A new generation of mind-controlled zombies ?

[Tolvor]

Well, I'm in the US so it's even worse here.  90% of tv is controlled by 4 companies, 80% of radio by 3, and the movie industry keeps giving the same plots and easy solutions.  I could go on and on about this but I'm sure you already know.  We export so much of the pap to off-shore viewers already.  

There was a book that I read as a kid - 1984, by George Orswell.  It scared the daylights out of me, the concept of gentle mind control thru directed anger via total media control.  We've got the reverse today, gentle mind control thru dissipiated attention via media overload and inter-media consumer targeting campaigns.  Sad.

Turn off the tv.
Think for yourself
People are important
Ask 'why'


Fear us.  Resistence is futile.

[fireprooflighter]

quote:Originally posted by cinnabardk

All around me, I see younger people thinking the same inane things are funny, the same things are cool.
They are watching the same movies, watching the same shows on TV.
They are listening to the same music, adoring the same actors/"stars" (an insult to the real stars in the universe).
Those who of age should be children, are playing adults, dressing in the same clothes, wearing makeup, having premature relationships.
There are exceptions, of course, but not too many.

Is this a global phenomenon ?
What's it like in your country ?

I know exactly what you mean. I'm still a teen but I try to think for myself. I don't know why they are in such a hurry to grow up and suck in everything the media gives them.

I also read 1984. I hope I never live to see when it gets as bad as that.

[xander]

I was watching a show a few days ago on marketing and propaganda. It stated that in order to raise profits get children to buy adult products and appeal to the emotions of children since their self-discipline is less developed than in mature adult.

U.S.A.
Xander

quote:Originally posted by cinnabardk

All around me, I see younger people thinking the same inane things are funny, the same things are cool.
They are watching the same movies, watching the same shows on TV.
They are listening to the same music, adoring the same actors/"stars" (an insult to the real stars in the universe).
Those who of age should be children, are playing adults, dressing in the same clothes, wearing makeup, having premature relationships.
There are exceptions, of course, but not too many.

Is this a global phenomenon ?
What's it like in your country ?

[Arc]

jees you hit the nail on the head!

around my town, their are a bunch of people"ghetto" into rap and all that stuff. They all like the same dude.
And i Have some good friends,(they are {punk})they arent any different. "oh yea we are rebels" they arent any different. everyone likes the same people, hates the same people. the other day my friend started screwing around and acted like an moron to some kid. I asked him- why? did you even know him? he said "no, but my friends don't like him". One big mind, a lot of different bodies. Oh god the US is just like that, ------there is no escape

[seth817]

How about the popular music now adays. There is no creativity it is just manufactured in studios. Like hip hop it used to be from the steet it was totally unique and original, now they don't even have real D.J.s or anything it is just created in labs. I wish we could have a major boycott.

[Squeek]

Speaking of books that relate to such a topic, I'd recommend Fahrenheit 451.  This book has such a tie in to exactly what you are discussing.  But anyway...

I would agree with you that it seems that when something happens that everybody will appear to jump on the bandwagon.  Sometimes it has a valid background, like when a new brand of something awesome comes out or something...  But your examples are different.  I totally agree here.

I will add that I am not a bandwagon type of person... all around me in school I always see the same thing amongst the same people... the clubbers, the druggies, etc.  I am that person in your example Arc.  I am always the one who is tormented for no apparent reason.  Any reason you could possibly think of and more, I hear it.  Sometimes even as stupid as the type of milk I drink [xx(]

I hate to say it, but you'll never change most of them, you'll never be able to explain the pattern they are stuck in to them.  Most people don't want change.  I changed when I realized the pattern I was stuck in for 17 years of my life.

Just knowing that you're better off not stuck in their patterns is all you need to remember when you see it.

~Squeek

[James S]

Yes it is a global phenomenon, and it is just the same here in Oz.
It's consumerism and commercialism out of control, or more to the point, totally IN control.

In the 80's I watched the music industry get taken over by the music giants such as Sony, Virgin & Warner, and the mass prouction agents such as Stock, Aitken & Waterman or Quincy Jones.

