Movie Software make HT a Waste of Resources?

Discretionary income is what is left over after what is necessary has been purchased. What seems relevant is what portion of your income and the rarest of things, time, goes into this diversion. So little time in this country is invested in understanding our place in the world. To me, to be alive is to be aware. In fact, that is often the criteria for determining Quality of Life or if you technically Dead! There is such liberation and fulfillment that comes from understanding and exploring the world around us. From that simple, yet, profound lense: The investment in dollars in Movies is to me, not as, much a problem for the dulling of America as the amount of time occupied with escape to the manufactured, unreal (often not even remotely believable)worlds of Hollywood. Diversion is not a problem but it is when that becomes the greatest limitation to understanding the difference between diversion and what is real. So much about America leds to fat bodies and dull minds: An example, Go to work in a climate controlled driving space of a gas guzzling SUV, then go into the sheltered parking garage, enter into the climate controlled office building for work, leave for home after work in the SUV, hit the garage door opener so you don't have to make your legs work for 20 feet, go into the climate controlled house, get a cold one, enter into the home theatre room with multi-controlled lighting systems, turn on an escape movie, listen to some bombs from the left rear channels panning to the right front channels, then before going to bed listen to the news presented by Corporations interested in keeping the American Public dull and unquestioning of norms (by the way, check out www.fair.org "Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting" to see what I am talking about).

I think a better summary as delivered by another Audiogon'er who responded to the exact same question I posed in another section thread. Here is his response:.

"The sad reality is that, for a substantial portion of the American public, crap is now the acceptable norm. One of my favorite entertainers was Steve Allen, a true Renaissance guy, who some years ago wrote a book about the "dumbing down" of America. What is happening in the American movie industry is but the unfortunate reflection of a poorly educated (in the full sense of the term) and relatively uncultured American population. The barbarians are no longer at the gate -- they now represent a significant influence in the U.S. population. Is it any wonder that the Islamic countries worry about cultural decay due to American influences?"

I had to respectfully laugh for quite a while upon reading the "summary" statement that our society is far from ideal offered as almost an excuse not to live an Examined Life vs the Unexamined Life (actually it is "Examined" by the media that tells us all we need to know. Why do people Examine the assumptions only after a traffic accident like 911 and ENRON?). So often that summary seems to make people feel good inside in some perverse way and make things right through the non-reflective self-answer: "Wow, we are all in this soup together so our collective ideas must be right!" Mike Tyson and variety of misfits have used the phrase "I am not perfect so....blah blah blah". Seeming to imply no one is perfect so we should not question the extent of our own imperfections as a person or as a society. Almost everywhere in the world outside of the US. People have the opinion like the other audiogoner presented above:

"The sad reality is that, for a substantial portion of the American public, crap is now the acceptable norm. One of my favorite entertainers was Steve Allen, a true Renaissance guy, who some years ago wrote a book about the "dumbing down" of America. What is happening in the American movie industry is but the unfortunate reflection of a poorly educated (in the full sense of the term) and relatively uncultured American population. The barbarians are no longer at the gate -- they now represent a significant influence in the U.S. population. Is it any wonder that the Islamic countries worry about cultural decay due to American influences?"

Most successful European Countries do not work as many hours because of some weird notion they have that "Time is more valuable than Things" (I think they got that idea from talking to some corpses:). In America you do not have Time for Things you buy because you are always working to buy them. Then when you get them they do not make you happy. So, with the assumption if you made more money you could buy even more expensive things which will make you happy since the cheaper ones did not, you go for next higher job which requires more Time so you have less Time for the things that cost more that still do not make you happy. So you go for the next higher job....blah blah.....".

Things change initially by being introduced to other points of view. How many movies that are widely distributed challenge us (challenge should not be bad word but somehow in US the media wants it that way)? Of that small select group of films that expand our view of the world how many would make a hill of beans of difference if you heard through a 4" TV speaker or $120,000 ATC System? Volume maybe is only necessary if what you have to say is not obvious without making it the only thing your brain can deal with because it overwealms all other senses.

I once heard that people need stronger spices in food as they grow older because their senses have dulled. Maybe that is the logic of Home Theatre?

Growth and wonder are prime ingredients in bringing excitement to life and the true value of youth. Whereas stagnation via a broken record of non-ideas is very dangerous and unhealthy. This is not a matter of litening up (another cliche excuse to go brain dead or asleep and focus on primal sports metaphors for making decisions in life). Rather this is about putting some high octane fuel into the engine of wonder: The Brain you own but that Media apparently is renting with right to purchase at the end of the lease.

:)

PS: I think it does matter how much one spends on anything since it puts a cap on or eliminates other options including charity. In addition, there is more than a strong tendency to give a disproportional amount of time on things we over emphasize in our family budgets often far beyond our actual fulfillment or enjoyment of them.

:0 What an Insightful Real Life Concept!

By the way, doesn't it sound like a new Star Wars Sequel "The Axis of Evil"