When did we cross the line?

[comic boy]

Oh how I long for the day when the random string of words, that Gregorious mistakes for coherent sentences, actually make any sense whatsoever

[jonesthecurl]

Hey Greg... To the answer to your sig.

Maybe it's cause you spelt believe wrong.

You're right. I did. Thanks dog.

Please don't refer to me as a dog, or I'll have to refer to you as a snail - limited intellect except to eat, reproduce and get from one place to another.

I'm unhappy with two of those concepts. But let him eat. And if he's a snail, he'll only have one foot to put in his mouth.

[Gregrios]

Hey Greg... To the answer to your sig.

Maybe it's cause you spelt believe wrong.

You're right. I did. Thanks dog.

Please don't refer to me as a dog, or I'll have to refer to you as a snail - limited intellect except to eat, reproduce and get from one place to another.

Fair enough.

[Snorri1234]

I suceeded in what I wanted to do,

Be so incoherent that noone has the first clue what you're talking about?

[Gregrios]

Is that any better? I figured since some of you are having trouble understanding plain english that maybe you might have an easier time with smilies.

This is for your benefit.

[jonesthecurl]

OK Anyone have any idea what he's taking about?
Cos he's

[Snorri1234]

OK Anyone have any idea what he's taking about?
Cos he's

I have no idea what he's talking about.


He is probably just being an annoying cunt-flap.

no intellectual questions

Yay for him!

[Gregrios]

OK Anyone have any idea what he's taking about?
Cos he's

How does a person succeed in "taking about"?

Maybe I'm the one that needs to brush up on the english language because I have no idea what you're talking about.

Oh wait a minute, is "talking about" what you meant?

[clapper011]

Gregrios, no need to troll huh

[Neoteny]

Hey Greg... To the answer to your sig.

Maybe it's cause you spelt believe wrong.

You're right. I did. Thanks dog.

Please don't refer to me as a dog, or I'll have to refer to you as a snail - limited intellect except to eat, reproduce and get from one place to another.

Also, sadomasochistic.

[icedagger]

I'm with greg on this one.

quick someone tell me what the hell he's on about

[Genghis Khant]

Howard Beale: "Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communications Corporation of America; there's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?"

Howard Beale: "You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here, you're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion. "


Network (1976)

[MeDeFe]

So reality shapes fiction which shapes people who shape reality.

What's the big problem?

[Nobunaga]

... No time to watch TV, save for the Family Guy.

... Maybe that's my reality now. .... spooooky.

...

[jonesthecurl]

Howard Beale: "Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communications Corporation of America; there's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?"

Howard Beale: "You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here, you're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion. "


Network (1976)

Your point being?
There was some fiction which said we can't distinguish fact from fiction, aimed at people who watch too much TV?

Is that in support of Gregrios' nebulous contention, or against it?

Or do I have to wait for the mini-series?

[cutebastard71]

I agree that Hollywood & co. are more than mere trendsetters and that it is being used to promote certain ideas thus shaping society. However it is much more than that. Every civilization once it starts approaching its peak has tendency to want to work less and enjoy the "fruits". Entertainment is just a consequence of that (consider circus games, gladiator fights in Roman Empire). I think Hollywood was created because somebody saw money in it and it later evolved into something much bigger (I guess it would be under the influence of Leo Strauss followers and idea that myths are needed to govern the people ))

I was always amazed by the fact that people would spend their hard earned money on movie tickets and all associated costs just to see some unbelievably stupid blockbuster

[Iliad]

Who's going to welcome the nuclear missiles? Cause after this thread and dissapointed in humanity I sure am

[Genghis Khant]

Those two quotes outline the gist of Gregrios' original point. So many people spend so much time watching tv that their entire outlook on life has started to become coloured by it. Take for example the British soap opera Eastenders. In the 25 years or so that it has been plaguing our television sets teenagers and young adults have become increasingly self-centred and obnoxious. I hear teenagers on the street, or my friends' children, talking to their parents in a way which I never would have, nor would anyone else, when I was growing up. Not because we were afraid of the repercussions, but because we simply didn't behave like that. If we were told we couldn't do something or go somewhere, we either found something else to do or sneaked off and did whatever it was anyway, and tried not to get caught. What we did not do was to have an accusatory argument and shout at our parents, as though they owe us everything our superficial minds think we need to make us happy. Kids see this kind of behaviour on tv and think that it is normal, even desirable, and so they behave like that at home, in school & on the street.

