Thoughts on television

[V01D]

As I write this starting post to this thread my roommates have the TV on and are watching their nightly routine of the news followed by game shows followed by murder/cop shows. I can't understand what the draw is anymore even though I used to be able to sit there and watch a marathon of NCIS. Now, I find the idea the most unapealing thing in the world. I can't even bring myself to watch anything on TV anymore, not anything on the History, Adult Swim, Discovery, TLC, or ANYTHING! I find it just too fake, it's all staged, or the stuff that isn't is just perpetual materialism like pawn stars.

I have a hard time buying into the conspiracy theory that TV is there to distract us from what the higher-ups are planning or such things, and I'm not really down to entertain such ideas as they are unprovable, but I do feel like TV puts me in a trance that I can't escape. By the time I notice I've been sucked into it it's been quite a while, and every time I do allow myself to sit there with my roommates and watch something I feel like I'm undoing what I've worked so hard to do with psychedelics and meditation: let go of greed, anger, and ignorance and allow love, compassion, and wisdom in.

All this endless stream of violence and anger on the TV and we wonder why school shootings are on the rise?

Maybe that was uncalled for...

But I can't help but think there is a correlation at least.

Nexians, what are your thoughts on the idiot box as my grandpa puts it?

 

[CaesarOfMex]

I've read many articles that point out that when someone watches TV, the information is somehow able to be stored into your subconsious. Most people, when watching tv, are not really having any major conscious thoughts of their own. I would say it's like being in a high vulnerability to suggestion.

But I believe it's actually like that for one's very own life in some way. You are who you are today because of your experiences. I believe watching tv shows lets you somehow experience those things without actually being physically there. But all these things that you see still trigger the same emotions they would trigger in real life. Your subconscious mind does not discriminate if this was real life or not. For all your subconscious knows, EVERYTHING you see, hear, smell, touch and taste is 100% real.

The TV is just the medium of transportaion. As much bad that it does today, it is a double-edged sword. It can do just as much good as it does bad. And I do agree with you on the fact that most of what comes out of there is garbage, and thus puts its garbage into people's subconscious and consequently into the real physical world.

I wouldn't go as far as saying it is the primary cause of school shootings etc, for the fact that there are countless factors which come into play to make the unique personaliy and attitude of each individual person. We could never understand this fully because we wouldn't be able to walk the exact same footsteps as each person in the world and understand things from their perspective and incorporate new experiences the way they incorporate them.

So while TV does do some collective damage, it's one's own life experience that influences one's own being the most. Society in general has many delusions as well as good insights.
In short, as our psycehdelic friends have taught so many of us, we are all one. Everything happening right now in the whole planet really comes down to this: we are all one. The day that humanity as a whole stops living a delusional life and doing things that don't matter will be the day that all individuals will have true peace and clarity of mind.

 

[anrchy]

TV seems like such a waste of time now. I would rather sit outside with my headphones on listening to some psybient staring at nature. I haven't had "television" for a long time. I'll watch movies or documentaries and game of thrones but I will never have broadcast television ever again.

The best television show is mushrooms and hyperspace.

 

[V01D]

The best television show is mushrooms and hyperspace.

I completely agree, although I'd rather have some good LSD than mushrooms personally

 

[Adjhart]

I have a hard time buying into the conspiracy theory that TV is there to distract us from what the higher-ups are planning or such things, and I'm not really down to entertain such ideas as they are unprovable.

Why do you have a hard time buying into that?


Your very next thoughts are...

but I do feel like TV puts me in a trance that I can't escape.

All this endless stream of violence and anger on the TV and we wonder why school shootings are on the rise?



But I can't help but think there is a correlation at least.

Please remember that 'Conspiracy Theorist' is most often used in a socially transformed usage.

In society, a conspiracy theorist is a crazy, paranoid person who is anti-government and perhaps dangerous.

But what the word actually means, is a person who theorizes that groups of people come together for an orchestrated purpose, especially corrupt in nature.

So, this basically means that everyone is a conspiracy theorist, because we have all naturally tried make sense of why things are the way they are or why things happen the way they do.

You can call me a spiritual theorist too. An entheogen theorist, go ahead.


William Blum, former US State Dept official, and author, said (gonna paraphrase):

"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy minded you are, what the government is doing is much worse than you imagine."

 

[V01D]

We, as a population, find other ways of distracting ourselves from our true nature. I mainly didn't want to get into that kind of discussion for the reason I mentioned already: it's unprovable.

No doubt the government is up to some nasty shizz. I know someone who had a buddy in the military who almost killed himself from jumping off my friend's balcony because he couldn't take the memory of melting people in bathtubs in HI. Aloha!

