A wee bit long, but a very good read...
the fact that you are reading this, and the fact that i post it just proves the point of the article...
THE LOSS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION OUTSIDE ONLINE...
Russ Rankin from AMP explains it well
"Are Americans Getting Stupider?
It just dawned on me the other day. I was at the movies on a normal, weekday afternoon and, after an on-screen prompt to “please silence your cell phones,” the previews began. It’s no secret to anyone who’s been around awhile that Hollywood is rapidly running out of ideas. Comic book adaptations, endless sequels to or remakes of films nobody really cared about the first time around and, of course, the vapid, big-screen versions of scores of half-witted television shows from the 1970’s and 80’s. One such film was being previewed; it was a movie version of “The Dukes Of Hazard.” It was so god awful that I actually began to feel dumber as the preview wore on, as if some unseen force was sucking my brain out through my eyes. Then someone laughed. Then another. Soon there were scattered chuckles from throughout the theater in response to the painfully clumsy sight gags and embarrassing dialogue in the trailer. It was a stunning revelation: these people weren’t laughing at the absurdity of what they were seeing. They actually found it humorous!
My god! I must be dreaming. Surely I’ll wake with a start, relieved to discover I’d only subconsciously slipped into this eerie nether region on the far, far opposite side of the culture warp from where I would normally reside. But this was real. So, too, was the ringing of not one but three cell phones throughout the film. One chucko even felt compelled to fucking ANSWER his phone and talk for a while.
What the fuck is going on? Where is the consideration? How does an average adult get to a place where they deem it appropriate to not only leave their cell phone ringer on in a movie but answer it as well? I found myself pining for the “good old days” when all you had to worry about at the theater was someone whispering a little too loudly behind you or accidentally kicking your chair.
Maybe it’s the shift in our culture away from each other. Increasingly, Americans are becoming more and more insular. We have the internet and an endless barrage of programming on television. Netflix brings movies to us so we don’t have to go out and rent them anymore and we can order out for nearly every kind of food. It’s not uncommon these days for us to have hundreds of “friends” we chat with online or correspond with via email or cell phone but our actual, face to face personal interactions seem to be on the decline. We get out of the habit of even the most basic considerations which, not long ago, were automatic in situations which butted us up against our fellows (airplanes, trains, buses and yes - movie theaters).
We stop interacting with each other. We allow our world view to become almost entirely shaped by the culture industry. Our collective consciousness becomes so dulled, so dumbed-down that we find the inane and unimaginative hilarious. Hence, a preview for a horrible re-make of a horrible TV show suddenly becomes the funniest thing ever. It’s sad, really.
People who live in Manhattan, for instance, are stoked. They will never be able to slip into this kind of cultural isolation - there just isn’t any room! Everything you do in Manhattan you do slammed up against a hundred other people so one is forced to co-exist and, ultimately, to consider those around them. Europe as well appears to be relatively safe from this condition as their various cultures all seem to embrace social interaction and hold it sacred. Everywhere you look people are meeting up in cafes and restaurants where meals last for hours as stories are told and friends catch up with each other’s lives.
Yet here, in America, it seems we are witnessing the slow death of any real sense of community. We sit inside on our computers and manufacture an almost separate identity for ourselves. We never see or speak to anyone anymore in the context of the real world. We become caught up in trivialities and we rally behind trite phrases or dogmatic bumper stickers. We define ourselves in absolutes in a world that is anything but and we give ourselves more and more reasons to hide out in fear and mistrust of our neighbors; neighbors we ought to be hanging out with and sharing in the human experience. And the ruling classes love it. A frightened, untrusting populace is far preferable to a mobilized, community-based rebellion. The more people isolate and the more we don’t trust our neighbors the better for these elites. Smothered in hate-based doctrine, we spend our energies trying to “weed out” the undesirable elements of our society. Better watch out for the gays! We’ll all get AIDS and die or, worse yet, they’ll marry each other and destroy the very fabric of our great society! Better watch out for the Mexicans! They’ll steal all our jobs! Better watch out for that Arab family that just moved in down the street! They’re all terrorists and they’re going to chop off my head! The culture industry feeds into our collective paranoia, upping the stakes until we trust no one and, when this happens, the elite win. We expend all our energies hating each other instead of getting together and demanding that our freedoms be returned and that ALL Americans be able to share in life’s blessings."
bravo to you , if you actually were bored or interested enough to read that.
i dont normally read AMP but i was waiting around for someone one day and saw it on their table, and started reading. thought it was very interesting, and VERY true.
so, anyone wanna go out and interact outside of this? call me
THE LOSS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION OUTSIDE ONLINE...