And speaking of the street, since when did white kids in south Wales start talking like Brixton scallies? And how come they dress like extras from a rap music video off MTV? Never mind that, how come everyone's drinking latte or frappa-fucking-chino? How come people give a shit which of the vacuous morons will be the next to be evicted from the Big Brother house? How come so many people seem incapable of thinking for themselves these days? How come it took five pages of this thread and still no one seemed able to grasp the simple point that Gregrios was making? Instead you start squabbling over the semantics of "what is fiction?" or trying to relate it to religion. Agreed, Greg could have put his point a bit more eloquently, but it wasn't in code or anything. As Howard Beale said, "All human beings are becoming humanoids. All over the world, not just in America." We're becoming homogeneous, bland, mass-produced. We have several generations that have been nursed on the cathode-ray-nipple, and it's starting to show.

[Iliad]

First of all-I gotta congratulate you for not generalising or stereotyping at all.

Fact is-societies change, and blaming tv for that makes no sense. Kids are growing up in a different environment and so are acting in a different manner. I hate it when magically there is one reason for the fact that kids are acting differently. IT could not be anything to do with the fact that life is different no it has to be the tv.

[Snorri1234]

I'm with Genghis actually, I just couldn't understand in the slightest what Gregrios was talking about.

The influence of tv on our actions and thoughts has been large indeed. Far larger then any other thing and larger then we could ever have predicted. People on average watch almost 3 hours a day television. Kids rarely do much else with their free time than watch tv or play with toys advertised on tv.

TV has such power over us that it can determine what we want, what we think and what we feel. A politician who doesn't spend almost all of his campaign-funds on slick commercials setting his image is doomed. The amounts of money spent for 20 seconds of airtime during the popular shows are obscene, simply because it works. People do what their television-set tells them to do. Anyone can sell anything (like a war) with the right television-coverage and advertising.

People have been conditioned into rather watching week-long coverages of some silly girl going missing on aruba than the ideas of politicians. The invisible supply vs. demand that balanced itself out in the marketplace has gone because companies can effectively create demand in the heads of viewers.


While there are other factors in society which have created change, none have done so it effectively and great as the television.

[MeDeFe]

I must be abnormal because I almost never watch TV. Unless one of the artsy channels is airing some really weird movie. Which reminds me, I still need to watch The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

[Snorri1234]

I must be abnormal because I almost never watch TV. Unless one of the artsy channels is airing some really weird movie. Which reminds me, I still need to watch The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

I don't watch much tv either but that's because I don't have a tv here. I watch a few movies when I'm back at my house and sometimes top gear.

[Gregrios]

I'll accept half of the blame for this thread descending into a trivial state throughout the first four pages because I carelessly allowed it to happen.

[jonesthecurl]

OH. Just when I thought we'd worked out what you were talking about, and some people were saying "Well,I don't watch much TV".

Obviously that has nothing to do with whatever it was you were wahwahing about.

Incidentally, I spent 12 years without a TV at all, quite happily. Not recently, but it's why I'm still sometimes surprised when for instance I see footage of certain bands, that don't look anything like I'd imagined. Everyone else of course, saw the performers at the time on TV.

[joecoolfrog]

I'll accept half of the blame for this thread descending into a trivial state throughout the first four pages because I carelessly allowed it to happen.

To be fair you have tried hard given the limited education you have had