"He could have kept his money in The Black Sun and made ten million dollars about a year later when it went public, but his mother would have been a street person. So when his mother visits him in the Metaverse, looking tan and happy in her golfing duds, Hiro views that as his personal fortune. It won't pay the rent, but that's okay-- when you live in a shithole, there's always the Metaverse, and in the Metaverse, Hiro Protagonist is a warrior prince." -Snowcrash

ADVENT OF THE PROTOBRAIN

It's been a while since I've written in my blog... I've been away traveling the depths of the universe all within the confines of a large polo field out in Indio. If you've been living in a cave, I'm talking about Coachella, one of the finer things that occur in life annually. Culture, my friends, is condensed into those 3 days of hot desert sun. If you're a little nosier and want to see photos of me at coachella with all the fine people that I went with, you can check my facebook photos. Anyways, today's blog entry isn't going to be about Coachella and who I thought were the best acts, etc. That information is only relevant for short amount of time. Read on and I'll tell you what I think is relevant.No, I haven't lost my mind, and no, I don't think The Hills, as a show has any significance. Its relevance though has to do with this: those in the target audience of shows like these, yes, you, are becoming stupid... among other things.

I was up late last night writing some papers for SCI-FI & Urban Dystopia regarding the media within Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Basically, Philip Dick sets up for the reader, a futuristic world in which there are "mood organs" in which you connect to in order to be the mood you'd like to be in, and also in which there is one show that everyone watches hosted by some d-bag named Buster Friendly (I really enjoy the crudely rendered Buster here so I included the drawing... NOT done by me).
Buster has many guests come on, usually the same ones over and over, and these guests are usually blond model-sque androids that engage the viewer with her everyday problems about how she had to wake up at so-and-so time for a photoshoot. Blah, yeah sounds like a talk show but fuck, the people in the novel watch this shit 23 hours a day. I'm thinking to myself, yeah, that's ludicrous...

But... it's not. I think it's worse in reality. Why are shows like "The Hills" and "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" a hit success? Reality sucks enough, yet we suck more of even shittier reality out of the tube. Just watch these clips for a minute:


Ok I'm sure everyone's heard this before but... aren't there better shows to watch on t.v.? Maybe I'm biased but I think shows like Battlestar Galactica are both entertaining and address legitimate issues regarding artificial intelligence, politics, religion, etc. Even shows like LOST are really well done and serve the purpose of 'escaping' reality. Cuz frankly, I like to veg out in front of the T.V. when I've had it with dealing with dumbasses. I don't watch the TV to encounter more fucktards who's biggest dilemma is their rich ken doll looking chauvanistic bf is breaking up with them, OMG. I'm done with the rant...

On a more scholarly note, this sort of media is addressed in Hannah Arendt's theories in The Origins of Totalitarianism. Arendt discusses the role of propaganda within a totalitarian regime and that it is a tool to "win the masses". Call it a stretch, but when a program like the ones that we see on TV are characterized by gossip and non-issues, it seems to contribute to a collective dumbing down and apatheticization (yeah i made that word up so shoot me you get what i mean) of the masses. It serves as a subversive form of time consumption; instead of a group of young 20 somethings coming together to talk about socio-economic issues that affect all of us, they group together to talk about what a bastard Bif the boyfriend has been to Lolo on her birthday at the beach house in Malibu.
When it comes down to it, Stalinism and Nazi Germany happened because they took advantage of an apathetic mass. The "mass man" is indifferent and untouched by other political means... and shit, with brett michaels on the loose, there's no where else to go but down.
I HOPE THERE'S AT LEAST SOME HILARITY TO THE POST.

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