Friday, February 8, 2008

Whose life it is anyways?

Few years back I had seen a movie in which a kid and his pet were trying to save the world which was conquered by some fictional dictator. The dictator had over powered the only one telecasting station in the earth and hence every TV on the earth was showing programs of his choice. He slowly and surely manipulated the whole world to agree with him. Each earthling was hooked on to TV and was controlled robotically by this dictator.

However imaginative it seems like, it is actually the reality. Though we do have numerous TV stations and channels, they all seem to telecast programs of same genre and appear to be controlled by a single authority. Soap Operas, regardless of language are hopeless and describe human relations in one of the most pitiable forms. The reality shows are pathetic and describe anything except what happens in reality.

Festivals are associated with religions and we do not want to be obligated in celebrating each one of them. So, we are coming up with more generic human related celebrations like Friendship week, Earth day, Chocolate day, heart month etc etc. Imagine the kind of marketing and advertising going on for this stuff. If I don't give my friend a card during friendship week, does she seize to be my friend? Don’t all these put a different sort of obligation in our mind? One of the most stupid ones that I have seen is kids as young as 3 years giving valentine cards to each and every classmate of theirs. One can get a valentine kit of set 20 which has a lollipop, sticker and a card to be given to each kid. The lollipop and sticker seems just fine for their age but cards with romantic cartoons and passionate words are crossing the border. I agree we need to foster brotherhood, more to say earthling hood but to what extent?

I think we need the kid from that movie to save us again.

4 comments:

SK said...

Hi Joy,

Interesting train of thought!! Could be true as well.

aMus said...

the valentine's day, father's day, mother's day, friendship day....marketing emotions and how!!!

btw, TAGGED!!!

Sumana said...

hmm not wrong at all, At that tender age, what do they understand about valentine etc. It is just a marketing gimmick.

Jaya said...

SK: Who knows!

TA: Traditional festives are replaced by marketing festives. God knows what will replace these?

Sumana: Purely Marketing gimmick, nothing at all.

To evolve or not...