I have two of the most fantastic jobs a college student could ask for. First of all I work at the climbing wall in the rec center. Love to climb, love the people, love the work, what else is there. I am also an RA at a dorm for three foreign exchange students from Korea that attend a local private high school. I get paid a great deal. Pay is pretty much like salary, not based on hours. I get paid to sleep, study, play video games and watch TV. This "dorm" is actually an apartment. I am responsible for making sure these guys eat, don't kill themselves, and have a ride. But I am starting to really hate this job. Solely because of the TV and video games. Entertainment is the true opium of the masses, and I am a junky.
I'm a little depressed right now. Mainly because I feel like I completely wasted a day. I spent almost all day watching television. I watched television because I swore to myself I wasn't going to play video games. I did that because the other night I spent close to eight straight hours playing. That's rediculous!!! And I hate it!!!
Thoughts on video games:
I don't have myself completely convinced yet but i'm starting to think that video games are sitting the fence between sin and temptation. Playing video games is the biggest waste of time currently on the earth. It can be stressfull, very time consuming, pointless, tiring, mind numbing, degrading, and it goes on. Also they're not real. A person participates in nothing real by playing video games. They're a lazy form of immagination. A person could sit down and write a story, paint a picture, build something, or even follow some logically deduced pattern of thought to the next great epaphany that will change mankind as we know it. Or you can sit in front of a television manipulating programmed colors that immatate some romantic version of life that never really exists. They leave no room for true creativity. The only games I've ever really enjoyed are the sports games. I could play sports, or write about them, experience them, coach them, or any other number of things concerning them, but I would never achieve the greatness in the real world that I do on MVP Baseball 2006. In that fake world I an owner, manager, and star third baseman of the Houston Astros. But it does absolutely nothing for me in this world. You know the world I actually live in.
There is also something hypnotizing about them. They grab your attention like a naked person would. You just can't stop playing/looking. What is that? They are also a practice in over indulgence and superficiality. Grand Theft Auto? All the games by the rap artists? Fantasy games?
Finally, concerning video games, there is an obvious trend of guys loving them, and girls just not getting it. Granted there are a few girls and guys who bend from the norm, but I'm not talking about them. Why is it that guys are so drawn to them? Why am I? Let's take a look, here's what I've noticed?
1. Guys who are addicted to sports games (me) usually have some sporting failure, or unfulfilled need in his involvement in the past or presenct with some kind of sport.
2. It's usually weak, nerdy, pushover, timid, meek guys who love the shooter games and fantasy games. Granted all guys usually like them, myself included, but the obsessive ones are the afore mentioned ones.
3. The only video game I've ever seen girls really like and enjoy, without having guy friends that enjoyed them first are those stinkin dance/disco video games.
Conclusion: Video games are a perverted substitution for the real thing. Pushovers can finally lash out and destroy all who annoy. Old athletes, normal joes, and failed athletes may finally achieve that athletic god-like status and infamy of sports icons. The do gooder can finally steal a car pick up a prostitute and go on a cop killing rampage. Women can finally dance and operated how rap video's say they should. Basicly it creates a world of absolute control in which a man can overcome his weakness and rule his neighbors. Or would it be easier to say where man can rule, be great, conquer, take, achieve, command, fight, and be brave. It's a filler for the things most guys want but lack, and are told by the world that to be a man one must have. Video games are huge with youth groups, why? because "churches" today breed such a confusing, vague, weak image of a MAN, that video games serve as an arena in which little boys can act the man. In church girls are mainly fed the message "you are enough just the way God made you", guys get the "you were made to lead, be in charge, and set the example". I think that is why guys like the video games and girls just don't care that much. Video game play to a falling short attitude that society is constantly throwing in their faces. I also think that's whay girls follow the models, actesses, and female pop stars so closely; could be wrong about that though. I hate video games, but like all other temptation, my flesh yearns for them.
Television: television is the modern day arena to the coliseum. And like caesar it is used to rule. Most people base their political, fashion, artistic, religious, historical, and moral opinions on what is on TV.
It's scary how much the TV programming mirrors american culture. Get as much as you can out of the time your have. We have hundreds and hundreds of channels, and TV's that cater to watching more than one at a time and can record what your missing on top of that. There are channels for every interest immaginable. More than that, it's beautiful. When was the last time one saw and ugly person, background, or overall picture display on television. That's it's captivating power. Constant stimulation. A big shiny object. Sure you can watch the history channel and try to feel good about it, but even those programs are made to sell. There is even a channel that reports what is on your TV. I hate TV too.
Video games and TV are disgusting because to me they represent a sort of second hand disgusting reality. TV and video games mainly project what humanity would make of the world if given the opportunity. I feeds the soul the desires whispered to it by one's flesh. My friends I think most people look at TV's and video games much like Adam and Eve saw that apple. Looks cool, represents something we're not made for, something that should not be, and leaves us unfulfilled.
I'm sorry for the somber attitude, but like I said I've been in front of the TV all day, staring at the apple, and spoon fed the wants of the flesh and the whole time knowing that they aren't real, and wanting them anyway.
If you don't understand the title you need to watch Gladiator again.
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5 comments:
"Felix, there is a writer i respect. Now I haven't read his stuff, but he is out there doing it and I respect that." ~Zoodouglass.
I will have to sit down with an Estrella Galicia (there is a 1:1 relationship between this and Shiner) and read this. I LOVE that you have written so much and am going to plan my day around reading it.
till then,
i'm happy you found Estrella Galicia, i am hoping it's a brew though and not a girl. thank you for the comments. love you bro.
felix
television really is opiate of the masses. Why don't you think I opted for no cable at our house?
The thing that strikes me as so poignant to the issue of television is the media control of our knowledge. Orwell makes 1984 to represent a culture in which epistemologies are defined by a body of power greater than ourselves on this planet. It is scary as to how close he predicted this reality to happen. Television bends people's minds, make them think shallow and uncomplete ideas and realities, and numbs the senses. I am victim to this myself, and i know it's dangers, so i try to stay away. the power of television is the power it has to mold the senses into one consistent stream of consumerism. Even if you aren't buying something at the moment, you are still buying into fashion trends and reality tv show bastardization of life. The one question i ask is the chicken and the egg conundrum. Did the television create the fashion, or did the fashion create the television show? What I mean is this: do people take television to such an extreme that it guides the way they act, dress, and feel- or is the constant dialectical shift in pop culture that guides the currents of television? Or is it both?
Damn, I got nothing as scary as that last comment. I stand behind any decision to throw the boob toob out the window. It is like when Bull Durham gives up sex for the game. I have read your post with my beer. And I have pondered all day what to write. Here is what I got. You yourself have written the answer to your problems. And the answer is to write your problems. (little mr. miagi on ya there) write ALOT when you are bored. Make stories or journals or blogs or something. Start collecting your work and make a book. GENIUS!!! I love your writing, you have the talent, and i always want more. Please!!! Start writing stuff.
P.S. Maria is cute and is a friend of mine. Also, the beard is black and good like the muslim people, it just doesn't photograph all that well.
I have been trying to pin down the video game thing for awhile. You said it perfectly. I could never figure out why I have a certain opinion of men if I hear that they spend their evenings with the controller in hand... men with toddlers to wrestle with at that!
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