The value of reality tv to Corporations

[Az]

Corporations have and active interest in manipulating the publics opinion. There is only so much they can do to improve the supply side of the supply/demand curve. Marketting and advertising are their means to manipulate the demand portion of the curve. Who actually wanted clear coke?

To this end it is in the corporations interests to reduce the public's abilities in a number of ways. First off critical thinking is a major issue. Critical thinking skills give people the ability to figure things out for themself. The ability to question what we are told derives from this. Thus you will see that much of the programming being pumped into our living rooms favors belief over skepticism. Shows like X-Files casts the scientists and those that question true believers in the naive roll.

Consider the evolution of Scooby Doo. Once Scooby and the gang would catch the bad guy and pull their masks off. These days they fight real monsters.

Another aspect the corporations benefit from is competition. Our natural social drive is to cooperate with each other. As social creatures we work to build societies in order for all to do well. But television and marketters want us to compete with each other. They teach us its every dog for themself. Be number one or you are nothing. This turns us against each other. This isolates us and makes us easy prey for those who wish to further manipulate us.

An now we have reality tv. But it isn't is it. These people put before the public are in artificial circumstances. A real Survivor situation would have people cooperating for all to survive. Instead the marketters give us an artificial antisocial construct in which individuals are encouraged to stab each other in the back. And this is sold as reality tv.

In fact what is being pumped into our living rooms is an attempt to restablish social order built upon the Corporate criteria. Instead of our evolved social cooperativeness they seek to place their model of social darwinism in its place. They seek to turn us agaist ourselves. They seek to ever tighter graft their concept of success to our concept of success.

We already measure the succes of our nation by the Stockmarket and the GDP. These are measures of the health of corporations. Not people. We have few if any measures of how We The People are doing. The corporations want us to see our lives as defined by their success. They want us to give them our freedom. They seek to render us utterly dependent on them.

It is wrong to say want though. Corporations do not want these things. It is simply what they must strive towards within the rules of the system they function in. Just as we must continue to draw oxygen they need to continue to draw resources from us. Whatever they can do to insure the continued flow of resources is exactly what they will do.

It matters not that corporations are comprised of human beings. Those people within the corporation can only react within the rules governing the system it is part of. They are really just cogs in the machine.

[sangh0]

1. Thank you, AZ

Once again, your insight has aided me in comprehending the meaning of the world that surrounds me. That was excellent.

[cprise]

2. These reality shows

...are geared to show average people in a negative light. After they induce self-loathing, they like to show how hyper-competitiveness (stabbing each other in the back) actually makes everything 'OK'.

And then there are the Survivor-like shows: Always trimming their Bell Curve.


Who Wants To Marry A Milionaire?

A: All these craven gold-diggers who are out to pull the wool over the eyes of our hard-working entrepeneur.

Its in the commercials, too. They actually portray the target audience as stupid, lazy, etc.