"Old Days" don't seem better to one who has lived

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More than 52 years too late. Candid Camera started in 1948.

I apologize for bumping my own thread but I believe I know what prompted it to begin with.

Anyway what I prefer about today's world compared to 40+ years ago (at least in the US) is that we've escaped from the naïveté that pervaded US society at the time. By which I mean the sort of naïveté that allowed millions of Americans to worship John F. Kennedy as some sort of God Incarnate. Although it's hard for me to explain exactly what I mean. The best explanation I can give to Americans is to invite them to watch US sitcoms of the 50s, 60s, and 70s and consider what was thought to be humorous or sophisticated in those days. This is one reason Mad Men is so popular, because nothing produced for TV during the time period portrayed would have shown this in any realistic way. For some reason, I find the thought of going back to this mentality depressing.

In contrast, my wife loves this sort of old TV show and has made it clear she wishes she could return to those days.

I don't know if this explanation makes sense or not. Now if only we could get beyond the sort of naïveté that allows millions of Americans to worship Steve Jobs as some sort of God Incarnate, we'd have a utopia.

Media of any time caters to the desired nostalgia of its readers, listeners and viewers. It is highly inaccurate and even offensive in a kind of overly simplified way. But, it is largely entertainment. Today's courts have determined that even the news is legally "entertainment." It may even be faked and based on lies without legal repercussions.

When the inventor of the television saw what it had been turned into by Hollywood, he denounced it as dangerous. There is a reason that broadcasters call their work "programming." For fans of certain programs, viewers often believe it is based on reality. Far from it. So, what programming occurs when a viewer watches "news entertainment" right before watching "drama entertainment" like CSI, NCIS and 24? Reality is sacrificed for the sake of ratings (cash). Furthermore, whole generations of viewers learn that such exaggerated behavior as displayed in these "programs" is normal, promoted and desired. Mimicry of these behaviors is what has given the world hundreds of millions of "sports heads," "gangstas," hyper-feminized women, and the idea that all fathers are Homer Simpson.

So in the old days they lied and called it "news" whereas today they lie and call it entertainment?

Hehe. Pretty much.

People were pretty sure the "American Dream" was falling apart in the 60's and '70s with the cold war and the threat of world ending nuclear conflict, assassinations of leaders, riots in cities and campuses and presidential nominating conventions, drug use and crime rates skyrocketing, Vietnam War and Watergate, acid rock music and hippies (symbolic of the decline for many of the Frank Sinatra generation).

The worst terrorists can do is take out a city or two not the whole world, crime is way down but fear and panicked controlling reaction is way, way up, and the economic reality is worse for most then during the 1970's when we had a combination of recession and inflation.

A lot of this is location, location, location. The 70's were not so great if you were in the Bronx when it was burning.

Well written!

Other than being mostly unscripted, Candid Camera wasn't much like reality TV, it was a practical joke show, where they messed with people's heads. There have been a few shows like it since (The Jamie Kennedy Experiment comes to mind), but nobody ever pretended any part of it was real, except for the dupe's reaction. All those "Funniest Home Video" shows were probably the real precursor to Reality TV.

Everything was better in the good old days.
Cars were beautiful, music was good, and television was wonderful, (though I concede television sets are better now, no more constantly adjusting an indoor ariel to get a visible picture),
The sky was bluer back then without a constant grey haze of whatever it is airplanes are dropping in the skys.
Their was about half as many people around so you could get a seat on the train or bus, go to a pub and get served right away even on New Years Eve. Traffic moved faster and there were so many more birds everywhere.

For me, NOW IS better than ever before;

however, I have a huge advantage; and THAT is financial independence
with never a worry on how I am going to gain and retain subsistence.

Living in this world, intelligent enough to navigate the positive and negative aspects of it, retaining and continuing to develop fuller body and mind balance with ever growing physical intelligence, life is amazing fun to me, and never better, NOW.

I honestly feel healthier, stronger, and more passionate ABOUT life, THAN I EVER HAVE; simply, AS I have got the 'LIFE, LIBERTY AND HAPPINESS' PART OF THE 'DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE', FIGURED OUT ON MY OWN; and yeah,
with the help of SOME of 'my friends'.

