Current Events > It's kinda weird how entertainment-centric our culture is.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Aside from politics, pretty much 90% of everything in our society is focused on TV, movies, and video games.

Like, how tf did people even live before this stuff came along.

Was going to ask if you ever heard of Rome, but someone already had it covered.

I mean, they had entertainment even back in the Roman Empire.

Basically, gladiator arenas and such. But only men were allowed to watch them.

What do you mean TC? How is everything politics, movies, tv, video games? Are you sure thats not just what you choose to spend all your time on?

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


cards

billiards

bicycling

wild west shows

carriage rides

drawing up blueprints for fantabulous flying machines

gentlemens clubs

shoe polishing

duels

Lots of sex

Bread and Circuses

They just ate food and slept

A lot of time was probably devoted to doing things that ensured you lived to the next day.

NinjaWarrior455 posted...

Lots of sex

Lol this seems plausible

Solar_Crimson posted...

I mean, they had entertainment even back in the Roman Empire.

Basically, gladiator arenas and such. But only men were allowed to watch them.

Women were allowed at the arenas in Rome. A quick google search could tell you that. However, and I can't stress this enough, the "Roman Empire" spanned 300 years if we're strictly defining it as the period which Rome was the capital. That's like saying women can't vote in America because, for most of it's history, they couldn't. Just like America, Rome (And every other culture on the planet) undergoes drastic cultural and legal changes over the span of literally hundreds of years. It's not particularly useful to think about Roman's, or any historical peoples, as some homogenous unit defined by specific and unchanging practices over centuries.

Playing outside and manual labor at home. Remember hearing it can take a whole day to prepare a meal.

As I've gotten older more of my time is spent watching TV. I have to make it a point to read more... Which I'm currently doing. But when I was younger I was just outside constantly. Hiking, canoeing, fishing, camping. Hell, I'm only 34 so it's not like I'm terribly old. But it's easy to get into a routine... Local news while cooking supper, national news at 6:30, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy next. Star Trek after that. Then it's time for bed.

When I was younger and not outside I gamed a ton and read, too. Used to read a book a day in highschool (300-400 pages minimum). But now it takes me forever to finish just one. That's on me, though..

It is all just distraction from the invisible expiration date we all have. We can + or - a few years, decade or two at most with change in living habits but ultimately it's set at birth.

Being a wick nearing the metal wax holder, or the last foot of wood in a timber mill being fed into the chopper. If you focus too hard on it, suddenly it feels like those 24 beeping heart beats that create tension and anxiety.

Did you ever watch Bojack Horseman? The penultimate episode goes into this somewhat.

So do you stare at your own demise or do you find ways to distract and forget. Cool. But you have no money and a shit healthcare plan so you don't want to do anything risky or drive your car too far because that check engine light has been on for a few years now and the piece of electrical tape is peeling. Each paycheque is like running down a hill tripping. You are trying to catch yourself and each stumble catches you momentarily but eventually you will either crash into something, lose momentum entirely, or fall.

So you turn on the tv and make use of your mirror neurons and watch other people going for extended unpaid leave for two months to be on survivor.

You pop in your headphones and listen to a podcast. Something to focus on here or there when the gasping drowning thoughts send shivers straight to your heart and the adrenaline ramps up in the dark.

You go see a movie and eat some tastey food. You read somewhere that memories are more vivid in novel experiences and the more you have the longer and fuller your life feels.

Suddenly it doesn't do much anymore. You try quitting your job to go on survivor. Third voted out. You try some beer leagues. Back thrown out bringing back memories 15 years ago from part time jobs that created lasting damage to your back and knees. You start to appear in these shoes.

Suddenly the realization hits that you are now on the other side of things. People are now watching you to peel off the salty layer of cold sweat and panic. Then it goes black as your neck breaks.

Anyway, shit gets real and escapism is easier than reflection and purpose.

If it wasn't for video games I'd be insane.

I get my frustrations out playing as a buxom vampiress who makes every human girl her bloodmeal.

DementedDurian posted...

If it wasn't for video games I'd be insane.

I get my frustrations out playing as a buxom vampiress who makes every human girl her bloodmeal.

Wasn't the most recent game from Blood Rayne in the GC era?