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The Music Industry can be so sickening


Ombrenuit

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Today I picked up a book from the library (thank god I didn't purchase it). I've been looking for ways to both improve my song-writing and my lyricism. Now maybe I should shed some light on my musical influences including Robert Smith of the Cure, the Cocteau Twins, the Chameleons, Cranes, Siouxsie and the Banshees, etc. etc. Not exactly the happiest stuff, but I like things that are "real", statements from the heart, music as an expression of art.

 

Now this book is called "The Art of Writing Great Lyrics" by Pamela Phillips Oland and on the fourth page she goes through a checklist for whether or not you have lyrics.

 

Some excerpts:

 

"8. The message is a real downer. This song-poem is written from a place of a loser. The mentality is strictly depressed. Now, that's okay if I want to sing it to myself in the privacy of my bedroom, but who else is going to want to hear it--let alone record it! The rule of thumb: If the story is so downbeat that it only relates to your angst at the moment you wrote, it's a poem.

 

9. It's too introspective. In reading this song-poem, I am thoroughly embarrassed. It's so personal! Every one of you knows how deeply I was hurting that day. I'll bet you would want to look the other way if I were standing in front of you! You'd see me blushing for having shared such an intimate moment with you, and you wouldn't know where to put your own face. The rule of thumb: If it's so personal that it's embarrassing, it's a sure sign it's poetry, not lyrics."

 

What the hell is wrong with people? I thought the point of music was to be introspective and intimate. Hell I thought the purpose of art was to look inside ourselves and figure out what we're doing here and how we really feel. I thought it was supposed to be psychological and emotional, a dialog with the soul. I didn't know society was supposed to pretend that they were happy all the time and to never be introspective and share personal feelings with anyone. I guess we'll entirely disregard the punk, post-punk, goth, grunge, and shoe-gaze movements. They effectively didn't happen. So much for the "Art of Writing Great Lyrics" and more like "The Craft of the Con: A Guide to Manipulating the Consumer's Emotions."

 

Hell it's almost like last night reading the carton Wendy's fries come in: "We think you're special" printed across the front. To think that actually influences sales is sad, that people can be fed such bullshit.

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That advice is not only dumb from an artistic point of view, its just plain nuts. Ever hear of Death Metal, gangsta rap, goth-punk? All "down", all depressing, all wildly, wildly popular genres of pop music. Christ, has she ever heard of Morrissey, the man who makes you feel good about feeling bad about yourself?

 

But I detect more than at work here than some silly lady who doesn't have a clue about the world around her. The notion that no one else wants to hear your pain, that "losers" get depressed, is a familiar line of B.S. in U.S. culture discourse. In the U.S., you are never doing bad, or facing obstacles, or beaten, you are getting ready to tackle a challenge or a series of challenges and you look forward to more challenges being heaped upon you. Its "UP UP UP!" and "THINK POSITIVE!" no matter what the facts are or how you really feel. And if you do not profess such an attitude, you get labeled as being "negative." God help you then. The "negative" label is a universal Scarlet Letter here, a code word for someone who has the gall to mention the naked emperor, to point out that things are not they way they should be.

 

I'm not making an analytical argument here, just describing what I've experienced along with some random facts from cultural studies tossed in. U.S.ers are much more prone than our Euro counterparts to exaggerate/lie/fool ourselves about the well being of ourselves, our finances, our politics, and anything else. In a recent survey, don't ask me to find it, it was discovered that a majority of U.S.ers, when asked about how much debt they carry and how many assets they possess, are way way off the mark. They are trying to think things better, if I feel good the world must be good. Some self help "gurus" say this explicitly, my own sister professes this nonesense to me and chides me for "not thinking positively" enough. Its a really annoying fact of U.S. life, this idiotic "positive thinking" spiel. How else can you have a politician or celebrity tell a group of inner city children, deep in poverty and surrounded by racism, with a serious face that its all up to them, that a positive attitude will make them and a negative attitude will break them, that they must ignore all the very real things impacting their lives and "Just Do It!"?

 

Heres a stab at some simplistic social theory but I believe that the "positive thinking" disease has at least some of its roots in our hyper-individualistic culture. If the individual is ultimately responsible for itself, as we are indoctrinated to believe from birth, then if that individual is unhappy or unsuccessful when they who can they blame? Why, only themselves. So I think people feel personally responsible for these problems and in an effort to preserve their own self image, they "happy-ize" everything, pretend its not that bad, point fingers at the person complaining and exclaim "Negativity!"