I also watched the local shopping centres start becoming clones of each other as the same chain stores filled every lease. I go down to the local hardware store to try to find a particular bolt or spring that I need to make some old gizmo work again, but I can't find it. No point going to the hardware store in the next suburb because its exactly the same as the one I just went to.

You see all the current fashions in magazines and catalogues, but who actually decides in the first place what is in and what isn't? Seems to me the fashion editors are the ones the designers all cater to.  Once the fashion magazine editors gave the thumbs up to hipster jeans shown off on the catwalk by anorexic teenage models with no hips, suddenly they were in, and so anybody who wanted to be seen a fashionable had to put up with the pain caused by nerves going down into the legs being pinched by jeans that are not made to fit correctly on female hips.

So when it comes to what people buy, what they watch or listen to, do we really have a choice? Does the consumer really dictate what the market provides, or does the market now dictate what the consumer will buy?
I believe at some time in the last decade or so that line got crossed.

James.

[Arc]

sorry to hear that squeeky[] if they knew you they would shoot themselves for being so dumb.well, besides offering my condolences, i have ot agree with james, in the fact, that we don't really choose what we buy anymore. on another note, like seth said, we really haven't had a new r&b or rap or rock or punk or what ever artist that is original, maybe sublime or green day, they are really different. and that "chingy" rap dude, i think anyone that thinks that he is good should be shot.

[WalkerInTheWoods]

Are we any better by getting into our "Astral Pulse" click and stereotyping everyone else?

[cinnabardk]

fallnangel77,
No, we aren't.
I could have written something with a lot more nuances in my topic, but I doubt that it would have led to a discussion.
The popular topics, are in many cases, the emotional topics - as far as I have been able to ascertain. That fact, I also find quite interesting.
In order for something to be (or become) popular, it has to have an emotional content. Look at advertisements, when was the last time that an advertisement actually informed you about something ? If they want you to buy a product, they'll appeal to emotions (this I could have said with a lot more nuances, but I won't, as describing something stereotypically is a fast way of expressing an overall view)

Personally, I had an overdose of reality, and as any qualified doctor
can tell you [], too much reality is no good.

James S,
I'm going to tell you something which you will surely envy: I have 5 different hardware stores available to me !
I find the word "consumer" a bit odd, it sounds a bit like something mechanical and controlled in a big machinery, whose only function is to spend, and who, given the right circumstances and the right amount of subtle influence, will do as predicted.

Squeek,
One day, a few of your tormentors will probably grow up, while the rest just get older. A few are probably acting as they do, because they see it as a viable way of surviving among predators, not because they want to - deep inside. That is what I have observed anyway.

Xander,
In my country, children are one of the biggest targets of the advertisement industry, since they usually have a good amount of money to spend (given to them by their parents, and/or earnt by spare time jobs). Material luxury goods are to a great extent considered necessary, not a privilege - like they were not so many years ago.

The rest of you,
Thanks for your replies, I hope more will comment on their situation, in their country, and with their perspective (while still respecting the topic)

[goku22]

Read Daniel Quinn's books, then you'll see that it's all part of a 10000 year old path, though today it's worse than ever due to technology making the minds of so many people that much more available. Luckily, this technology isn't fully regulated, so we can use it as a tool to help keep people's minds as their own.  Ben

[chupacabra]

And just yesterday someone told me humanity as a whole is at this moment, experiencing an elevation in their overall spritual vibration level.

Funny, I haven't seen any evidence to support this. if anything, we seem to be wholeheartedly embracing the dumbest  and lowest, and laugh at anyone who wants something more.

[cinnabardk]

All around me, I see younger people thinking the same inane things are funny, the same things are cool.
They are watching the same movies, watching the same shows on TV.
They are listening to the same music, adoring the same actors/"stars" (an insult to the real stars in the universe).
Those who of age should be children, are playing adults, dressing in the same clothes, wearing makeup, having premature relationships.
There are exceptions, of course, but not too many.

Is this a global phenomenon ?
What's it like in your country ?