“TV in America created the most coherent reality distortion field that I’ve ever seen. Therein is the problem: People who vote watch TV, and they are hallucinating like a sonofabitch. Basically, what we have in this country is government by hallucinating mob.”
-Found in an interview with Reason magazine (via boingboing). Barlow was a writer for the Grateful Dead before becomming active in the politics of cyberspace and was the co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a technological freedom advocacy organisation. Also of interest by Barlow : A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, a delicious and intense peice of cyber-philosophy if there ever was one.
-Also, tricked into watching CNN because it was playing in the pizza place, I couldn’t help wondering what value can be derived from watching constant coverage of a hurricane that cannot be helped. Are the viewers at home gaining any knowledge because of it? Will it improve their lives somehow? How is this pointless data being sold as news at all? Isn’t there a corrupt and stupid politician they could expose or something? (also, why does CNN have to constantly assert that they are the most trusted source for news? Does the station worry that the public will forget how much they trust them?)
I caught me a 20 inch smallie on the weekend. Is that news?
To most people: you aren’t supposed to understand that sentence.
The truth is, masses are a)passive b)incapable of independant analysis of anything c)unwilling. d)very hungry
I see it everyday. People are consumed by their inner selves and are always trying to find the latest and act like they know.
Know what? Just know. What CNN says maybe.
You gotta deal with it.
Take this guy on the bus the other day. Almost yelling into his cell phone, which is about the size of a pea. (Don’t get me started with cell phones). He is yapping about anything and everything, attracting sighs of annoyance from other passengers when the phone he is holding rings.
Explain that one to me. I felt like asking him why he did that but I didn’t. He was a robot to me. As are most people.
Enough said. Back to more positive things.