I think you read way to much into it.

I don't think movie makers plant ideas as much as they cater to what is popular at the time. I doubt movie makers have any clue when an earthquake is going to happen let alone passing a subconcious thought to anyone. When NASA and scientists made a big deal about astroids could destroy earth it took movie makers about a year to jump on that bandwagon.

Marketing on the other hand is phycological. Marketing causes fads and makes people believe they have to have things ects... Beenie babies is a good example. If something is popular at the time then everyone that has something to sell will cater to it. Kinda like these conspiracy sites. One day it is a comet and all the sites get crazy with it the next day it is something else.

Originally posted by jaydeePNW
I think you read way to much into it.

I don't think movie makers plant ideas as much as they cater to what is popular at the time. I doubt movie makers have any clue when an earthquake is going to happen let alone passing a subconcious thought to anyone. When NASA and scientists made a big deal about astroids could destroy earth it took movie makers about a year to jump on that bandwagon.

Marketing on the other hand is phycological. Marketing causes fads and makes people believe they have to have things ects... Beenie babies is a good example. If something is popular at the time then everyone that has something to sell will cater to it. Kinda like these conspiracy sites. One day it is a comet and all the sites get crazy with it the next day it is something else.

No, I think the problem here is people not reading into it enough. I blame television for the destruction of our soceity. Americans on average spend a 1/4 of our lives watching tv. Add that to the 1/4 of our lives working on average, and the 1/3 of our lives sleeping on average and it's clear on average we do almost no living at all. Instead we devote our free time to watching actors playing out fake lives,

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called Religion."

-Robert M. Pirsig

This quote hold true for tv as well. Just because soceity has accepted this oddity as normal doesn't make it normal.

Most people wake up, go to work, come home, turn on the tv, eat dinner in front of the tv, watch tv until bed, go to bed, turn on the tv in there room until they fall asleep. Wake up and do it all over again everyday Working their whole lives making some executive rich, while not being told how simple it is to make boatloads of money, just to die off on some $#!tty pension. A large percent of our population can't even sleep without the tv on.

I know deep down everyone knows how weird the concept of television is, I just wish people weren't so scared to speak up. Another idea planted by the media is that only crazies and (their favorite word)radicals are against tv.

Besides this isn't theory, enough producers, writers, directors, and creators of shows you probably watch have admitted to it.

You're right about marketing, and that's why it's used in storylines, it's called propaganda, and it's been used forever.

You can't tell me Family Guy, American Dad, The Simpsons, The Middle, South Park, any show on Adult Swim(which was put on cartoon network specifically so it will be watched by children), any show on MTV(Again another network marketed to the younger generation planting seeds of selfishness, sex, and rebellion one person at a time) doesn't have a large impact on the impressionable children.

Americans can't understand why we're hated so much worldwide. Aside from being the world police, the people of these countries see these shows as a direct reflection of the average American citizen. Sadly, they pretty much are.

I'm curious as to how the OP can rage at the typical person for being a zombie to mindless pop culture when the movie was a raging success that made a lot of people think about things. It was a powerful movie in the aspect that it got a lot of people to (maybe over) analyze various "philosophical" (for lack of a better word) ideals. Do you think it was just a bunch of psuedo intellectuals trying to justify something about their own existence? Judging by your post I can reasonably guess it means a lot to you, but do you disregard the ability of the general populance to do the same sort of analysis in their own way.

I love your (the OP) particular view and the view of another poster about advertising in the same way being a type of "inception" of a sort of societal programming for possibly the sake of the continuance of society as we know it. I think most people know how mundane their life is and that's exactly why a movie like this was so popular. It's great to think in ideals and say how things should be without thinking about how much terribly worse it could be.

Personally I think most people could relate to the final image is that contentedness with life is more important that anything else. That's not the sort of happiness of being a slave to the system as much as doing whatever it takes to get to a final goal, such as Dicaprio's character being with his children. Whether he was in reality or not doesn't matter, it's how it affects the reality of the viewer that made it powerful.

Also the comment was made that the media that America puts out is the reason that we are held in low regard by other countries. While I agree with this, I have found that a lot of people from other countries love some of the "art" (poor word choice maybe) that America has produced. For good or for bad, I can't really say, but I like the discussion.

I think its imperative that I point out an unintentional experiment and its results

From March of 1997 through November of 1999 I did not watch ANY TV whatsoever. I didn't even turn it on.

I was not happier, sadder, or anything else noticable.

Why didn't I watch it? none of your business (actually I got addicted to the internet, so I forgot all about it)

I also haven't listened to the radio since 1997 - I have no idea what mainstream music looks like - any music I know anymore is passed on to me through others. And I feel super blessed that all I know about Lady Gaga is she looks like what happens if Madonna and Marilyn Manson have a baby.

oh and finally, since I came here from your other thread - please stop ragging on family guy - Stewie is my idol

thanks so much ♥