And that's a good thing. There's nothing I like more than a taste of my own American Freedom. Other countries might not support Americanization as much as I do, but in my opinion, it is the best way: may the top dog win. It's the way nature intended: May the toughest, funnest, most addicting cultural tendencies win. Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Microsoft, I'm talking to you. Our freedom to choose what kind of food we want, what kind of movie we want, and what kind of news we want is the hedonist's greatest boon.
Avatar, the sign that we are doing too good a job at entertaining ourselves, has been a topic of interest for the last week in our class. The Author formerly known as Nanotext shared this link:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html
Perhaps the best thing you can take from this article is that “this movie is so good, you will want to go see another movie just so you can forget about how happy this movie made you feel.” Wow, the worlds depicted in our movies make people want to be in the fantasy world rather than reality? James Cameron just bred the most efficient movie ever, and I would have to give him props for that. So high-five, James Cameron, and high-five, America, for making his dream come to life.
When we watched Dracula the other day in class, what really set me off was that Van Helsing and the other “white hats” had the audacity to kill the spawn of Dracula. I mean, in the world of the film, sure, they were killing evil undead, but metaphorically, they were killing the “enemies of the cross,” aka, enemies of Christian Society. The dichotomy depicted in this film, I think, is an example of one of the most powerful parasites out there, the propoganda parasite. It can make you think crazy, new and sometimes false things without you ever realizing that you've been affected.
Another good example of a thought parasite would be the article I posted above. Under the pretense of being a “news article,” this article's propaganda parasite bears a simple command: “Watch Avatar.” Perhaps even more cleverly, it has a second message for people who have already seen Avatar: “you should go see a rebound movie. Avatar is making you feel depressed.” For those of us who feel sad every once and a while, we now have something to blame it on, and a solution for our problem. It may not seem this way to everyone, but this thought parasite may have helped people, and it may have even helped people without even being right in the first place. With a great thing called the Placebo Effect, we have the ability to partially construct our reality from our beliefs. So if, for example, you were feeling sad because of the economy, then you read this article and because of it you went out and saw a “rebound movie” and you expected it to make you feel better and so it did make you feel better, that would be an example of how the Placebo effect and Propoganda Parasites helped you.
So, even if something is false, if you believe in it, there's still a good chance it will appear true to you. And this is how we may begin to create our own reality. The less people who try to stop you from being deceived, the more power you have to limit your information intake and therefore shape your perceptions of reality. So by informing people, we are taking power and happiness from them, and by telling people what they want to know, we are giving them power and happiness. So therefore, if you want to make someone happier and more powerful, it is a good idea to tell them what they want to know (as long as they believe you).
As kind of a p.s. to this week's blog post, I would like to share my favorite source of inspiration with you.
http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/
Have a great night!
"So, even if something is false, if you believe in it, there's still a good chance it will appear true to you. And this is how we may begin to create our own reality. "
ReplyDeleteBut don't we all have our own realities anywho? Perhaps very similar--you and I will probably identify the same thing as being a cat. But do you fear the things I fear, good sir? Your likes and dislikes are not mine because the associations I've linked up with them are different from yours--and this, I would argue, makes my reality, the way I experience life and see things, different from yours. But perhaps I should say how I interpret things instead of how I see things, and this will change the meaning--we see the same objective world, but interpret it differently. But interpretation comes in so swiftly on the heels of sight that is difficult to discern the two.
We are open to be influenced by all things, all parasites; too many, and the host is overrun. But too few...? Perhaps the host gets lonely--or at least ill, without the friendly bacteria in the gut.