Edited by Maximius
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And any attempt to break away from hyper-individualism is labelled "socialism", which I'm told is a dirty word in the US (because communists==terrorists, right???). <_<

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@Maximus: stop being so damn negative! :P

 

And any attempt to break away from hyper-individualism is labelled "socialism", which I'm told is a dirty word in the US (because communists==terrorists, right???). <_<

Socialism is only a dirty word in the context of the Religious Right[sic], and even then, only when there are plans for something of a vaguely socialist nature (like a proper fucking health-care system). Mostly though, communism as a catch-all fear-inducing term fell out of vogue with the Berlin Wall.

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In the U.S., you are never doing bad, or facing obstacles, or beaten, you are getting ready to tackle a challenge or a series of challenges and you look forward to more challenges being heaped upon you. Its "UP UP UP!" and "THINK POSITIVE!" no matter what the facts are or how you really feel. And if you do not profess such an attitude, you get labeled as being "negative." God help you then. The "negative" label is a universal Scarlet Letter here, a code word for someone who has the gall to mention the naked emperor, to point out that things are not they way they should be.

 

Funny you mention that, I work for a large US-based corporation (although in the UK) and I see this attitude from management -- despite the fact that they are incompetent, exploitative, manipulative, Darwinistic or just plain stupid, they don't want anybody to actually notice or comment on this because the highly-trained graduate slaves (highly trained not in domain knowledge, but blind obedience to authority) might become demotivated.

 

Heres a stab at some simplistic social theory but I believe that the "positive thinking" disease has at least some of its roots in our hyper-individualistic culture. If the individual is ultimately responsible for itself, as we are indoctrinated to believe from birth, then if that individual is unhappy or unsuccessful when they who can they blame? Why, only themselves. So I think people feel personally responsible for these problems and in an effort to preserve their own self image, they "happy-ize" everything, pretend its not that bad, point fingers at the person complaining and exclaim "Negativity!"

 

I have to disagree with you there on two points:

 

1. Our culture, or that much of it I have thus far experienced, can be described as many things but "hyper-individualistic" is not one of them. Unthinking conformity seems to be the order of the day, not any kind of individualism.

2. Being a hyper-individual myself, my own single datapoint certainly does not point towards "positive thinking" junk being an outcome of this; quite the opposite. I would say that the blind happiness is actually a conformist approach; the "well-socialisation" desired by the people in charge who are very threatened by dissatisfaction in the general populace.

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Funny you mention that, I work for a large US-based corporation (although in the UK) and I see this attitude from management -- despite the fact that they are incompetent, exploitative, manipulative, Darwinistic or just plain stupid, they don't want anybody to actually notice or comment on this because the highly-trained graduate slaves (highly trained not in domain knowledge, but blind obedience to authority) might become demotivated.

 

In my experience, as a US worker, first as a worker than as a "professional" with a "career", I have found management culture in general to be all the things you have described above. The myth in the discourse is that the best rise to the top in any given organization due to personal merit, the reality is that people lie, cheat, and steal for positions of power as managers, glide into the right schools and therefore get the right jobs, blow the boss, marry the right surname, then treat their power as a weapon to be wielded or lost, and then surround themselves with dupes, ass-kissers, boot-licks, and drones who don't represent a threat. In my entire working life, I have had exactly one, just one, boss who was generally honest and fought for her workers and tried to make the workplace a positive place to be. The rest were happy house-servants, proud to be the one wearing the tie.

 

My school is the home of Wharton Business College, or as some of the other schools like to call it, Whoreton. Its one of the most prestigious MBA programs in the world, Trumps daughter goes here, occasionally royalty, you get the idea. My program is the "night class" graduate program, about as low on the totem pole as you can get in the pecking order of the schools. Yet, when Wharton students come over to my school and take courses, they are universally stunned by the kinds of material they have to work with and the diversity of information that students from other disciplines bring to the table. Most of them were business undergraduates and went into a straight (meaning little or no economics or finance) MBA. Its been advertising, marketing, PR, development, for six years now and they are actually embarrassed by their complete lack of experience with the rest of academics. One woman said to me "We didn't learn anything in our MBA program." And this is arguably the best one in the world.

