I spend a lot of time shouting at the T.V. when I'm watching it.
Drives the kids and husband mad, I'm suspecting.
But something kind of hit me today (there's a song title in there, M'sieur Bowie!).
And it's this:
Advertisements are like thoughts.
As a container for information, there they are: that 1 minute slot blaring out its message.
And (now this is from a complete vivality point of view, you understand) 99.9% (scientifically proven, just like the bleach ads) of the information in these adverts is complete... bollocks.
So, there's a 60 second slot and it says for instance: Buy this yoghurt; be vital and alive with shining eyes and glossy hair and a flat stomach and you will find love everlasting with the man/woman of your dreams and live in a dream house and have fabulous children... and yada, yada, yada. They paint a picture that has no basis in reality. How often have you seen an advert that said something like 'buy this washing powder, it'll get most of your clothes clean, hopefully.'?
JUST LIKE THOUGHTS.
They both deal in the non-existent, the happy-ever-after. (or the 'Oh, my God, what if!')
Thoughts are advertisers of 'WHAT'SNOTHAPPENING' (to borrow from Paul Hedderman).
They sell you a crock of shit, that's not happening now, has never happened, and will never happen.
And they get paid for it. Not in money, like the advertisers - but in attention and energy.
NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT!
Most of the programmes on TV are fictional (unless they're documentaries or news stories, and even that's debatable!). But adverts tend to have this air of 'listen to me, I''m telling the truth' about them. As though they're 'fact'.
Just like thoughts. There's a tendency to believe that what thoughts are saying is what is actually true. Only when you stop and turn your attention to examining the content of the thoughts rather than getting engrossed in what they're saying, do they become laughable... just like the adverts on T.V. Turning your attention to how untrue the content of thoughts is, is like shouting at the adverts on T.V. for being ridiculous.
And I'm not stopping - cos it's fun! How about you?
That's the thing. Even when you see through the adverts as being a whole load of rubbish, they're still just as addictive as ever. So are you still believing them or are you just on a ride you don't want to get off?
ReplyDeleteI mean, Cillit Bang. What's not to love about that? :)
No, once you realise the ads are lies, you can't believe in them anymore. I enjoy shouting at the TV too much to get dragged in by what they say is true ;-). The guy that does the Cillit bang ads lives in the same town as I do - he gets shouted at a lot when he's out and about!
ReplyDeletelol - that's what you call justice. :-D
ReplyDeleteI've just been watching a whole bunch of TV with the sound turned down. It's very liberating and allows you to observe all the activity without getting engaged in it.
ReplyDeleteTV is such a fictional world. Even what purports to be reality is just a fiction that's bought into. Hmm, now that rings a bell... :)
Well, the story that's being told in the tv programme is fictional (even if it's a documentary, it still doesn't make it true). But the scene that contains the tv and the pictures on it? Is that real?
ReplyDeleteYou can't trust the senses and everything they send to the mind is interpreted by the mind so the only conclusion you can reach is that it's all fiction. Cool fiction, but fiction nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteSo..... What is real?
ReplyDeleteLol. I knew you were going to ask that. This is what the guys at Ruthless Truth have got me doing. All I know is that thoughts are not real and by virtue of that fact, I can't verify that time is real either, seeing as it only exists in the mind. I'm verifying things as they come and nothing has stood up to the test so far...
ReplyDeleteIs this real?
ReplyDeleteI know I exist so that's real but if by "this" you mean what I am experiencing then that's a no.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know 'you' exist? And how can you say that what you're experiencing doesn't? If it's being experienced then in what way can it not be real???
ReplyDeleteI know I exist because I am aware and that awareness is independent of my surroundings. I KNOW I exist.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my surroundings appear as they do to me through the senses but these can be tricked, as anyone who has ever done acid can tell you. Then on top of that, there are thoughts that invent another layer of unnecessary fiction.
If thoughts are removed I still exist.
If senses are removed I still exist.
So what I'm saying is I exist but I can't make a judgement on what I am experiencing using the tools through which I experience it.
Actually that didn't quite answer your question. Why I said my experience can't be real is because I KNOW that my experience of the world differs from yours and so they are both just interpretations of reality.
ReplyDeleteWho knows, I may have got lucky and been the only person who is experiencing true reality where everyone else experiences an interpretation but I strongly doubt it. So my "reality" MUST be just as much an interpretation as anyone else's. ;-)
Sorry. Can't stop talking.
ReplyDeleteI may know I exist but I don't know what "I" am. Unravelling the layers of fiction is the only way I can find that out.
Okay, I think I'm done for the night. :)