Sam Harris

Catching bits of Pope John Paul’s passing, funeral and associated rituals (unavoidable it seems if one has a tv) - it reminded me of another such event in the early 90’s.  Albeit this latest one was on a much larger scale, there were uncanny resemblances to the passing, funeral and associated rituals of North Korea’s Kim Il Sung.  To see women crying in public and crowds gawking in disbelief at the death of a man who represented a tenacious belief in a ruinous ideology was bad enough, but to realize that this very leader was responsible in large part to making these people’s lives miserable was even harder to fathom.  Women praising this pope for whatever reason they can muster in spite of his specifically denying them an equal status to that of men in the church seems as absurd as women praising President Kim for his humanitarian policies. 

Both spectacles reveal a level of delusion in the flocks (of sheep) that “baaaa” at some p.r. version of the truth (he was so kind, he loved everyone, he brought peace to the world), while the reality of his backward policies ensure that the world of their children will be no better than their own, perhaps even worse. 

Both scenes paint a picture of large crowds of delusional people who have bought into a false ideolgy and have raised their respective leader to the highest firmament of that fictional cosmos.  I do know that there are definite differences (political vs. religious; forced belief vs. chosen belief; etc,) but the response of the followers in relation to their leader seem about the same, especially when one considers how the true actions of that leader and the real consequences of his policies stack up against the imagined greatness of John Paul 2 and Kim Il Sung in the eyes of the mourners.

This funeral was such a pathetic sight (of being clobbered over the head by having to witness first hand the stupidity of so many people) that it left my hopes for humanity temporarily descimated.  I honestly couldn’t watch for more than 5 minutes without feeling a great sense of disillusionment pressing down on me. Comedy Central to the rescue!

Bob

Bob

I am really tired of the inability to get news

now, the stupid royal family of england is following the pope’s funeral

can’t ONE station give us some news?

NPR and PBS

Celebrity gets mentioned, then they move on.

Might I remind you that basic television network news no longer exists?  It has been replaced with entertainmentnews and politicalgotchanews.  Not to mention mydadcanbeatupyourdadnews and nahnahnahnews.  Whatever works to get the ratings and the capital, not to mention the political clout. Besides, they have to have the means to pay those pseudo-newsmen multimillion dollar contracts.

I wonder to what extent entertainment news is changing our sense of social reality?

yeah but PBS isnt available 24 hours, in our area we get one news show a night

BBC is still looking better as is telemundo

wonder if they are aware we quit watching them? = p

[quote author=“Iisbliss”]
wonder if they are aware we quit watching them? = p

Aware?  I think they could care less.  Actually, they probably appreciate the loss of viewers such as us.  If we don’t watch, we can’t criticize, and they have free reign with all the entertainmentnews junkies out there.  Because we are the minority, it’s probably a win-win situation for them.

Peregrine,I’m glad you pointed out how the “powers that be”
  could care less and are perhaps even happy that those who
  question their garbage are turning off the TV. They can make
up their losses with the average relentlessy consuming dope
and are probably elated to lose viewers who might pose a
threat to the status quo. This is the same thing I try to tell
idealistic college kids who somehow believe leaving the country
or moving to a commune/collective will change anything,to the
contrary,corrupt power will just have all the more breathing
space. They will sit in an exclusive strip-clubs with their cigars
and martinis and get a good laugh about the whole thing. I have
still yet to see even the most harsh critics of the RCC say anything
significantly negative on TV regarding the untouchable,saintly JP2.
Let’s face it,we may live in a “culture of death”(although my definitions of
what that exactly means are far different than those of the pope’s/RCC)but we also live in a culture of cowards.

For every sensible, critical viewer of US news television, there are 10 more people living in a trailor park that has just been wired for cable.

So the news stations don’t care about intelligent viewers - they just want numbers to impress their advertisers.

[quote author=“Nietzsche”]So the news stations don’t care about intelligent viewers - they just want numbers to impress their advertisers.

A lot of apparent absurdities regarding the media suddenly make sense when you realize their market isn’t the viewers but rather the advertisers.

Byron

I too was very unhappy with the overextended media coverage of Schiavo and, especially JP2 - the only other news to watch came from BBC, DW (Deutsche Welle), CCTV (Mainland China), Taiwanese News, NHK (Japan), and south asian news - Thankfully these other news media exist! - if not, then I would not have learned about the efforts by Japan to drill for gas in the disputed China Sea even during the high tensions about the UN Security Council seat, and the Japanese history curriculum - nor about many other very important things happening all around the world

nevertheless, I do credit the vatican (not just JP2) with electing JP2 to bring about independent in Poland and the ultimate separation of the various nations from the former USSR - I do NOT credit the incessant military buildup by the US during the cold war for this result (especially with Reagan) - the vatican was, in my opinion, by far the major factor in the independence movement in Poland (Solidarity) that led to the opening of the Iron Curtain - on the other hand, JP2 was too scared of the liberal movements in central and south america to provide support for those movements - that was not good

[quote author=“Anonymous”]I too was very unhappy with the overextended media coverage of Schiavo and, especially JP2 - the only other news to watch came from BBC, DW (Deutsche Welle), CCTV (Mainland China), Taiwanese News, NHK (Japan), and south asian news - Thankfully these other news media exist! - if not, then I would not have learned about the efforts by Japan to drill for gas in the disputed China Sea even during the high tensions about the UN Security Council seat, and the Japanese history curriculum - nor about many other very important things happening all around the world

nevertheless, I do credit the vatican (not just JP2) with electing JP2 to bring about independent in Poland and the ultimate separation of the various nations from the former USSR - I do NOT credit the incessant military buildup by the US during the cold war for this result (especially with Reagan) - the vatican was, in my opinion, by far the major factor in the independence movement in Poland (Solidarity) that led to the opening of the Iron Curtain - on the other hand, JP2 was too scared of the liberal movements in central and south america to provide support for those movements - that was not good

this was my contribution, but it was “signed” by “Guest” instead of me - seems that the “automatic” sign-on was not working when I entered this group - I don’t know why