 

I believe it is in fact more of a kind of large scale ritual rather than an education, this business education. You go to the school to become networked with other peers from your socioeconomic group, to become groomed in the vocabulary and customs and rites of passage that support this group. With the exception of a few undergraduate seminar classes, you learn next to nothing of history, science, math, philo, or art. Nothing of knowledge for its own sake, where real creativity and innovation come from, but rather pre-digested non-knowledge, uncritical of itself and intolerant of outside criticisms, its sole job to maintain the status quo of exploitation.

 

Am I exaggerating? Sure, but not a whole lot. The longer I live and work, I've come to see manager jobs as a form of pimp work, stressing their stable to generate maximum profits, groveling to those who stand above them, and cracking the whip at those below. Thats why I find examples of worker owned companies and such, not that they are perfect by any means, to be a hopeful sign of a possible future where people are empowered to manage their own work places. I especially love it when some Latin AMericans expropriate a factory and run its successfully on their own. They have so much to teach the US about social struggle.

 

1. Our culture, or that much of it I have thus far experienced, can be described as many things but "hyper-individualistic" is not one of them. Unthinking conformity seems to be the order of the day, not any kind of individualism.

 

This is an important point, I should have said that the formal idea of hyper-individualism masks an insidious conformity as you describe. I was trying to be descriptive of the discourse I have heard used and not so much pointing to underlying relationships.

 

2. Being a hyper-individual myself, my own single datapoint certainly does not point towards "positive thinking" junk being an outcome of this; quite the opposite. I would say that the blind happiness is actually a conformist approach; the "well-socialisation" desired by the people in charge who are very threatened by dissatisfaction in the general populace.

 

To point back to my response right above, I think there are two things going on here. There is much steam expended on ideas that may be described as "hyper-individualistic" in US culture and if internalized by individuals could produce the notions that I have described above, i.e. I am responsible for myself, therefore I am responsible for my happiness, well being, etc. and no one else is. I have seen and heard this first hand throughout my adult life. I have argued with individuals who decry socialized health care because they don't want anyone telling them what doctor to go to, who don't get it that any doctor is generally better than no doctor at all and who also don't seem to mind being told what to do by their insurance companies. That is, if you HAVE insurance.

 

Now, do all of these things mean that US or Western culture is really truly hyper individualistic? Not really. If it was, as you have pointed to, it would be a tougher horse to ride than it currently is. Instead, we have an illusion of individuality, of improved personal agency, but the reality is a rock hard cold reactionary conformity. We celebrate non-conformity and then sell it to you via I-Phones. We have concerts in honor of freedom brought to you by Sunoco. Sometimes it seems the perfect slave state, slaves who dance because they are allowed to celebrate their freedom.

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And any attempt to break away from hyper-individualism is labelled "socialism", which I'm told is a dirty word in the US (because communists==terrorists, right???). <_<

 

 

Is it still so? I thought communism was only a bad word back in the 70ies.

 

As Ny has pointed to, most people don't have a foggy clue what either socialism or communism might be other than something vaguely bad or anti-authority. Some profess what I call the "Robin Hood" theory of socialism, meaning socialists/communists want to steal your property and give it away to poor people. I have heard people who don't own the dirt on the back of their necks speak in furious tones about communists wanting to take their homes. Liberal democrats are taken for communists sometimes by these types. See FOX news.

 

Those that do know a bit more don't really understand anything of such theories, they have an inch deep reaction dealing more with their personal superstitions and their dessicated world views than with any kind of grasp of these ways of thinking. The power of such thinking, meaning specifically that promulgated by Marx, Engels, and Lenin, was that it is inherently self critical. It made no allowances for pure theory, all theory must be empirically tested against real social conditions and the results tallied. Better still, theory should flow from empirical analysis.

 

Thusly, later Marx laughingly dismissed much of the work of early Marx. Any good leftist is constantly reassessing her beliefs in light of new information, what works, what falls, whats changed.

 

It won't make you any friends to call yourself a socialist in most places in the US but nor will it get your teeth knocked out as it would have 25 years ago. But it will get you into some rip-roaring arguments at bars!

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To point back to my response right above, I think there are two things going on here. There is much steam expended on ideas that may be described as "hyper-individualistic" in US culture and if internalized by individuals could produce the notions that I have described above, i.e. I am responsible for myself, therefore I am responsible for my happiness, well being, etc. and no one else is. I have seen and heard this first hand throughout my adult life.

 

If people actually did take the view "I am responsible for myself" I would consider this highly laudable. The problem is that this is not the actual perspective most people take -- instead they operate under a "I am the most important person in the world, get out my fucking way bitch!" philosophy, which although superficially similar is actually quite different.

