Yes, it is 2003, but are we getting closer to 1984?

[bluedisc]

done and done...

[ziggytrix]

El Blanco hit the nail on the head.

Consumerism is the God of America. You can buy your Arby's sandwiches at the drive-thru, pay with the credit card, go by the gas station, pay with you credit card at the pump, and if you should need cash, you still don't have to leave your car thanks to the ATM on every corner.

Americans crave new things. The more expensive your clothes are, the more desireable you feel for wearing them, yet the faster they fall apart when you wash them.

But what the fuck can you do about it? The driving force here is NOT the "evil corporation". It's the average citizen, glued to their television, brainwashed by their own choice.

[Big McLargehuge]

IT'S THE DAMN FOREIGNERS STEALING OUR JOBS

[Immortal Goat]

Originally Posted by ziggytrix

But what the fuck can you do about it? The driving force here is NOT the "evil corporation". It's the average citizen, glued to their television, brainwashed by their own choice.

Very well put, but I beg to differ on the "their own choice" part. People today (at least the people I regularly deal with) do not make their own choices, they simply follow along the set path in front of them. They swallow everything told to them by the television, their priests, and their teachers. They are essentially mindless robots being programmed to follow the crowd. "Ignorance is Strength"? Looks like it to me...

[Perndog]

This is why more people should convert to Satanism.

[Nerd]

I'd have to agree that the US is steadily moving towards that dystopia. The fall of capitilism is enivitible, and when that happens, we will fall into this nightmareish world. It's only a matter of time.

[Immortal Goat]

Thank you for agreeing with me, but...

WHO THE HELL ARE YOU??!!

[george]

feh

EVERYTHING IS A LIE

there will never be a big brother, but i think the usa is in pretty bad shape right now. and i do not think it impossible that we culd start seeing states trying to pull out of the unionin our lifetimes.

mostly cause the federal government no loger resembles the american public in any way shape or form.

[VinceZeb]

The need and want to buy flashy new things is just a space-filler that a good moral system and a believe in a Supreme Being used to fill. Capitalism in and of itself is great. Greed is wrong.

[mburbank]

And after a prolonged stay on the injury list, Vinth returns to the field but offers only a disapointing pop fly.

A casual glance shows four serious language errors. Anyone?

[Big McLargehuge]

I SEE YOU MANAGED TO AVOID ANSWERING HIS QUESTION

[mburbank]

HE DIDN'T ASK A-



Oh. I get it.

[O71394658]

I couldn't find the fourth one.

[Helm]

1984 was a dissapointing read for me, after all the ever-eager semi-leftist artfag friends of mine hyped it like it was the greatest thing ever put printed in ink. And Orwell if I recall was a British agent, so I guess hardly in a position to present what many hope is unbiased commentary and critique on any system of goverment. And Animal Farm insulted my intelligence when I read it, so I hit it hard on the face in return.

oh and to answer your original question: Flying robots are awe.

[ranxer]

The driving force here is NOT the "evil corporation". It's the average citizen, glued to their television, brainwashed by their own choice.

i beg to differ as well.. advertising giants pipe the crap straight to my kids.. at school they pump in channel one.. then candy machines and soda machines.. grocery stores place crappy toys in the cereal isle.. then the candy boxes.. er cereal boxes advertise stuff from TV .. yes TV plays a central role..

the concept of image is everything is very pervasive.. and lends to the school of fish idea of leadership.. follow the confident.. conform, conform conform. talk to some teachers that have been in it for decades.. they have a good idea of how many 'choices' people make for themselves.. very few.. capitalism with no reigns on business is simply barbaric cannibalism, cooperation for quality is missing from 99% of capitalism reducing our future to the lowest common denomenator

[El Blanco]

at school they pump in channel one

I remember channel 1. Well, I remember ignoring everything on it except for Anderson Cooper. Best. Reporter. Ever. Dude would be reporting from a fucking ditch in Somalia with gunfire going off around him. With a better representative, he could have been the next Cronkite.

then candy machines and soda machines

And march them at gunpoint to buy from them? Don't you teach your kids about nutrition?

follow the confident.. conform, conform conform

That is a mentality we bring from our days as pack hunters. Leader steps up, others follow. Its how the world works.

they have a good idea of how many 'choices' people make for themselves.. very few

Who is "they"? Oh, and I have plenty of my own choices.

[Big Papa Goat]

Originally Posted by VinceZeb

The need and want to buy flashy new things is just a space-filler that a good moral system and a believe in a Supreme Being used to fill. Capitalism in and of itself is great. Greed is wrong.

This post pisses me off more than most of the things Vinth says.

Moral people can be greedy too Vince. And how can you say "Capitalism is great" and "Greed is wrong"??? The wheels of capitalism are not oiled with greed, they're made of greed. People want money, possesions, property, power. Therefore, they take risks, and work hard in order to generate more possesions, make more money, and expand their influence. What else do you think inspires the entrepeneurial spirit?
Seriously Vince, I want to know that you actually had a reason for saying that.