To be clear, what I mean by some of my friends is,

I seek the truth and light from all sources; light AND DARK.

MASLOW'S hierarchy OF NEEDS move from Physiological; to Safety; to Love/Belonging; to Esteem; to Self-Actualization; to Transcendence, a 6th level of altruistically sharing to help others as the ultimate expression of human being beyond what is required for self-actualization in gaining fuller human potential.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Maslow, suggests that one cannot move farther up the LADDER OF HUMAN POTENTIAL,
UNLESS THE SO-CALLED LOWER RUNGS ARE SATISFIED AND MAINTAINED FIRST.

AND truly his insights ring true for me, as I've moved from the top to the bottom and back in life, several times, depending on environmental circumstances.

The last bottom part, per chronic stress, not allowing me to stay and get past level one, almost literally kills me.

And truly, most people, these days, live in an environmentally produced 'level one', 'teetering' existence
in chronic STRESS, and that IS sad, and even more unfortunate, is that it CAN BE,
almost impossible to avoid in the prison that can be school, work,
and even 'home life', NOW.

The BIGGEST PROBEM, IS THE TOOLS OF HUMAN BEINGS; THAT AT FIRST MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR CREATURE COMFORTS, ARE NOW BECOMING THE MACHINE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION BEFORE THAT; THAT IS MAKING FINDING basic subsistence generating activities

in LEVEL ONE PHYSICAL EXISTENCE ALMOST

impossible for some folks in a world where:

'HUMANS NEED NOT APPLY';

AS THE SOCIAL ROLES ARE NOW RELEGATED TO MACHINES,
MOREOVER, AS TIME GOES BY THAN THE HUMANS WHO USED TO RULE THE 'ROOST'.

Historically speaking, ThERE are many metaphors of WARNING FOR THE HUMAN RACE in literary, theater, and even religious ARTS, from the 'APPLE OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE' TO THE 'TERMINATOR' AND 'MATRIX' SERIES OF MOVIES;

BUT THE TRUTH IS:

'1984', IS here now for many folks,

and much of that is the microcosm 'we' have 'here'

more fully related by those who do live in

'1984'.

I am free, to transcend NOW, in the '6th hierarchy' of human existence,

as I am innately instinctually and intuitively 'smart' enough in mind and

body balance, and fortunate enough in environmental experience to get

here NOW. But truly, for more people who live on 'this' InterwebZ

of vicarious virtual life, '1984' is here, NOW.

The social roles are GONE,

FOR MANY FOLKS, and there does

not seem to even be

A way 'HOME'

to even get the most

basic of physiological human needs met. So yes; that is a major part of why there
are sky-rocketing rates of Autism and other human disorders, like a third of all school
age children assessed now, as pre-type-2-diabetic; around 50-percent, or so, of adults on
types of pain medication for chronic stress related pain; AND sky rocketing rates of psycho-
tropic drugs for mental disorders, as an indirect and direct result of a culture where 'humans

NEED NOT APPLY'.

AND FOR THE FACTS

ASSOCIATED WITH THIS
EMOTIONAL POETIC EXPRESSION
OF MINE, THE VIDEO
BELOW,
'SPEAKS'
TO THOSE
DETAILS OF FACT,

QUITE WELL..



AND YES, I can tell ya what's wrong;

but I cannot fix a culture that truly is an
insane 'Clown EXPERIMENT', NEVER TRAVELED

BEFORE.

I WATCH THE CHAOS
FROM MY 'SAFE' PERCH
OF 'BRANCH' ON THE

'6TH RUNG',

'ABOVE'.

TRULY, THE FIRST
STEP IS GAINING THE PHYSICAL
INTELLIGENCE TO GET TO STEP

2.

AND SADLY, SOME FOLKS LIVE AND
DIE, AND NEVER EVEN TRULY LIVE
ONE NOW; THE BLISS,
OF WHAT CAN EVEN BE,

AT balanced
STEP
2,

ON A SAFE BRANCH,
ANYWhERE;

but

'here'.

Thank you