Sons' fans from outside Surrey (almost all of them) will now return to Surrey to eat at their restaurants.
Though, it's also rumored that not all the food vendors were from Surrey.
It's estimated to take all Saturday and Sunday to clean up Holland Park in Surrey.
Sorry, but I decided not to snap photos of the mess.
IMO the only good to come out of the concert was Surrey may make money on the food sold as a lot of Mumford & Sons' fans from outside Surrey (almost all of them) will now return to Surrey to eat at their restaurants.
Though, it's also rumored that not all the food vendors were from Surrey.
20121116
How Mass Media Failed to Sell the Tea Party
Once you get deeply into the inner workings of science, the mainstream world's concept of science is mere superstition. There is no magical thinking involved in science.
Hence, the placebo effect has a limited lifespan depending on the patient's belief that the drug works and her faith in the drug's ability to relieve her symptoms.
Another example is quantum physic's Theory of Everything.
This theory unifies gravity, strong interaction, weak interaction and electromagnetism.
While scientists are able to observe the effects of gravity, sub-atomic forces such as strong and weak interaction, and electromagnetism, their causes are subject to debate.
In the real world, superstition occurs when it is assumed that gravity on a distant planet will have the rate of acceleration that it does on Earth.
Another form of superstition occurs when the study into Higgs Boson led to unfounded fears about "the end of the world" scenario when the worst that happened was a scientist left a connection unplugged, leading to the mistaken impression that neutrinos could travel faster than the speed of light.
With regard to electromagnetism, one kind of superstition concerns a perpetual energy machine made of magnets.
Another kind of superstition occurs when the truth about the Tea Party is dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Its sympathetic supporters have been from the mass media, the Republican Party, and the business community. Yet the Tea Party is not a grassroots mass movement, nor are regular meetings of the Party being held.
Rather, the Tea Party is an invention of the radical Right designed to compete with the social activist mass movement, and is facilitated by mass media.
Rather than empowering the people, mass media appears to be empowering the Tea Party. Its popularity is measured in web hits bolstered by political marketing of the Tea Party brand on CNN after Fox News broke their story.
One example of political marketing occurred during the September 12 Tea Party debate on CNN when Republican candidates who had taken up the Tea Party mantle took issue with Texas Governor Rick Perry's controversial executive order in 2007 regarding human papillomavirus (HPV), a common STD which causes cervical cancer.
However, Perry said he had made a mistake by pushing through his executive order, and would have done it differently.
Perry's presence rankled the other candidates with Michelle Bachmann accusing the Texas governor of profiting from the vaccination program by receiving $5000 in political donations from the drug company, Merck.
Mitt Romney used the analogy of a poker player to describe Perry, to which Perry retorted, "You were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker."
However, the issue that annoyed Romney concerned Perry originally labeling Social Security "a Ponzi scheme", which led to the Texas governor asking for Social Security reform while dropping the label in a later editorial in US Today.
Romney defended Social Security strongly, stating "under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it's a failure. It is working for millions of Americans, and I'll keep it working for millions of Americans."
CNN's intent in air the Tea Party debate was to give the other Republican presidential candidates a chance to show that it wasn't a two-person race between Romney and Perry.
In this debate, the Tea Party candidates discussed job, Social Security and Medicare, and HPV but panned President Obama regarding the $800 billion stimulus package which was supposed to create jobs.
In contrast, jobs had increased in response to the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Governor Perry's executive act gave parents the option to not let their daughter take the HPV vaccine.
Historically Social Security and Medicare tax rates had been the same since 1990.
In 2013, Social Security tax rates will rise by 2%. Also included are other changes to income tax which are too complicated to describe here.
As for jobs, during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) back on September 7, 2012, former President Clinton credited Republican presidents with creating 24 million jobs during their 28 years in office versus Democratic presidents creating 42 million jobs in their 24 years in office.
Thus, much of the rhetoric of the Tea Party presidential candidates does not fit the reality, and CNN presented the kind of political marketing that predominantly appeals to the emotions rather than a delicate balance of emotions and reason.
Consistently, the candidates presented disinformation throughout their debate while demonstrating showmanship which was not backed up with any rational content to support their emotional appeal.
Throughout it all, the Tea Party candidates tried to create the myth that Obama's second term in office would be worse than his first, which in their minds, resulted in no jobs for Americans with the prospect of higher taxes looming in 2013.
If any of the Tea Party people believe this myth, then the mass media had much to do with it. For it is myth that the Tea Party is a mass movement. Instead, the Tea Party is a political marketing ploy funded by supporters in the business community, mass media and the Republican Party. Through the use of censorship, manufactured dissent, and the radical Right, mass media tried hard to sell the Tea Party brand to save America but failed.