 

[darklordsson]

Please remember that 'Conspiracy Theorist' is most often used in a socially transformed usage.

In society, a conspiracy theorist is a crazy, paranoid person who is anti-government and perhaps dangerous.

But what the word actually means, is a person who theorizes that groups of people come together for an orchestrated purpose, especially corrupt in nature.

So, this basically means that everyone is a conspiracy theorist, because we have all naturally tried make sense of why things are the way they are or why things happen the way they do.

You can call me a spiritual theorist too. An entheogen theorist, go ahead.


William Blum, former US State Dept official, and author, said (gonna paraphrase):

"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy minded you are, what the government is doing is much worse than you imagine."

This^^ I agree with on the fact that we are all theorist in our own way, its true. Think of anything you do, you are theorising what is gong to happen and the actions to take twards accomplishing the objective. Good one Adjhart, btw did you move yet? I remember you sayin you were moving.:thumb_up:

 

[Adjhart]

I'll be moving spring of next year. I'm so excited - San Pedro cactus grows indigenously there, so does yopo! Mescaline and bufotenine in my own backyard! I'm imagining that this move will be amazing for my own mind/body balance, can't wait!

 

[darklordsson]

Awsome! Super happy for you my friend! Im pretty jelouse you will have all these wonderful compunds at your disposal. Im thinkikng about aquiring a cactus of my own for these self discovery purpouses. Never have had the plesure of mesc. But very happy for you! It should be the best bet knowing your making a change im sure its not just for the substances but other meaningful reasons. Ill be seein u around on the nexus buddy! Take care!:thumb_up:

 

[3rdI]

TV is generally aweful, i am very glad i got rid of mine, im going on about a year or so now and surprisingly i have read more books in that period than in any other year of my life.

I think it has some redeeming features and there are some good programmes but I find its mainly useless gumph and sometimes its deviously evil, just ask Billy.

 

[TrampledByInfinity]

Most of the television entertainment I watch is done streaming over my laptop, but I enjoy books a lot more. It truly is a golden age of television though, with regards to story lines

being less serialized and more a continuing, overarching story. I can name a good handful of shows that are consistently great: Orphan Black, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Sons of

Anarchy, Adventure Time (which I will continue to say is the best show on TV right now), Rick and Morty, Orange is the New Black, and a lot of great anime Sword Art Online, Attack on

Titan, Hunter X Hunter, that list could go on for a while. Of course, none of these shows I actually watch on cable TV. They're either streamed, or downloaded from various places. Reality

shows and police procedurals are the bottom of the barrel garbage juice of television, you just have to know where to look for actual quality shows like most everything worth

reading/watching/doing/entertaining yourself with. I definitely agree that TV is generally awful, that the glow of the TV can put a trance on people, and suck the life out of them.

 

[null24]

I heard more than once that CRT televisions flicker at a rate that corresponds with delta state brain waves and therefore puts people into a more receptive state in regards to suggestion. I have a little theory that the new flat screens don't and people may become more resistant to mind control as a result.

Or it may just be wishful thinking.

 

[Shanghigher]

I remember talking to this guy a while back who was a hypnotist, and he was talking about hypnotism having five levels - the first one being a trance you can get into easily, and said this happens when you watch TV, drive a car, do some sort of mundane task repeatedly, etc. I never followed it up to verify it, but always found it interesting.

Personally, I'm a big film, games, and books guy. I love a good story, and while it's somewhat a rarity to find it on TV, when they do it right, boy does it go down well. Having said that, I haven't owned a TV that was hooked up to anything aside a games console in about nine years and I can't remember I actually watched a programme go out live. But I am a big fan of high quality, story driven stuff you get from places like the BBC, AMC, and HBO. I consider stuff like Sherlock, True Detective, Fargo, Mad Men, Walking Dead, Oz, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, etc, to be more like a film but the length and depth of a book, so best of both worlds. At the end of the day, it is another form of communication, and another method by which you can tell a story. Utilised well, it can be incredible.

On the flip side of that, television does have a lot to answer for. As a journalist, I have a major axe to grind against 24 hour news channels as pretty much all of them fire out information without enough time to get to the bottom of a story, meaning they are more an outlet of misinformation, intentional or not. As for the more biased outlets such as Fox, it's plain brainwashing, simple as. One only needs to look at the language used and the angles covered to understand that.

Television also lives in the gutter, and the fact that any well-produced drama can get sunk in the ratings compared to reality TV, wrestling (I respect the performers, but not the performance), football (as in soccer) matches, and talent shows which preys on the weak and manipulates the stars in their eyes and materialist outlook to be the laughing stock for people who, if they were honest, are as weak as themselves simply underlines where TV is going.

