It is simply fucking hopeless.

[necso]

I became resigned to this when PBS started airing commercials.

The basic issue to me then was not the power that this gave advertisers, although this was a big issue, but the change in philosophy that this represented.

Before commercials, the philosophy of PBS was to inform, not influence -- or at least not to influence mindlessly (as in "to act"). Now, however, that is precisely what PBS is doing -- PBS is now marketing.

This is not good... Marketing has finally won -- completely and totally won.

Marketing reigns and rules in America. People buy cars, clothes, food, drink, hats, cats and rats based on marketing. Many people do almost everything because of marketing and almost everybody does some things because of marketing. Hell, many people even support an ignorant, moronic, malevolent, preppy-boy elitist as a "wise, thoughtful, ethical, good-ole-boy, man-of-the-people", because it has been marketed to them that way --- and they simply don't have the candlepower to see their way through the smoke.

Marketing is everywhere. It is in or on our radio, TV, internet, magazines, news shows, movies, billboards, posters, clothes, cars, buses and almost everything else. It surrounds us, it engulfs us, it suffocates us -- it drives us.

Marketing is even reflected in the people around us, what cars they drive, what clothes they wear, what they eat, what they drink, what pets they own -- what they read, what they watch and even what they talk about. America is one gigantic fucking cesspool of marketing --- we eat, drink, sleep, dream, shit and fart marketing -- And we make choices based upon it.

And if this wasn't bad enough, we have infected the whole fucking world with it. Worldwide you see all the same shit. Worldwide everybody wants all the same shit. Worldwide everybody "must have" all the same shit. Worldwide everybody does all the same shit... It is like some creepy fucking plague taking over the human race, transmitted through sight and sound, touch and smell.

And what a plague it is -- testosterone-charged vehicles, slutty looking clothes, plastic tits, "plastic" sex partners, plastic laughter and an endless supply of overpriced, overblown, oversold everything --- and tomorrow there will be more useless shit. But wait --- if you want even more, then how about class, dignity and culture. Still more? --- How about political office or a seat on the bench? ... Or maybe you need a longer dick.

But the really sad part of all this is that we are never going to be able to change it --- Never. Why not? Because all this marketing stuff is merely an appeal to human weakness, greed and lust. Marketing works because most people operate on the level of the most unenlightened self interest --- and lack the basic strength of character to do otherwise.

It is simply fucking hopeless --- we will have to wallow in this filth if we are ever to have any impact on the course of events. But polluted by doing so, how can we hope not to pollute?

..... It is simply fucking hopeless.

(I guess that this is a media issue, although I would have said more economic or political.)

[Jim Sagle]

1. Hey, it's Miller time.

;)

[necso]

5. But perhaps you mistake my outlook.

I am "resigned". I am resigned to this being the way of the world, and I am resigned to being "in" and not "of" that world.

But it is not an unpleasant or unhappy outlook, and I find humor in it. However, I am glad that is middle age and not youth that finds me in this time.

We are not building our castle on sand, we are building it in the middle of an ocean... And as old Ben Franklin would say: "We are paying entirely too much for that whistle."

[JohnnyRingo]

2. Can "Rollerball" be far away ?

When corporate interests govern EVERYTHING ?

[Union Thug]

3. I'm with ya, my brother...

When my child sat down to watch Arthur on PBS and I saw the "brought to you by Chuck E Cheese" commercial, I nearly wretched.

I'm feeling hopeless too, but in the the back of my mind, that little revolutionary tells me, hang on.

Yours in the struggle,

Will

[NMDemDist2]

4. i saw a 20 something in a Che t-shirt today

i complimented the shirt and asked her is she liked Che

she says "Who?" i gave her a short explaination of Che's life and she said "Oh, wow, I didn't know, my friend just brought this from Columbia." I told her i heard there was a movie coming out about him and she said "I'll see a movie I guess, I just hate history"


:argh:

[Union Thug]

9. I'm crying...

One of my greatest heros as been reduced to a pop icon... disgusting.

[NMDemDist2]

10. yeah sucks don't it?

and i think often about the labour movement when men died to have the right to organize

we need a good movie about them, think speilberg would do one?

[realisticphish]

11. i know

i see so many people wearing Che shirts at my school; i personally don't know much about him (i need to read up on him), but i know enough to feel great disgust for these people. i even overheard on such person (wearing a Che shirt no less!) saying they were going to vote for bush


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[klook]

6. Adbusters

See http://adbusters.org/home/ for some refreshing ideas from people who agree with you. It's not too late.

[ozymandius]

7. This has been happening for decades.

I spent eleven years working in public broadcasting - both radio and TV.

PBS and its affiliates have been "marketing" for years. However, they must follow some rules. There can be no "call to action": the announcer will never say, "Pick up the phone NOW! Buy our stuff!" That would violate the terms of their non-profit status. No corporate sponsorship is allowed to attach superlatives to their products or services such as: "We blow the competition away," or "You've seen the rest, now choose the best. That's us partner!" The laws will not allow any language that will make an underwriter's message like a commercial. Bad things happen to public stations when they do this.

Marketing remains a very vital component for public broadcasting's fundraising activities. When I was working in the business, our business sponsorships constituted about 20% of our operating capital. Government appropriations (through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and state appropriations) represented about 20% of operating funds. The rest came from individual contributions.

If listeners and viewers were to contribute more to their local public broadcasting station, you would see and hear less of this.

[cprise]

12. Sorry, it's not 'public' anymore

If it ever was. A public service that answers to people and corporations with the most disposable income is no public service. It is a charity. Except for the stuff PBS smuggles in after 10 PM (in liberal markets) and except for the tendency of NPR affiliates to use BBC World Service as a supplement... these 'public' broadcasters are scarcely any better than the unabashedly commercial news sources.

So 60% of funds come from well-off individuals, 20% comes from corporate advertisers, and another 20% directly from the political process. That is no recipe for serving the public.

I believe that media reform in the US must scrap PBS and charter a public corporation based on the BBC's revenue model (the license fee). A muscular, no-nonsense populist broadcaster is the only way to make the private networks fear their own lunatic tendencies... knowing their antics will be thrown into sharp relief. You want to change the news culture in this country? This is how!

[Nay]

8. I've felt this way for years, and can sympathize.

It's why, 30 years ago, I did not own a TV for 10 years. Now, I only have one because I'm married and my husband cannot live without it.

It's also why I have little hope that anything will change until reality, in the form of horrible living conditions, interferes with everyone's marketing-induced perceptions. Things have to get bad enough so that even the dumbest asshole can see that everything has turned to shit. And that will be pretty far down the rathole, IMHO. After all, look how many people still believe * is doing a good job!

[cprise]

13. The conservatives themselves all say

...they are trying to boil the frog by raising the temp. very slowly.

IMO the best thing for this country may be to get a very swift, incongruous and nasty increase in temperature. Perhaps we should be working to give neocons enough rope to hang their own agenda.

[Codeblue]

14. This is why

lately Ive been thinking the only way to escape the greed and corruption and idiocy overrunning the world is to build myself a cabin in the wilderness and become a guy everyone thinks is a creepy hermit.

[Mika]

15. And if we all did that?

There would be no "wilderness" left.

Don't kid yourself, you'd be more depressed bringing your crap to the wilderness and thereby destroying it.