Namaste and welcome to another posting for this enigmatic blog: the Quiet Mouse Strikes Back. I decided to make the title of this blog a play on a quote from the Russel Crowe movie "Gladiator". The reason I did this is because of how much the Roman Empire reminds me of my own home country, the United States of America... which is truly ANYTHING BUT being "united" in much except for the desire to be nearly CONSTANTLY ENTERTAINED. So again I will repeat the question... Are we not entertained???
We spend a LOT of time and a LOT of $$$ money $$$ on being entertained as a culture. A lot of money is put into advertising to reach out to the audience that is being entertained to sell a product or an image. Nearly 365 days a year we are inundated with almost non-stop sports, be it baseball, basketball, football, soccer (international futbol like the FIFA World Cup), wrestling, Nascar, hockey, or even the Olympics (although they are every 4 years). We also have 24/7/365 television with hundreds of channels, ALL advertising, and ALL trying to sell a product; their "brand". Are we not entertained?
The movie industry has been trying to sell the corporate driven industry for a long time now. There are BIG BUCKS in this business and they put out their product to entertain the bored masses. If that won't work then I'm sure magazines, newspapers, and the Internet will be sure to alleviate the endless boredom.
If all else fails, the masses can ALWAYS resort back to blind CONSUMERISM. That always seems to make the boredom go away: to buy things you don't need, that you can't afford, to impress people you don't like. Sounds reasonable to me. Are we not entertained?
I feel as if there is this giant gaping hole in our nation, nay, the world at large. We try to fill that gap with endless entertainment, attempting to cure the boredom and apathy that has engulfed us all. But life becomes increasingly tedious and boring when we have to go to pointless jobs that are equivalent to a rat running around a wheel in its' cage, and when our normal day to day functions don't provide us with our four basic human necessities.
1) Mental
2) Physical
3) Spiritual
4) Emotional/Psychosocial
If our daily lives are not providing for these needs, then our lives seem unfulfilled, and we seek out alternative remedies and relief from our woes. It is easy to turn to addictive behaviors, which I will even go out on a limb and say that I think many people are addicted to their televisions, cell phones, or computers, much in a similar way that an addict is addicted to heroin or cocaine. Regardless of the trigger, your body is STILL releasing dopamine and serotonin... so I really must ask what the differences are? Are we not entertained?
Have the pharmaceuticals and drugs not numbed us enough? Has the television and Internet with endless sports and streaming movies not distracted us enough? Haven't we lost sight of the bigger issues? Have we just traded in our empathy for apathy? Are we not entertained? Or are we just passing time, wasting our energies on gossip, "celebrity" trivialities, false idol worship, and passing fads?
These are just my questions and my thoughts, certainly not the ponderances of the mass sheeple. Then, we have the issues with how all this entertainment, namely overt sexuality in the media, is effecting our family lives and our children. But hey, at least we are entertained...
We spend a LOT of time and a LOT of $$$ money $$$ on being entertained as a culture. A lot of money is put into advertising to reach out to the audience that is being entertained to sell a product or an image. Nearly 365 days a year we are inundated with almost non-stop sports, be it baseball, basketball, football, soccer (international futbol like the FIFA World Cup), wrestling, Nascar, hockey, or even the Olympics (although they are every 4 years). We also have 24/7/365 television with hundreds of channels, ALL advertising, and ALL trying to sell a product; their "brand". Are we not entertained?
The movie industry has been trying to sell the corporate driven industry for a long time now. There are BIG BUCKS in this business and they put out their product to entertain the bored masses. If that won't work then I'm sure magazines, newspapers, and the Internet will be sure to alleviate the endless boredom.
If all else fails, the masses can ALWAYS resort back to blind CONSUMERISM. That always seems to make the boredom go away: to buy things you don't need, that you can't afford, to impress people you don't like. Sounds reasonable to me. Are we not entertained?
I feel as if there is this giant gaping hole in our nation, nay, the world at large. We try to fill that gap with endless entertainment, attempting to cure the boredom and apathy that has engulfed us all. But life becomes increasingly tedious and boring when we have to go to pointless jobs that are equivalent to a rat running around a wheel in its' cage, and when our normal day to day functions don't provide us with our four basic human necessities.
1) Mental
2) Physical
3) Spiritual
4) Emotional/Psychosocial
If our daily lives are not providing for these needs, then our lives seem unfulfilled, and we seek out alternative remedies and relief from our woes. It is easy to turn to addictive behaviors, which I will even go out on a limb and say that I think many people are addicted to their televisions, cell phones, or computers, much in a similar way that an addict is addicted to heroin or cocaine. Regardless of the trigger, your body is STILL releasing dopamine and serotonin... so I really must ask what the differences are? Are we not entertained?
Have the pharmaceuticals and drugs not numbed us enough? Has the television and Internet with endless sports and streaming movies not distracted us enough? Haven't we lost sight of the bigger issues? Have we just traded in our empathy for apathy? Are we not entertained? Or are we just passing time, wasting our energies on gossip, "celebrity" trivialities, false idol worship, and passing fads?
These are just my questions and my thoughts, certainly not the ponderances of the mass sheeple. Then, we have the issues with how all this entertainment, namely overt sexuality in the media, is effecting our family lives and our children. But hey, at least we are entertained...
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