I'm committing a news fast. It's something I've always opposed as kind of an abdication of responsibility, but I had been listening to The No Agenda show which was getting my head and heart all in confused knots, and then in the last episode Adam Curry, like he was talking directly to me said something to the effect of , "turn this off, go garden take care of yourself. You will be a lot happier." he may have said more after that but I don't know. I turned it off.
After years of fighting the drug war I have become a bit of a policy wonk, but yeah taking a break from the endless news cycle is a great way to recharge, reconnect and then return to the fight.
Quote from: Leopoldrose on April 28, 2013, 10:12:23 AM
I'm committing a news fast.
Excellent! Once you know the purpose of "the news" you pretty much have to turn it off out of self respect. Good on ya, Dude!
Quote from: Leopoldrose on April 28, 2013, 10:12:23 AM
I'm committing a news fast.
they're gonna make that a felony
you gotta keep taking the blue pills
To quote a dude..
" houses with lawns and television sets in each living room with everybody looking at the same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness to hear the voice crying in the wilderness, to find the ecstacy of the stars, to find the dark mysterious secret of the origin of faceless wonderless crapulous civilization."
? Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Quotethe Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness
I'm a Japhie!
I make it my mission to go out after dark, both in the City and in the woods. It's better then, because no one is around they are all at home watching TV.!
It's ever so quiet and ever so still and always worthwhile.
The few people you meet are either crazy or friendly.
The animals you meet are generally shocked.
It's like a natural curfew!
Peace in your nocturnal ways.
Quote from: Easy McRider on April 28, 2013, 03:20:09 PM
To quote a dude..
" houses with lawns and television sets in each living room with everybody looking at the same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness to hear the voice crying in the wilderness, to find the ecstacy of the stars, to find the dark mysterious secret of the origin of faceless wonderless crapulous civilization."
? Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Who you calling 'crapulous' dude?
Kerouac can call me whatever he likes and I would not disagree!
In fact I would be honoured! :)
Quote from: Caesar dude on April 28, 2013, 06:48:50 PM
Kerouac can call me whatever he likes and I would not disagree!
In fact I would be honoured! :)
:D
I've had to do the fast thing myself because I could actually feel my blood pressure increase as I watched the shows. It was pointed out to me that yelling at my TV is extremely un-Dude. I must agree. I had to first realize that even if I had a bottomless pit of political knowledge I would still be powerless to change anything. Once that obstacle was surmounted the news fast was easy.
Now it's Sponge Bob Squarepants for me.
Quote from: LotsaBadKarma on April 29, 2013, 05:29:43 AM
Now it's Sponge Bob Squarepants for me.
Sponge Bob and naked Saturdays!
;D
Only Saturdays...? :o
Quote from: LotsaBadKarma on April 29, 2013, 05:29:43 AM
I've had to do the fast thing myself because I could actually feel my blood pressure increase as I watched the shows.
I'm kinda repeating myself here but it seems a reasonable contribution to the thread: The above is actually why people who make a habit of watching "the news" do it. It's not about being informed -- if you wanted to actually be informed, the last thing you'd do is turn on the television.
We select our television programs the same way we select which movies to watch. We decide, usually subconsciously, which emotional state we'd like to be in, and then we select accordingly. If you want to become happy you'll select a comedy or some other genre that will make you happy. If you want to become agitated (for the hit of adrenaline and cortisol) you might select the news or an action movie. And so on. We use the tube as if it were a mood altering drug. And in this here information age, we can do the same thing via the internet.
Paying regular attention to "the news" is, in this dude's opinion, very undude. There's no point to getting all jacked up on stress hormones while you're safely parked on your sofa in your comfortable home. It's just uncool to harsh your own mellow. 8)
Quote from: Easy McRider on April 29, 2013, 08:42:05 AM
Only Saturdays...? :o
Yeh work tends to complain, and its a bit cold on the Tube around town.
Quote from: meekon5 on April 29, 2013, 09:08:28 AM
Quote from: Easy McRider on April 29, 2013, 08:42:05 AM
Only Saturdays...? :o
Yeh work tends to complain, and its a bit cold on the Tube around town.
"Work tends to complain" ;D so you've tried several times then and they've still not been convinced ;D
Quote from: RighteousDude on April 29, 2013, 09:05:58 AM
Quote from: LotsaBadKarma on April 29, 2013, 05:29:43 AM
I've had to do the fast thing myself because I could actually feel my blood pressure increase as I watched the shows.
I'm kinda repeating myself here but it seems a reasonable contribution to the thread: The above is actually why people who make a habit of watching "the news" do it. It's not about being informed -- if you wanted to actually be informed, the last thing you'd do is turn on the television.
We select our television programs the same way we select which movies to watch. We decide, usually subconsciously, which emotional state we'd like to be in, and then we select accordingly. If you want to become happy you'll select a comedy or some other genre that will make you happy. If you want to become agitated (for the hit of adrenaline and cortisol) you might select the news or an action movie. And so on. We use the tube as if it were a mood altering drug. And in this here information age, we can do the same thing via the internet.
Paying regular attention to "the news" is, in this dude's opinion, very undude. There's no point to getting all jacked up on stress hormones while you're safely parked on your sofa in your comfortable home. It's just uncool to harsh your own mellow. 8)
You're throwin' rocks today, Dude! Mark it 10!
As I read that my initial response was to tense up a bit and THAT made me realize that you are EXACTLY right. As soon as I felt my resistance start to build against your statement I was able to monitor myself and understand that the reason for my gut reaction was that your statement threatened my desire to get jacked up by the so-called "news". Fuckin' A, your summary really pulled this thread together. Kudos!
Brilliant post, man! Like your style! Always the same ol' shtuff happening on the news anyway... 8)
Quote from: LotsaBadKarma on April 29, 2013, 03:48:28 PM
You're throwin' rocks today, Dude! Mark it 10!
Thankee! 8)
Quote from: LotsaBadKarma on April 29, 2013, 03:48:28 PM
Fuckin' A, your summary really pulled this thread together. Kudos!
Thanks some more, Dude.
I've known some of the folks who make the decisions about what gets on the television, and they know that their job is to give you the feelings you want to have so you'll stay glued to the screen. They don't give a shit what it takes to do it -- the content is not the product;
you are. The broadcasters don't sell programming. They sell market share. I used to party with a guy who was an A&R guy for MCA, and he put it this way: You don't have to like the taste of the bait as long as the fish do.
In the immortal words of Peter Finch's character Howard Beale (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Gf0VKXk5Q) in the movie
Network: "We'll tell you
any shit you want to hear. We deal in
illusions, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds... We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal. You do 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!".
This reminds me of something I heard back in the 70s while working a temp mailroom job at an ad agency in Chicago. I got to know one of the guys that dreamt up the ads and he told me about an ad that they came up with for spaghetti sauce. They had consulted with some shrinks about this and they designed the ad to be as fuckin' annoying as possible. The theory was that even if people hated the ad when they went to the grocery store looking for sauce the ad would stick in their mind BECAUSE it was so fuckin' annoying. So when you had someone who was considering a choice between 4 or 5 different sauces that person would pick the sauce with the fuckin' annoying ad about 75% of the time simply because it was the only one they remembered. And it worked. That sauce is still a big seller 40 years later.
When I thought about that a few years ago it struck me that the people who write the ads justifiably have almost zero respect for the mentality/psychology of the average American consumer. And it is because we ARE consumers, almost ahead of anything else, that the ads we see today show so little regard for our ability to think.
Just take that one step further and apply it to the news.