On TV
TV serves as a reinforcer of false values, of luxury items that have no appreciable value, and acts as a conduit for other items with false value, like cable, HBO, DVR, On Demand, etc. Some of these are items which I, as a consumer, do admit I do pay to receive. I recognize this from a global perspective, but also seek internal rationalizations for my actions - I need a TV to play a video game for which I pay $X, and can find enjoyment from for a week to a month; I need a TV to watch Netflix, which can distract me from how horrible life is for an hour or two. This need to remove oneself from the reality of one’s situation is an ever present mode of human life; if I were not spending this money on television I would probably be drunk or on heroin or really into dressage or something. However, this removal cannot distract me from the idea that there is something better that I know I could be doing. I know I should smash my TV, but I also know that I spent five hundred fucking dollars on that thing - but what were those five hundred dollars worth? Were they worth the time I spend selling myself to advertisers, to the XBOX 360? The time I spent earning that money? When I look at the amount of time and money I have spent on meaningless pursuits that served only to distract me from how sad and angry I am, instead of spending that time on examining why I might be sad or angry, I get sick to my stomach. Especially when coupled with the knowledge that I am never going to give up my big television or XBOX or Netflix, or cigarettes or marijuana or I dunno, fast food hamburgers - anything stunting my growth as a human being through its marketed false value. The things that keep us comfortable also reinforce the idea that our station in life is okay, that we’re content, and that so long as we keep doing what we’re doing, we can afford it; and if we work harder at whatever we’re doing, maybe we could afford a bigger TV, a faster internet (which notably has NO ADDITIONAL VALUE as compared to a cheaper internet), the next tier in a Netflix subscription or maybe also Hulu+. It discourages the idea of change, and it forces us to relax and to accept. Maybe that’s not that bad, maybe it’s just me. But I know once upon a time I thought I was too good for all this crap.
4:06 am • 16 March 2013 • 1 note
tetradugenica-je-srbija:
get out of here you rich old miser, all that is solid melts into air, all that is sacred is prophane, your piano is my next target
All that is sacred is propane, and propane accessories
(Source: ronpaulfuneralcity)
7:31 pm • 10 May 2012 • 4 notes
“A lot of people arrive in Africa to assume that it’s a blank empty space and their goodwill and desire and guilt will fix it. And that, to me, is not any different from the first people who arrived and colonized us. This power, this power to help, is just about as dangerous as hard power, because very often it arrives with a kind of zeal that is assuming ‘I will do it. I will solve it for you. I will fix it for you,’ and it rides roughshod over your own best efforts.”
— Binyavanga Wainaina
(Source: gowns)
5:09 am • 8 March 2012 • 115 notes
“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham City Jail, 1963 (via gowns)
(Source: coreyrobin.com, via gowns)
5:09 am • 17 January 2012 • 150 notes
roulette strategy: a work in progress
betting on the end of the row pays out 2:1 so if you bet 1 you get back 3
betting between two pays out 17:1
betting between four pays out 8:1
winning straight up pays out 35:1
betting between the 2nd 12 and the 3rd 12 is the same as betting between 0 and 00 which i didn’t know for a while
it’s really embarrassing to reach across the board and knock someone else’s chips over
so if i bet fifteen on the two rows and then singles across the inside that’s a $46 bet
if either of the two rows come up i’ll have $53, and i’ll be $7 ahead
if anything in the third row or a zero comes up i’ll have either $18 or $35 for a loss of either $28 or $11
i don’t know if betting safe like this is worth it for such a small payoff
if i ignore the third row and zeros completely and spread that ten across the first two rows i stand to make, if i’m lucky, $88, putting me $42 ahead, or if i’m only a little lucky i’ll still be $7 ahead (assuming i use that ten on straight up bets); but then if i’m unlucky i lose the whole $46
and of course ultimately it all comes down to luck, trying to plan for roulette is silly; which is why it appeals to me in the first place
but if i win a few times in a row i’ll have a pretty decent amount of winnings; the trick is quitting while i’m ahead and ignoring the temptation to make higher bets
hmmmmmm
3:39 pm • 31 August 2011 • 6 notes