Russ Rankin from AMP explains it well
"Are Americans Getting Stupider?
It just dawned on me the other day. I was at the movies on a normal, weekday afternoon and, after an on-screen prompt to “please silence your cell phones,” the previews began. It’s no secret to anyone who’s been around awhile that Hollywood is rapidly running out of ideas. Comic book adaptations, endless sequels to or remakes of films nobody really cared about the first time around and, of course, the vapid, big-screen versions of scores of half-witted television shows from the 1970’s and 80’s. One such film was being previewed; it was a movie version of “The Dukes Of Hazard.” It was so god awful that I actually began to feel dumber as the preview wore on, as if some unseen force was sucking my brain out through my eyes. Then someone laughed. Then another. Soon there were scattered chuckles from throughout the theater in response to the painfully clumsy sight gags and embarrassing dialogue in the trailer. It was a stunning revelation: these people weren’t laughing at the absurdity of what they were seeing. They actually found it humorous!
My god! I must be dreaming. Surely I’ll wake with a start, relieved to discover I’d only subconsciously slipped into this eerie nether region on the far, far opposite side of the culture warp from where I would normally reside. But this was real. So, too, was the ringing of not one but three cell phones throughout the film. One chucko even felt compelled to fucking ANSWER his phone and talk for a while.
What the fuck is going on? Where is the consideration? How does an average adult get to a place where they deem it appropriate to not only leave their cell phone ringer on in a movie but answer it as well? I found myself pining for the “good old days” when all you had to worry about at the theater was someone whispering a little too loudly behind you or accidentally kicking your chair.
Maybe it’s the shift in our culture away from each other. Increasingly, Americans are becoming more and more insular. We have the internet and an endless barrage of programming on television. Netflix brings movies to us so we don’t have to go out and rent them anymore and we can order out for nearly every kind of food. It’s not uncommon these days for us to have hundreds of “friends” we chat with online or correspond with via email or cell phone but our actual, face to face personal interactions seem to be on the decline. We get out of the habit of even the most basic considerations which, not long ago, were automatic in situations which butted us up against our fellows (airplanes, trains, buses and yes - movie theaters).
We stop interacting with each other. We allow our world view to become almost entirely shaped by the culture industry. Our collective consciousness becomes so dulled, so dumbed-down that we find the inane and unimaginative hilarious. Hence, a preview for a horrible re-make of a horrible TV show suddenly becomes the funniest thing ever. It’s sad, really.
People who live in Manhattan, for instance, are stoked. They will never be able to slip into this kind of cultural isolation - there just isn’t any room! Everything you do in Manhattan you do slammed up against a hundred other people so one is forced to co-exist and, ultimately, to consider those around them. Europe as well appears to be relatively safe from this condition as their various cultures all seem to embrace social interaction and hold it sacred. Everywhere you look people are meeting up in cafes and restaurants where meals last for hours as stories are told and friends catch up with each other’s lives.
Yet here, in America, it seems we are witnessing the slow death of any real sense of community. We sit inside on our computers and manufacture an almost separate identity for ourselves. We never see or speak to anyone anymore in the context of the real world. We become caught up in trivialities and we rally behind trite phrases or dogmatic bumper stickers. We define ourselves in absolutes in a world that is anything but and we give ourselves more and more reasons to hide out in fear and mistrust of our neighbors; neighbors we ought to be hanging out with and sharing in the human experience. And the ruling classes love it. A frightened, untrusting populace is far preferable to a mobilized, community-based rebellion. The more people isolate and the more we don’t trust our neighbors the better for these elites. Smothered in hate-based doctrine, we spend our energies trying to “weed out” the undesirable elements of our society. Better watch out for the gays! We’ll all get AIDS and die or, worse yet, they’ll marry each other and destroy the very fabric of our great society! Better watch out for the Mexicans! They’ll steal all our jobs! Better watch out for that Arab family that just moved in down the street! They’re all terrorists and they’re going to chop off my head! The culture industry feeds into our collective paranoia, upping the stakes until we trust no one and, when this happens, the elite win. We expend all our energies hating each other instead of getting together and demanding that our freedoms be returned and that ALL Americans be able to share in life’s blessings."
bravo to you , if you actually were bored or interested enough to read that.
i dont normally read AMP but i was waiting around for someone one day and saw it on their table, and started reading. thought it was very interesting, and VERY true.
so, anyone wanna go out and interact outside of this? call me