 

I suspect it is this latter aspect that you are referring to by "hyper-individualism", whereas I would reserve the term for the independent-yet-responsible behaviour only.

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If people actually did take the view "I am responsible for myself" I would consider this highly laudable. The problem is that this is not the actual perspective most people take -- instead they operate under a "I am the most important person in the world, get out my fucking way bitch!" philosophy, which although superficially similar is actually quite different.

 

In my worldview, personal responsibility entails taking on responsibilities for others. I think of it as a network of mutually assured support in an uncertain world. The "I am #1 at all costs" attitude is one perfect for a society of parasitism and exploitation. It helps support the illusion that all that matters is personal determination and skill, the notion those that hold power may do as they please because they are the superior individuals and have earned the right. Add to this a repellent worship of the idea of personal property and you have a society of everyone doing it for themselves, a giant race against the Joneses for a newer car, bigger home, more exotic vacation. Count me out.

 

I suspect it is this latter aspect that you are referring to by "hyper-individualism", whereas I would reserve the term for the independent-yet-responsible behaviour only.

 

Yes, thats fair enough I think, bearing in mind I was ultimately referring not any real definition of hyper-individualism but rather popular conceptions of it.

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My school is the home of Wharton Business College, or as some of the other schools like to call it, Whoreton. Its one of the most prestigious MBA programs in the world, Trumps daughter goes here, occasionally royalty, you get the idea. My program is the "night class" graduate program, about as low on the totem pole as you can get in the pecking order of the schools. Yet, when Wharton students come over to my school and take courses, they are universally stunned by the kinds of material they have to work with and the diversity of information that students from other disciplines bring to the table. Most of them were business undergraduates and went into a straight (meaning little or no economics or finance) MBA. Its been advertising, marketing, PR, development, for six years now and they are actually embarrassed by their complete lack of experience with the rest of academics. One woman said to me "We didn't learn anything in our MBA program." And this is arguably the best one in the world.

Here at Tech, we have a management program. The program, of course, is derided far and wide within the school for being a joke major, and rightly so. However, in Tech's defense, I know that it at least teaches finance and economics.

 

...I've spent the last five minutes trying to come up with something positive about management majors here at Tech, or even in general. I'm having to walk away empty-handed.

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We celebrate non-conformity and then sell it to you via I-Phones.

Too right. Reminds me of a TV ad I saw the other day. There's this guy walking along a shelf looking into boxes marked "Todd's Life", each with a depiction of a "different life" inside - one has a wife and kids, one has a sports car and a chick, etc. He considers them all in turn, shakes his head, jumps down off the shelf and runs out the door. Then the voiceover says "Life wasn't meant to be pre-packaged... so fly Virgin Blue and get a free month of Foxtel!"

 

:blink:

 

Spot the irony here.

 

As Ny has pointed to, most people don't have a foggy clue what either socialism or communism might be other than something vaguely bad or anti-authority. Some profess what I call the "Robin Hood" theory of socialism, meaning socialists/communists want to steal your property and give it away to poor people. I have heard people who don't own the dirt on the back of their necks speak in furious tones about communists wanting to take their homes. Liberal democrats are taken for communists sometimes by these types. See FOX news.

Sigh. As I suspected. Your political system is severely impoverished IMO, despite (or perhaps because of) the millions of dollars that get thrown at presidential election campaigns.

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
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It helps support the illusion that all that matters is personal determination and skill, the notion those that hold power may do as they please because they are the superior individuals and have earned the right.

 

This is the one that gets me lately. Many people seem to have this idea that CEOs, presidents, etc, must actually be *smarter* and *better* than the people around them. Otherwise, how would they have gotten such a prestigious position?

 

Many Americans actually believe Bush *must* be smart, because he's the president. And how could a stupid man become president?

 

It's as if these people are totally ignorant of the role of money and patronage in advancement.

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This is the one that gets me lately. Many people seem to have this idea that CEOs, presidents, etc, must actually be *smarter* and *better* than the people around them. Otherwise, how would they have gotten such a prestigious position?

 

Worse, I've seen somebody argue to the extreme (on a "skeptics" forum, no less) that Paris Hilton "must" be intelligent because otherwise how could she become so successful and famous? He even went as far as defining a new form of "social intelligence" for the sole purpose of arguing that Paris Hilton possessed it and therefore was "intelligent". :rolleyes:

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He even went as far as defining a new form of "social intelligence" for the sole purpose of arguing that Paris Hilton possessed it and therefore was "intelligent". :rolleyes:

 

BAH HA HA HA! I hear you Orb. Being intelligent and having the ability to make yourself a social whore are two completely different things. That person didn't know the difference obviously.

