[78-L] Yawn

[Steve Thornton]

It's a miracle we're all still here, seeing as how civilization has been in
decline for over 6,000 years. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com 
> [mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Taylor Bowie
> Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 8:00 PM
> To: 78-L Mail List
> Subject: [78-L] Yawn
> 
> We are in receipt of more cheery pronouncements from the Sage of the 
> Northlands.   Generally I think life is pretty good,  but 
> some people seem 
> determined to convince everyone else that life is actually 
> terrible.  What a 
> waste of energy,  especially when the same rant is stated and 
> restated for 
> the umpteenth time.
> 
> I recall from my seventh grade Social Studies class that 
> there is a lot of 
> natural gas in Canada.  Now I know where it comes from.
> 
> Taylor
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Steven C. Barr" <stevenc at interlinks.net>
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 7:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Michael Jackson. A Balanced View.
> 
> 
> > (see END...WAY down there!)
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Donna Halper" <dlh at donnahalper.com>
> >> And that has long been a pet peeve of mine.  Not about Michael per
> >> se, but about what has been called (accurately) by other posters to
> >> this thread our celebrity dominated culture.  McLuhan was 
> right about
> >> TV contributing to shorter attention spans.  I mean, Farrah Fawcett
> >> (another celebrity) dies in the morning and all the major 
> TV outlets
> >> stop to mention and mourn her passing.  But by dinnertime, she's
> >> yesterday's news and everything is all-Michael all the time.  Okay
> >> fine, his story is perfect for the tabloid nature of cable-- it has
> >> mystery, scandal, and a protagonist who (like him or hate 
> him) was a
> >> bit eccentric.  But what I found odd was how NEWS people and
> >> POLITICAL commentators were forced into overdrive to suddenly treat
> >> this like the most important thing that ever happened.  I 
> mean Keith
> >> Olbermann and David Shuster doing 4 hours each (!) of live Michael
> >> Jackson coverage?  Anderson Cooper pausing to remember how he saw
> >> Michael at Studio 54.  OMG OMG OMG.  Reporters (and fans) talking
> >> about Michael as if he had been some kind of saint who walked among
> >> us.  Even if his life had no scandals at all, he was in 
> fact NOT the
> >> saviour of mankind and NOT a major factor in world events.  Yes, he
> >> made a lot of people happy and he sold a lot of records and he
> >> absolutely did a lot of charity work.  But 24 hour coverage of his
> >> passing and its effect on people?  Oh please.  I was not a fan of
> >> Ronald Reagan, but I understood the need to do thorough 
> coverage when
> >> he died.  I'm not a Catholic, but when the Pope died, I totally
> >> understood why this was an event worthy of lots of attention.  But
> >> Michael Jackson?  Not so much.
> >>
> >> And somewhere in South Carolina, Governor Mark Sanford was feeling
> >> very lucky, since his own scandal got pushed off the front burner,
> >> and whether the media should have given that so much coverage is an
> >> open question as well.  (Disclaimer-- I never liked the guy, never
> >> thought he was a good governor, and when my friends on the 
> right talk
> >> about how Republicans are the party of Family Values, my eyes glaze
> >> over.  BUT, once the scandal had unfolded, I kind of felt 
> it was time
> >> to move on to whatever the next thing was.  My sympathies are with
> >> the governor's wife and kids, none of whom, I am sure, ever wanted
> >> their personal problems made fodder to cable news...)
> >>
> >> But what really annoys me is that many of these cable channel and
> >> newspapers have cut back their international coverage and closed
> >> their international bureaus to save money.  Cover Iran?  Can't do
> >> it-- paranoid regime, and the few reporters still there got tossed
> >> out. Cover Africa?  No thanks.  Viewers don't care, or so we are
> >> told.  Cover Latin America?  Yeah, if Hugo Chavez says something
> >> crazy, we'll be there.  And if drug lords in Columbia are caught,
> >> we'll parachute some journalists in to report, and then parachute
> >> them back out again.
> >>
> >> And the most frustrating thing of all-- Michael Jackson 
> coverage got
> >> Fox (!), CNN and even MSNBC some of the biggest ratings the three
> >> have had since the presidential election.  People say they are
> >> shocked and disgusted by all that tabloid coverage, but 
> boy howdy, do
> >> they all watch it!!!
> >>
> > I was VERY fortunate (IMO) to have grown up WITHOUT television
> > (well, I did go to a downstairs neighbour's place to watch 
> Howdy Doody
> > afternoons?!). I was twelve before my family FINALLY bought a new
> > Zenith 21" table model TV...and its programs NEVER fascinated me
> > to the point of "forget EVERYTHING! Such&Such is on!!" This in turn
> > has let me, over the years, take a "disinterested, 
> uninvolved outsider"
> > view of television and its effect on western society!!
> >
> > My conclusion?! Television has, since its early-fifties 
> introduction, been
> > completely and totally responsible for the serious...nay, 
> critical...
> > decline in human society we have seen over those decades!!
> >
> > I grew up in small-town Illinois. What entertainment we enjoyed was
> > created by ourselves...pot-luck dinners, high-school plays and the
> > (square) dances, played by a live combo from the next village! All
> > of these gathered virtually ALL the citizens (usually at the local
> > high-school gym!).
> >
> > Then, in late 1953, Waynesville could receive TV!!! By 1955,
> > the local "events" had faded out...no one showed up, since they
> > were all seated in front of their TV set! Further, the 
> local children
> > did NOT learn morals and mores from their parents as they had
> > in previous generations...instead, they learned them from television
> > programs created with the aim of attracting as large an audience
> > as possible! The message given us by our TV sets was succinct
> > and simple..."GET MORE MONEY!!" This was 180 degrees
> > out of phase with what had held our little farming-based
> > community together...in fact, the FIRST step in "get more money"
> > was MOVE TO THE BIG CITY!
> >
> > So...we now have a greed-driven chaos instead of a society! We
> > claimed to be surprised when bank executives issued themselves
> > 7-figure "bonuses" out of their "bail-out" money...?! Well, TV
> > explains that quite well...?!
> >
> > And one can now buy HDTV sets with screens only slightly
> > smaller than Ohio...and see XXI-Jahrhundert idiocy very nearly
> > LIFE-SIZE!
> >
> > Fortunately, my predicted life span tells me I shall only have to
> > endure this b***roar for about two decades (unless society
> > TOTALLY collapses...quite possible...or the Muslim forces
> > elect to nuke Oshawa [gawdknowswhy?!])
> >
> > Thus spaketh Steven C...?!
> >
> > ...stevenc
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> 
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