As i get older I am slowly becomming more aware and less tolerant of the gullibility of people in society believing what is shown to be fiction on TV and thinking its real.

Two examples come to mind, particulaly from here, Stargate and The matrix. These 2 fictional movies seem to have spawned an entire genre of people who are prepared to accept them as true.

Personally I blame schools, in holding a liberal philosophy that allows people to express their views and hold their views without challange in case it hurts their egos. This is coupled with a loss of scientific thinking in schools.

Although we probably always had a dreamy disconnected part of our population who always believed in fairies etc regardless of the truth in the past, now it is more than just idle wishing. There are people who seem to be basing their lives on fictional creations, sort of like treckies on steroids.

Its a reflection of the power of the medium to control individuals and modify their beliefs.

Its also a reflection of a society where its better to believe in a fantasy instead of in reality either because reality is hard to bare, or fantasy is just more interesting. Its probably also a reflection on the adolescent male mind that they are more open to such belief structures.

I wonder if by coldly analysing our own belief structures what we all are accept as truth, is infact "programmed" into us via the media.

I am drawn to consider most of the Iraq situation as a form of programming. From seeing interviews with the ordinary iraqi's in falluga, currently under siege by the Americans in search of the terrorist, THEY don't see this as being directed at the terrorist bases, they see it as a direct attack on them, as ordinay people. So the propaganda that we are given is not reflected in the lives of the ordinary people.

There must be many other "givens" in society that we all accept as truth which are instead created fictions....

[edit on 23-10-2004 by Netchicken]

well maybe its not just the schools and media but everything about society that leads peolpe to want to believe the fiction on tv. they want to think humans alone could not do these terrible things so there must be some other force driving these events. Kinda like the idea of werewolves or vampires back in the day ya know amutilated corpse found no regular man could do this so it must have been a monster. its seems to me like a defense mechanism for some people withdraw from reality to make these things seem more palatible. also they may want to feel a little more important in a world where they don't matter so its not them its some
diabolical force holding them back making sure they conform. as far as changing this its not gonna happen worldwide or stop by no means
but maybe if you start with people you know and try to reach out to them you can make a difference in your surroundings
also liberal and conservative views are present in the school structure because the side of the story waivers from teacher to teacher and also the way they carry themselves and their cirriculum
well thats my two cents believe it or not

WWWwweeeellllll......It's sad, and I hate it. Just the other day, I ran to Kroger to get some sanitary pads. (we're all adults here so I'm goon tell my little story)..it's been a while since I need them, so there were a lot of new stuff....one of which was "Now with a new, quiet pouch" I was like WTH....then I noted a lot of them stating that, one even had a little piece of it on the packaging to "feel" that they had the quietest punch available. I don't remember ever, a time when I have ever felt or heard anyone complain that the little pouch that the pad comes in is too noisy.....but someone came up with it as a marking ploy....and the American female public will go with it and run....sorta like those absurd reality shows. Put it out there and no matter what, people will stare at it. I don't understand it....they feed it to us, most people will eat it! I know your talking about other issues...but this is true...people are unbelievably gullible. It's as if people no longer use common sense and think for themselves anymore on so many issues and things..

Netchicken...I generally agree with you, but on one hand you denounce the belief in fictional movies like the Matrix, and then immediately say we are "programmed" how to think. Do you see any irony in your statements?

As I said, I agree with you on most of your points, but I would also include parents in this category. People can blame the media, education, video games, etc. all they want but when it comes down to it one area is generally at fault...PARENTS. Maybe it was a continual progression of "dumbing" us down, and even the parents do not realize that they are doing it to the children...a natural order of progression (or lack thereof) if you will.

Maybe it was a continual progression of "dumbing" us down,

It's funny you say that, because one think I have definately noticed which has become especially obvious the last couple of years is the "dumbing down" of the new up and coming generations. The amount of people I chat to online now who seem to have never been taught words like "this", "my", "laughing" or "with".

It's all "dat", "tha", "me", "laffin", "mah", "sed", "woz" etc .. gets hard to translate the garble into real english sometimes. Apparently also the rules for capitalisation of letters has changed too. I didn't realise you are now allowed to randomly capitalise letters wherever you want. According to one person in particular, "satire" is another word for "poetry"...

It's good to have an open mind but alot of people now seem to have their minds and everything that open that they're falling out.