 

As for the main post about lyrics....my songs are doomed to fail if being too honest and introspective is the 'wrong way' to write lyrics. lol What a bunch of stupid morons the industry is at times.

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Worse, I've seen somebody argue to the extreme (on a "skeptics" forum, no less) that Paris Hilton "must" be intelligent because otherwise how could she become so successful and famous? He even went as far as defining a new form of "social intelligence" for the sole purpose of arguing that Paris Hilton possessed it and therefore was "intelligent". :rolleyes:

 

I also think that there are different forms of intelligence. Being a good mathematician, doesn't mean that you are also a nice guy. And when it comes to success in business, being good alone doesn't neccessarily mean that you will be hired. We alread had this discussion before I think. If you are the best guy in a given field, but you are an asshole and can't work in a team, it could mean that you will not be hired, and instead another person will be taken, which might not be so good, but is more social. Which means, that a single value for "intelligence" doesn't cut it, because it would not be able to explain, why you are good in one field but horribly fail in others. Maybe the term "intelligence" is overrated or missinterpreted.

Gerhard

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@Crispy: When PepsiCo sponsored the Woodstock 2or3 a few years back, the ads running here showed crowds of people jamming to the music with "With Love, from Pepsi" signed across the bottom. Ads here trumpet your ability to choose a new "lifestyle" via their selection of wooden floors, sports cars, hair colorings, or cheese puffs.

 

@Springheel/Orbweaver: Its endemic here. The "land of the free" is filled with people who assume that anyone wealthier or more influential than they are is inherently better. I've seen it in cities and small towns, all over the place. In our business programs, especially our elite ones, they explicitly tell these idiots that they are going to be the captains of industry, the leaders of society. I mean it, thats what they tell them, in those words. So they believe it. And then the masses are constantly bombarded with the myths of a society of total freedom of movement and the notion that you are utterly and totally responsible for your fate, so they think "Hey, if I really wanted to I would do it, I haven't, therefore its my fault I'm not a CEO or a university president."

 

@Orbweaver: hes trying to protect his illusions about the country, Im assuming hes a USer although I've talked to non USers who defend the US rabidly, he sees a patent, self admitted imbecile tottering about drunkenly on his TV and rather than decrying the insanity of a world that promotes such wasteful and empty lives and the millions of dollars they consume needlessly, he assumes that since this is the land where the best run the show, Paris >must< be from the best.

 

People literally worship wealth here, they fawn over the wealthy like royalty, when instead they should shoot them in the face. They are devout believers in the Church of the Land of Opportunity, even if they are not among the Elect who will be taken up into heaven they still have to gibber and dance at the alter of Mammon. Its a sticky, gobby mix of faith, patriotism, superstition, militarism, consumerism, and dealing with it is enough to drive one insane. When I get into a discussion here, unless its with an educated or at least informed crowd (and education is certainly no guarantee of clear thinking, I should add!) , its not uncommon to have to deal with the silliest beliefs, things you and I have dismissed decades ago from our lives, as viable information because the well meaning schmuck you are talking to really believes that shit. Its kind of like having to start every conversation over, time and time again, moving back up the chain of reasoning until you get to the simpler stuff, then work your way back up to your original point.

 

This is one reason why I believe this country will take a sharp rightward turn towards fascism when the next economic downturn hits hard. Many of the symptoms are already in place.

Edited by Maximius
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Which means, that a single value for "intelligence" doesn't cut it, because it would not be able to explain, why you are good in one field but horribly fail in others. Maybe the term "intelligence" is overrated or missinterpreted.

I feel that the concept of "g," a general intelligence that the IQ test supposedly measures, actually does far more harm than good. But, this is really a topic deserving a new thread (I don't have time to write one up just now, though).

 

This is one reason why I believe this country will take a sharp rightward turn towards fascism when the next economic downturn hits hard. Many of the symptoms are already in place.

I've been saying this since 9-11-2001--albeit with a slightly different instigator of said paradigm shift. I'm just glad I'm not the only seeing the signs.

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I've been saying this since 9-11-2001--albeit with a slightly different instigator of said paradigm shift. I'm just glad I'm not the only seeing the signs.

