Thinking

I was listening to the radio today and this song came on, and it got me to thinking about something I was thinking about the other day too, about western culture and the messages we get through it. I mean, it's a catchy song, nice tune, and I won't deny that I was cycling along on my bike feeling a bit uplifted. But you know? If I sit down and think about my values and my beautiful and not so beautiful experiences of human relationships, this song doesn't say anything to me. In fact, I think it's completely toxic (and I do not use that word lightly). This holding up of marriage as the be all and end all for women, the happiest day of a person's life, I could write pages about that. But it's not just that song and those ideas. I was standing in the supermarket in the magazine aisle yesterday, and I picked up what looked like an intelligent women's magazine, opened a page at random, and it was about low fat and sugar cakes, and I just put it back and thought, you know what, I'll leave it. Name me a tv show that you feel like, unironically, that show teaches me something about the world and helps me grow. It's tough to do, right? I like Deal or no deal, but at the end of the day it's just, subliminal advertising for banks or something, and laughing at the funny people. This barrage of culture that we're exposed to, every single day, through the tv, radio, adverts, some books, shops, I think we just don't notice it. I think we just get bullshit messages all day long and maybe, just maybe, that's why we have some warped values. We don't have bullshit messages just because we have warped values. I've always thought the whole adbusters thing was ok, but I've always had a problem with it, and I never knew what it was. Anyway I think it's because the adverts are the least of my worries. In fact, you know what, all that stuff about mum going to Iceland is healthy compared to most of the junk that we see and hear. Suggesting to women that they do one bloody great big cheap shop and don't beat themselves up about a bit of frozen food, I mean, yeah it's probably mostly crap, but compared to Any Questions, it's fine by me. I don't know what the answer is, but I don't want that stuff in my brain any more. Actually, I do know what the answer is, at least a tiny bit, and at least for me. I'm going to make positive choices about the culture I consume. I'm going to use my critical faculties a bit more, and try to notice when I'm getting messages that I don't agree with. I'm going to chose culture that I think is healthy to have around me. Anyway clean your ears out with this if you need to ;-)