Welcome to Gaia! ::

We're reading this hardcore book in philosophy, about consumerism and how it's destroying the world and stuff. I puts up a good argument, but pretty much everything North America is doing is killing the world.

I thought it was interesting that the United States initially wanted to seperate from Britain BECAUSE their corporations held far too much power in their hands, through influence of power figures. So the US thought they should limit a corporations power, limits, and growth.

Eventually, the civil war came along, and corporations took advantage of the distraction. They started to grow and gain power when no one was looking. And Abe Lincoln said that these corporations must be stopped, or oppression of normal citizens will ensue. No one listened to him, and now look.

Kids from a very young age are attracted to the TV. Why? Because the shows know how to keep you riveted, wanting more, and then stopping for a break to show some commercials while you have some attention. Commercials know how to break into your mind, and repetitively change the way you think. When I say Michael Jordan, what do you think? Nike.

The sad thing is, is that some people look at a grape vineyard (Sadly, me included) and they only see money in the grapes, and people profiting off of them. But grape vineyards can be very beautiful, if you look in the essence of what a grape means to you.

The wetness of the vines, the freshness, it makes it all... beautiful. But then corporations come in and profit off of these and spoil the beautiful thoughts. Now all we see in grapes is money.

There's nothing you can do to stop it, either. You see 3 000 ads a day. And even when you think you've tuned out bad TV ads, unconsiously, they're rewiring your dendrites. I used to think Bowflex was fake... the ads were fake, and whatnot. But as time grew on, I thought it looked pretty sweet. As I read this book, I realized, they had me by the balls, didn't they? And I didn't even know.

So, how much of our lives is controlled by indirect manipulation? I caught this one act, but how much more is there I haven't caught? The big question though...

ARE WE REALLY FREE?

With all of these influences, do corporations control us to a large degree? Why do we buy Adidas pants instead of generic track pants that are $30 cheaper? Because adidas has been implanted in our minds as better? There's NO difference between the two pairs, but we somehow think adidas is better, even when it had the same polyester and cotton levels or whatever as the generic brand. THEY'RE THE SAME, but the world tells us that they're not, to a repetitive degree that we BELIEVE it.

What would I be like without all of these influences? Would I like Bic pens? Would I like something other than jeans? Would I not shop at EB Games? Where would I go? What would I do? Who would I be?

We don't know the extent that unconcious influences influence the unconcious aspects of our mental wiring. That's the problem. There's attacks on who we are, and we don't even know it.

As you can see, I'm a bit irked at what I've read. They've made an arguement... that has made me... I don't know. I don't knwo what I feel right now. I don't want to watch TV, I don't want to go out and see these billboards... I just don't know anymore.

I used to watch a lot of TV when I was younger but ... I kinda.. stopped. Now I barely watch it and I HATE when it's on unless I'm watching a movie or Family Guy... or playing a video game. But there are no commercials in video games.

I see wine when I look at grapes too, Torri. xD

That sucks, I'm poor. Well I'm not, but I'm a kid, so I have to live under the poverty of my family, who's well off.

Make sense?