 

Check out some of those shows I like to post about, Against the Grain at KPFA, or Behind the News with Doug Henwood from LBO. Somewhere in the archives you can find about a half dozen different interviews with historians and social scientists who are pointing to ominous clouds gathering on the political horizon, don't be afraid to dig deep into the archives for old shows either, most of their discussions are still relevant to today.

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I also think that there are different forms of intelligence. Being a good mathematician, doesn't mean that you are also a nice guy. And when it comes to success in business, being good alone doesn't neccessarily mean that you will be hired.

 

I agree -- there are other forms of intelligence, but the argument here was that Paris must necessarily possess one of these types, rather than just having the good fortune to be rich enough to buy herself celebrity status. Exactly how many advisers, stylists, publicists etc must she have, telling her what to do and say every day? I don't believe for a minute that she is the author of her own fame and success.

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I agree -- there are other forms of intelligence, but the argument here was that Paris must necessarily possess one of these types, rather than just having the good fortune to be rich enough to buy herself celebrity status. Exactly how many advisers, stylists, publicists etc must she have, telling her what to do and say every day? I don't believe for a minute that she is the author of her own fame and success.

 

Its really hard to say what exactly she is famous for and successful at, even. She doesn't really do anything, after her stupid reality show she just appears in movie cameos, on the covers of People and Us magazines, and at the Betty Ford Clinic on a semi-regular basis. She is merely an icon of wealth, to be envied and coveted,I cannot think of anything else she has done. Yet the Celebrity Creation Process rolls on, churning her face up over and over again. It was the same when Anna Nicole Smith died, it was a constant rain of images and commentary, some even on the nightly national broadcasts.

 

 

Getting back to fascism, here is a terrifying show about police intimidation of protesters in the US.

 

http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=21749

 

Whats especially scary are how corporate interests are directly shaping laws to pro-actively label environmentalists as terrorists and jail them merely for speaking, for long periods of time.

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I agree -- there are other forms of intelligence, but the argument here was that Paris must necessarily possess one of these types, rather than just having the good fortune to be rich enough to buy herself celebrity status. Exactly how many advisers, stylists, publicists etc must she have, telling her what to do and say every day? I don't believe for a minute that she is the author of her own fame and success.

 

I don't know. I guess there are all kind of rich people, who are not constantly in the rainbow press, so I guess she likes it. But I don't really know enough about these guys (and gals), because usually I don't follow the rainbow press at all. :) Before I had kids, I wouldn't even have recogniced most of the famous actors when I saw them out of a movie, because they usually look quite different and I never cared for wether Robbie Williams had a problem with his digesting, or wether Madonna had broken one of her fingernails. :)

My daughter follows this crap, much to my dismay I must say, so of course I also here more now of this stuff, but I can't say I care about it. If an actor is good I enjoy the movies, and that's as much as I want to know about them. Just because my hair stylist is good at his work, doesn't make me want to know about all his life either. :)

Gerhard

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Too right. Reminds me of a TV ad I saw the other day. There's this guy walking along a shelf looking into boxes marked "Todd's Life", each with a depiction of a "different life" inside - one has a wife and kids, one has a sports car and a chick, etc. He considers them all in turn, shakes his head, jumps down off the shelf and runs out the door. Then the voiceover says "Life wasn't meant to be pre-packaged... so fly Virgin Blue and get a free month of Foxtel!"

 

:blink:

 

Spot the irony here.

Hey yeah you're from Australia too :) I just saw the same ad last night. I don't usually watch TV but I was at a friend's house. It's a cool ad though, plus I tend to ignore the product anyway. I remember "Cool ad with a guy as a toy, life shouldn't be pre packaged (ah I get it!) blah blah blah. Something about Virgin, whatever."

 

 

Ads here trumpet your ability to choose a new "lifestyle" via their selection of wooden floors, sports cars, hair colorings, or cheese puffs.
Well I think that has been the way most ads try to appeal to you ever since ads were invented :)
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      I've updated the articles for your FMs and your author category at the wiki. Your newer nickname (DeTeEff) now comes first, and the one in parentheses is your older nickname (Fieldmedic). Just to avoid confusing people who played your FMs years ago and remember your older nickname. I've added a wiki article for your latest FM, Who Watches the Watcher?, as part of my current updating efforts. Unless I overlooked something, you have five different FMs so far.
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
    • OrbWeaver

      I like the new frob highlight but it would nice if it was less "flickery" while moving over objects (especially barred metal doors).
      · 4 replies
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