I think by far the most corrosive element of TV, however, is how it is funded. With the exception of the BBC over in the UK and I think PBS in the US (correct me if I'm wrong), most television is bought and paid for by advertising and corporate interests. Televised advertising is by far the most vile thing that could be shown on the box, and in the US, it's on steroids. A constant bombardment of cleverly designed messages with the intention to reinforce greedy capitalism whilst digging for every last scrap of cash people have is, to me, more disgusting than any so-called controversial TV programme.

I guess, overall, TV is like food. You can take the best of what's on offer and enjoy it for the immense story telling medium it is, or surround yourself with junk and watch your mind and body waste away.

 

[TrampledByInfinity]

I think by far the most corrosive element of TV, however, is how it is funded. With the exception of the BBC over in the UK and I think PBS in the US (correct me if I'm wrong), most television is bought and paid for by advertising and corporate interests. Televised advertising is by far the most vile thing that could be shown on the box, and in the US, it's on steroids. A constant bombardment of cleverly designed messages with the intention to reinforce greedy capitalism whilst digging for every last scrap of cash people have is, to me, more disgusting than any so-called controversial TV programme.

This is relevant (Bill Hicks on marketers):

This is the main reason I don't have cable TV, just streaming and the digital high seas and I don't have to deal with all that advertising garbage (for the most part).

 

[Shanghigher]

Another Hicks fan in the house!

But also illustrates the rest of my point nicely. Were it not for Hicks getting recorded and broadcast, I wouldn't have known about him. Granted, I could've bought a ticket, but I was 9 at the time of his death.

 

[universecannon]

In early high school I began smoking cannabis and would trip fairly hard almost every time. If we'd happen to turn on the TV I'd become appalled at the clear connections I saw between every little thing it showed and how people think/behave etc, shaping peoples reality tunnels and values, making them passive and gearing them for a consumerist, materialistic paradigm where you're never good enough (until you buy this or that), from an early age...and on and on and on. A book could be written about how television effects people. And many people seem quite addicted to it...I know my family is. The average american watches about 5 hours each day. It is sort of irrelevant whether or not there is a 'conspiracy to dumb down the masses' involved because the result is still the same.

Anyways, watching it stoned was sort of like years of psychological study pressed into a half hour. But weed effects me differently than most people. My friends would be stoned but content watching it everyday.

I know I'm generalizing, since not all shows are that bad (if there isn't commercials...), I just feel like for the most part it creates noise in my head and inhibits the more interesting facets of consciousness.

Hasn't the internet made it sort of obsolete anyways?

 

[Tyler_Trismegistus]

The only things I really watch are documentaries. But in terms of TV shows I absolutely love breaking bad and dexter. However, usually I watch shows like off the air, liquid TV, and trip tank! All awesome hilarious psychedelic cartoons. Trip tank actually did a skit on the stoned ape theory! Here's the link

 

[TrampledByInfinity]

The only things I really watch are documentaries. But in terms of TV shows I absolutely love breaking bad and dexter. However, usually I watch shows like off the air, liquid TV, and trip tank! All awesome hilarious psychedelic cartoons. Trip tank actually did a skit on the stoned ape theory! Here's the link

Oh man, Liquid TV and Trip Tank! I used to sneak watch Liquid TV, MAXX, The Head, Aeon Flux, and the other MTV Oddities growing up as a middle-schooler in the 90s.

Another Hicks fan in the house!

But also illustrates the rest of my point nicely. Were it not for Hicks getting recorded and broadcast, I wouldn't have known about him. Granted, I could've bought a ticket, but I was 9 at the time of his death.

Hell yeah, I love Hicks. I actually think I was introduced to him through Tool, but you're right if it had never been recorded and broadcast none of us would be talking about it now. How can a door be a jar?

 

[Shanghigher]

I got into Hicks a long time back, was one of my favourite comedians growing up. I have to say, though, the George Carlin influence was always present there, and I don't feel he ever eclipsed Carlin. That said, his career was a lot shorter!

Have you checked out Doug Stanhope?

 

[TrampledByInfinity]

I have been told by a few people to check out Doug Stanhope, just haven't gotten around to it yet, maybe this is a sign I should get on that . I would have to agree with your

assessment of Bill Hicks and George Carlin. I only wish I got around to seeing Carlin in Carnegie before he passed away, since it's just a hop-skip-and-jump from where I live. Also, if you

haven't watched American: The Bill Hicks Story I highly recommend checking it out. Definitely taken from us way too soon.