Thread: if the mind is a paper towel, this is capillary action

there is a couch. people are sitting on it. i look at their faces but the colored, erratic flashes of light make the features indistinguishable. their heads are moving so little that i wonder where their attention is being siphoned off to.

i return in the morning. they are starting off the day with what seems to be an update on crimes, conflicts, and celebrities. the blonde woman on the screen has a big smile. the man says that a monkey tore the face off of a woman.

the day is ending. now there is a clever series on that everyone can enjoy. a man can tell when criminals lie. there's a new punishment to be laid out, a new obscenity chafing the fabric of society. the evil is contained, the issue resolved. time for bed.

an image stream is lodged in my brain. there's a rapid camera change but i steady myself with the comforting knowledge that this is in the best interests of nbc. my head is severed by jay leno's chin as he drives by in a jaguar s-class. it's not real, i tell myself. but i panic - those neurons weren't firing in that pattern before. those connections weren't there the last time i checked.

i step outside. psychic banalities and mutations begin to accumulate and are absorbed by the soil. they enter the groundwater - i drink this from my well, my crops grow with its moisture. every cell in my body stores their toxicities.


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edit:

i should probably note that this started out completely different from the above - basically i was thinking about how there's a number of great books on the subject of television, programming, and harmful effects on the human psyche (especially jerry mander's writing, or an interview such as this one). but i have yet to find any good writing about the effects of the content itself, how it spreads, and how the collective repercussions are felt.

so if anyone else is a bit freaked out by the sheer number of people watching whatever new crime docudrama bullshit is out now, post here. i got a little sidetracked trying to re-write what i had down already.

Originally Posted by cygnus

i should probably note that this started out completely different from the above - basically i was thinking about how there's a number of great books on the subject of television, programming, and harmful effects on the human psyche (especially jerry mander's writing, or an interview such as this one). but i have yet to find any good writing about the effects of the content itself, how it spreads, and how the collective repercussions are felt.

so if anyone else is a bit freaked out by the sheer number of people watching whatever new crime docudrama bullshit is out now, post here. i got a little sidetracked trying to re-write what i had down already.

Just got a comment.

Jerry Mander's book "4 arguments for the elimination of television" is a really good one even though it was made in the seventies or around that time. It still holds true for today.

.... and its not just four reasons but a very detailed book with interesting findings.

yeah! he has some great writing.

'in the absence of the sacred' is actually one of my favorite books - in university i study environmentalism and indigenous cultures, so that was just perfect to read. he summarized his thoughts about tv and the rest of the technosphere (which i wish was just a really cool dance club lol) really well, then got into how all of that is opposed by indigenous viewpoints that hold nature as sacred. another element of it was corporate culture and how tv supports capitalism which supports environmental degradation and synthetic ways of life.

...what?