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Nels
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Nels
Post Number: 170
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - 04:59 pm: | 
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What‘s up with America? Star struck, to say the least. Exactly why does a society that has less and less give more and more to support the artificial lifestyles and charades of a select few who don’t give a damn about them, their struggles, their woes, their challenges, and the like?
From tabloid news shows and magazines to junk TV, film, video, audio, radio and print media, Americans of all colors, nationalities, races, ethnicities and the like eat up all of the crap that Hollywood can throw their way. From buffoonish sitcoms and TV unreality shows to booty-shakin’ music videos and illogical rap music (poison for the mind), America just can’t seem to get enough.
Across virtually all demographics, the very poorest and most vulnerable of society get hung up on the trivialities of the lives of people who if it weren’t for the paying public, would be just another Samuel or Samantha on the corner. The seemingly gaudy, wasteful and unappreciative lives of so many celebrities and countless wannabees are strewn across the confused minds of those who can least afford to even entertain the thought of spending their hard earned dollars to support people who can throw away a hundred grand like a worn penny.
Where is the common sense in spending $20 for a worthless CD peddled by a greedy music promoter who’s doing nothing more than exploiting inner-city rap artists who can’t even spell their own names? And then to see those rap artists flaunt “your” (in-confidence) spent dollars on palatial estates, exotic cars and posh parties at exclusive clubs to which “you” will never be invited.
Where is the logic in spending $50 for a chi-chi merchandise item that will only feed the insatiable appetite (of the celebrity who endorsed that item) for spending more on a pair of shoes than a poor family of four will earn in six months in the U.S., and five lifetimes in many impoverished countries around the world?
Where is the reason in a family of four spending $80 to go see a movie in which the stars, producers and directors of that movie wouldn’t get caught dead with them in a public place of any kind? Very few of the successful (and unsuccessful) in the entertainment business want to rub elbows with the average person.
Just how much money does America spend on Hollywood - on being entertained by people who really don’t care about those who support their ostentatious lifestyles? A lot.
Hollywood is a machine. It’s insular, self-promoting, and very accommodating of those who are fortunate enough to become a member of the clan. Hollywood spends about 90% of its time, effort and budget figuring out how to create (sometimes imaginary) products and services that will make it easier to separate the average person from their hard earned cash. It’s a business drunk on greed, stupidity, bad press, and the ignorance of an uninformed public.
Television (the main culprit) provides the entertainment industry with the most effective mechanism in the history of mankind for practicing widespread unchallenged self-promotion and for brainwashing viewers into thinking that their own self-image, lives, goals, aspirations and so forth are not worthy of anyone’s attention, compassion, etc. What manner of nonsense is this?
TV is built on the gullible sucker model. Twenty-four hours a day, common sense is turned on its head in an effective array of worthless commercials, crappy shows and misdirected movies that seem to have the ability to insult even the intelligence of an ant seeking shade under a pair of moving size 12 Georgio Brutini Wingtips chasing a missed bus. But It! Try It! Taste It! Drive It! Throw It! Sew It! Trash It! Mash It! Fake It! Shake It! Flick It! Lick It! Suck it! F*ck It! Who really gives a damn?
Television has an intrinsic tendency to distort reality and the truth to the Nth degree. Where else can you experience media-backed government-regulated censorship on a mega-scale? The media machine only lets the consumer see and hear what it wants them to see and hear. Enter the celebrity angle once again. Just think for a minute, how many intro touts for TV shows and events turn out to be nothing more than deceptive promotions for irrelevant subject matter that is so unfunny that even a laugh track won’t work?
In closing, one could rant on indefinitely about the logic and reason behind this great distortion of what life should be. The sad part is, the distortion continues to shape the way America thinks and acts, in a role that is closely watched and mimicked by the rest of the world, though those followers would be the first to deny it. Furthermore, one could now only hope that the average Joe and Jane, George and Georgette and so forth would eventually come to their collective senses and realize that they’ve been had, BIGTIME.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3124
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - 07:03 pm: |
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True, true, true, Nels. I would add that the American Idol phenomenon has spawned a culture of deluded, untalented people who are so blinded by their media-fueled dreams of becoming a super star celebrity that they don't realize they don't have an iota of talent! I'm also reminded of an editor of one of the tabloids referring to the Jen and Brad split as their industry's version of a tsunami! Anorexia is the AIDS of Hollywood starlets and breast implants are the surgery of a plastic culture. Babylon is alive and well in the 21st century and Paris Hilton is its false goddess. I, myself, confess to being spectator to all of this inane superficiality because it satsifies my need to scoff at people. LOL. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1064
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - 07:36 pm: |
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I only own one CD that's for the purpose of pure entertainment. All of my CDs are either classic rap/hiphop (which places me in the mind of what the struggle was like for many lower income AAs during the late seventies, eighties, and ninties), or R&B/soul.. mostly from the motown era; because, to me, that
music describes what it was like for AAs during that era. As for tv, if I'm not watching national/world news, I'm watching old tv sitcoms from the sixties, seventies, and eighties. "All In The Family", "Good Times", and "Three's Company" are a few examples. I like to feel the pulse of America during that period. (I notice not much has changed). And when it comes to movies, the last movie I saw was "Ray" (that movie was educational for me); before that, it was a Denzal Washington movie (didn't enjoy it; but I had to support a brotha for supporting me).. and before that it was the remake of "The Exorcist" -- which did not do what I hoped it would do. I thought it would evoke some of the feelings I got when I watched it as a child.. and I figured it would be entertaining -- it wasn't.
So.. I'm not one of those people who are completely rapt by hollywood and its stars. Since I'm extremely hard to entertain, if it doesn't support me or teach me something worth learning, I usually won't spend any time or money on it.
Tonya
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Nels
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Nels
Post Number: 174
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 01:10 am: |
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Cynique, Tonya --
I understand your perspectives.
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 1685
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 01:51 pm: |
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Nels:
On the one! |
Nels
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Nels
Post Number: 176
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 06:04 pm: |
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Chris, I'm tryin'. Thanks. |
Libralind2
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 309
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 15, 2005 - 08:29 pm: |
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I on the other hand aint touching this topic with a remote control..
LiLi |
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