This is why Obama won: his market appeal increased precisely because not only did he appeal to emotions but also his rhetoric stood to reason.
Reference:
Wikipedia: Superstition and Psychology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition#Superstition_and_psychology
Wikipedia: Tea Party movement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement
Counterpunch: Anthony Dimaggio and the rise of the Tea Party
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/28/the-rise-of-the-tea-party/
Hence, the placebo effect has a limited lifespan depending on the patient's belief that the drug works and her faith in the drug's ability to relieve her symptoms.
Another example is quantum physic's Theory of Everything.
This theory unifies gravity, strong interaction, weak interaction and electromagnetism.
While scientists are able to observe the effects of gravity, sub-atomic forces such as strong and weak interaction, and electromagnetism, their causes are subject to debate.
In the real world, superstition occurs when it is assumed that gravity on a distant planet will have the rate of acceleration that it does on Earth.
Another form of superstition occurs when the study into Higgs Boson led to unfounded fears about "the end of the world" scenario when the worst that happened was a scientist left a connection unplugged, leading to the mistaken impression that neutrinos could travel faster than the speed of light.
With regard to electromagnetism, one kind of superstition concerns a perpetual energy machine made of magnets.
Another kind of superstition occurs when the truth about the Tea Party is dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Its sympathetic supporters have been from the mass media, the Republican Party, and the business community. Yet the Tea Party is not a grassroots mass movement, nor are regular meetings of the Party being held.
Rather, the Tea Party is an invention of the radical Right designed to compete with the social activist mass movement, and is facilitated by mass media.
Rather than empowering the people, mass media appears to be empowering the Tea Party. Its popularity is measured in web hits bolstered by political marketing of the Tea Party brand on CNN after Fox News broke their story.
One example of political marketing occurred during the September 12 Tea Party debate on CNN when Republican candidates who had taken up the Tea Party mantle took issue with Texas Governor Rick Perry's controversial executive order in 2007 regarding human papillomavirus (HPV), a common STD which causes cervical cancer.
However, Perry said he had made a mistake by pushing through his executive order, and would have done it differently.
Perry's presence rankled the other candidates with Michelle Bachmann accusing the Texas governor of profiting from the vaccination program by receiving $5000 in political donations from the drug company, Merck.
Mitt Romney used the analogy of a poker player to describe Perry, to which Perry retorted, "You were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker."
However, the issue that annoyed Romney concerned Perry originally labeling Social Security "a Ponzi scheme", which led to the Texas governor asking for Social Security reform while dropping the label in a later editorial in US Today.
Romney defended Social Security strongly, stating "under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it's a failure. It is working for millions of Americans, and I'll keep it working for millions of Americans."
CNN's intent in air the Tea Party debate was to give the other Republican presidential candidates a chance to show that it wasn't a two-person race between Romney and Perry.
In this debate, the Tea Party candidates discussed job, Social Security and Medicare, and HPV but panned President Obama regarding the $800 billion stimulus package which was supposed to create jobs.
In contrast, jobs had increased in response to the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Governor Perry's executive act gave parents the option to not let their daughter take the HPV vaccine.
Historically Social Security and Medicare tax rates had been the same since 1990.
In 2013, Social Security tax rates will rise by 2%. Also included are other changes to income tax which are too complicated to describe here.
As for jobs, during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) back on September 7, 2012, former President Clinton credited Republican presidents with creating 24 million jobs during their 28 years in office versus Democratic presidents creating 42 million jobs in their 24 years in office.
Thus, much of the rhetoric of the Tea Party presidential candidates does not fit the reality, and CNN presented the kind of political marketing that predominantly appeals to the emotions rather than a delicate balance of emotions and reason.
Consistently, the candidates presented disinformation throughout their debate while demonstrating showmanship which was not backed up with any rational content to support their emotional appeal.
Throughout it all, the Tea Party candidates tried to create the myth that Obama's second term in office would be worse than his first, which in their minds, resulted in no jobs for Americans with the prospect of higher taxes looming in 2013.
If any of the Tea Party people believe this myth, then the mass media had much to do with it. For it is myth that the Tea Party is a mass movement. Instead, the Tea Party is a political marketing ploy funded by supporters in the business community, mass media and the Republican Party. Through the use of censorship, manufactured dissent, and the radical Right, mass media tried hard to sell the Tea Party brand to save America but failed.
This is why Obama won: his market appeal increased precisely because not only did he appeal to emotions but also his rhetoric stood to reason.
Reference:
Wikipedia: Superstition and Psychology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition#Superstition_and_psychology
Wikipedia: Tea Party movement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement
Counterpunch: Anthony Dimaggio and the rise of the Tea Party
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/28/the-rise-of-the-tea-party/
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