[Immortal Goat]

I don't know if I should be honored or insulted that Vinth returned from his little hiatus and the first new post of his I see is in my thread...

[ranxer]

blanco

And march them at gunpoint to buy from them? Don't you teach your kids about nutrition?

yes i teach my kids about nutrition..duh, then i can sit them down with the choices of vegetables or a candy bar.. 9 times out of ten they say .. hmm .. first i eat the vegetables then i can have the candybar.. but how many snack machines do you see with something other than crap in them?? they get tired of eating what's 'good' for them and want what everyother kid has.. 9 times out of ten its genetically modified CRAP. kids have a hard time believing that if its sold in stores its often BAD for them.. its me against advertising GIANTS .. i spend a lot of time deprogramming

Who is "they"? Oh, and I have plenty of my own choices.

teachers with decades experience can tell you that kids attention spans have dropped dramatically .. why? TV, Video games, fast food etc.. anything that has to do with instant gratification. look at the difference between, say now and when the constitution was written.. back then people could listen to a 2-4 hour lecture through a meal and not get bored.. people READ the paper and wrote letters.. literacy and attention span reduction is a benefit that major advertisers are using to the full extent.. not to mention polititians.

That is a mentality we bring from our days as pack hunters. Leader steps up, others follow. Its how the world works.

so how does that support your arguement that people make thier own choices? it doesn't, that idea supports the idea that people are NOT making thier own choices.. sheesh.

i still like the pithed fish concept.. remove the brain of one schooling fish and the others will follow him! i can't help but think of GWB.. brainless wonder.. the statement that supreme ignorance leads to supreme confidence really fits well.

[El Blanco]

so how does that support your arguement that people make thier own choices? it doesn't, that idea supports the idea that people are NOT making thier own choices.. sheesh.

My point is it isn't the Big Evil Corporations fault.

Raising kids is hard? Wow. There is a revelation.

As for the olden days, there were the same accusations. Remember how Don Quixote got the way he did? Reading adventure books, trying to live them out. Sound familiar?

A hundred years ago, over paranoid parents protested dime novels, Herman Melville and tons of other "cheap pulp crap".

Television is a medium, just like books. If people are watching the crap and letting it affect them, guess whose fault it is.

A hint: It ain't FOX

If people don't watch the shit, networks don't make it.

[Big Papa Goat]

I hate the word candybar. Its chocolate bar! And I also hate the blind opposition to genetically modified foods. But other than those two points, I love ranxer.

[ranxer]

ferget the literacy a hundered years ago. i'm saying that literacy
or objectivity is not supported by a system that thrives on inattention and a lack of objectivity.. profit on scams and false advertising is more rampant than its ever been.. the traveling salesman is outmoded by todays marketing campaigns.. if you spend the bucks on the wrapper it doesnt matter whats inside, most people will buy it if its pretty and cheap.. a system that thrives on that is playing us at our lowest levels ..emotions and complex sexual compulsions.. survival of the fittest has been going on in marketing for more than a while.. marketing evolves almost as fast as viruses these days.. the people junked up on the crap we can buy.. then the pharmecuticals.. add a beer and they don't have a chance at objectivity.. they're way too hooked on maintaining a false reality to think no more than sporadically.
and the corporations count the $$ .. its quite evil
bush has weakened the watchdogs on these con artists for they are his bretheren and financiers.. its a vicious cycle..

If people don't watch the shit, networks don't make it.

that's just not true.. there have been many shows that had unpredented ratings yet were taken off the air for political reasons. What happened to politially incorrect? SNL has been taken off the air in major cities because of political views. have you ever heard from producers that were told 'you can't say that on the air'? or heard about the trouble guests on certain shows get into by speaking their mind? threatened with blacklist often enough. and the ratings went way up for those segments but the networks silenced them anyway. Micheal Moore got record breaking ratings yet was turned down on projects after his series TV Nation. the stories behind what goes on network tv have all manner of fubar though..

[ItalianStereotype]

Originally Posted by ranxer

i beg to differ as well.. advertising giants pipe the crap straight to my kids..

I had hoped, HOPED that you were just some stupid kid who thought conspiracy theories would make you look cool or something.

[The One and Only...]

I can see while ranxer has his views, but I must disagree.

I believe it is the people's responsibility to object to shit they don't like, rather than by putting governmental limits on what you can sell.

Hence why I support people boycotting Wal-Mart, but not the government coming in and breaking up the business. The more power people learn to wield themselves, the less reliant and the better off they'll be.

Also, I find capitialism to be a good system because it plays on greed. I strongly believe that one of the major reasons communism failed was because the lack of incentive to work to one's maximum potential, invent new technology, etc.

[ranxer]

so yer free market.. a market free to make contracts with prisons to get legal slave labor that replaces jobs in the u.s. of a? you think the government should just stay hands off? we will need a lot more than .2 percent of the population boycotting walmart to get those practices to change