The way that we gossip...

"No one gossips about other peoples secret virtues"
Bertrand Russel

When my cousin came from overseas she watched the gossip television shows and the gossip news. Even though she can’t speak Greek fluently I was amazed with how much she could understand when she watched this gossip show over dinner. She told me that she is amazed that these shows came to Greece finally as in Latin America they exist for more than 10 years. She said it as if it was the most natural thing, a part of a culture and a sign of progression and modernity.

My problem is not so much that many people enjoy watching these gossip shows as they can exercise their personal choices. Theorists claim that gossip is something that facilitates communication and consequently we all become frequently the carriers of rumors. What annoys me is the way that we gossip . The gossip shows and the gossip news and in particularly a Greek channel have taken a different turn recently. The "journalists" that present them are not only gossiping but also they devalue, disrespect and frequently are immoral towards the people that they gossip. They have become hate mediums in which one day they love a celebrity and idealize them and the other day they devalue him so much that can easily destroy their career. I feel that by watching these shows with this hateful comments we even encourage them to be even more spiteful and hateful. Not to mention the power and control that these gossip "journalists" have.

I think that the constant exposition to such hateful comments can have an impact to society as a whole. I think that we become more tolerant to hate and we too make really cruel and unjustified remarks for no reason and without evidence. I hear people condemning one another more frequently. Furthermore, we have forgotten the possibility that the gossip we hear could be just a false rumor and we tend to believe that the gossip we heard is an actual fact.

Gossip is a part of our lives and the extent from which we exercise varies from one individual to another. Without a doubt it has a function as it serves as a form of communication. However, we as society have surpassed the stage of gossip and have turned to the stage of immorality. The gossip is not bad by itself but the way it is exercised recently makes me really worried and angry.

(art by krecha)

The exploitation of suffering...

In Greece we are a nation I think that panic easily over health issues and often exaggerate. In psychological studies Greek s often demonstrate high levels of health anxiety and general worries over their health. There are also people that live through TV and they adopt as an established truth what they generally listen through this little box.

What occurred lately was a parade of doctors and people who have been cured from cancer on TV shows. They were suggesting that drinking the juice that the leaves of an olive tree produce could combat potentially cancer. The doctors were unsure as this assumption is not scientifically tested however they were on the shows along with ex-cancer patients and this for a simple person translates as a possibility for a cure!

When you bring people on a show that claim that they have been cured they are going to direct their hopes on this new cure and ignore that this is just an assumption of some TV doctors and is not something that is embraced by the medical community. Television has a great influence on people and can lead to the manipulation of the masses quite easily. People started drinking this juice and some were admitted to hospital with intestinal pains. There were also people who sold leaves and prepared this recipe for people and not without a price.

I was talking to an older friend about this incident and he told me that when he was young there was a similar incidence of mass hysteria. Someone from Kamatero was claiming that he had access to water that could cure cancer. In the end of course he was imprisoned for fraud but on the court many people appeared that believed that they were cured from cancer and supported him wholehearted.

There are people who suffer from serious and chronic illness like cancer and desperately seek for cure. Encouraging people to drink daily the juice of olive leaves is giving false hope to the patients. Maybe the leaves are beneficial but there has not been any research that proves that. Maybe the leaves are beneficial but can they be beneficial alone? The cure of the disease relies on interplay of different factors. It depends on the biology of the individual, on the psychological state, on his/her quality of life and the medical treatment that this person receives. Therefore, my impression is that there can‘t be an only cure. There can only be a ground for a further manipulation and degradation of the sufferers. People who want to benefit are aware that when a person suffers is ready to believe in absolutely anything.

Stormrider has written a beautiful article on his opinion over the olives leaves incident and particularly on the responsibility of the doctors link)

(image by wrenda)

On the Press and Freedom

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

Noam Chomsky

I always considered the press to be the best way of acquiring information that was not as directed and controlled as the television. Since I was 14 I used to buy the newspaper that I thought was more independent from the others and read; something that I did especially on Sundays that I had free time.

Growing up I realized that the press was not as independent as it should be and that it did not offer the freedom of speech and structural pluralism that was suppose to (the extent to which the community has an open structure that permits minority voices and opinions to be heard). That was obvious as people who owned the largest newspapers also owed multinational companies, followed a political line something that created a bias and often lead to censorship. This of course is the case for the so called independent newspapers as the press imposes a limit and does not encourage independent writing. Nevertheless, this did not prevent me from reading and relying on the press for obtaining information.

Yesterday I started reading a newspaper and I really started questioning why I continue buying newspapers. Surely, inside newspapers we can read some nice articles but I have the impression that they get fewer as the years go by. On top of that they are filled with advertisements, cds, dvd’s and lack critique and diversity.

On the internet and inside blogs I have started realizing that I am reading more critical articles that are diverse and I also learn faster about the news that interest me as the internet does not select for me the topics that I should read but I make the selection. Of course the writers of the articles may also exhibit personal biases in their articles but on the internet one has the opportunity to discover pluralism. Different articles for the same topic can exhibit different opinions something that the press always lacked. The press could never successfully distance itself and present different views and opinions for the same incident.

I feel that the internet could be a tool that could empower people to express themselves. We can’t always rely on journalists to choose what could be interesting for us to learn. The news is made by people and can be distributed by the people whose opinions are not censored by their editor. I only fear that when governments realise this potential, they will start censoring internet pages as even though our constitution is based on the freedom of speech when the word freedom is mentioned there is always a person that tries to place a limit on what freedom represents.

(art by dorothy shoes)

Suspicious minds...

I don’t know if you have noticed that lately when you ask someone what they do in their spare time they say I watch television. When watching television has become a hobby? It is amazing that not only we spend a lot of the time watching television but to describe it as a hobby it’s something new.

A hobby is a spare time recreational pursuit. The essence of a hobby is that some kind of activity takes place that is physical or mental. We can play a sport that involves a lot of action, we can paint and express our artistic needs or we can read a book and exercise our brain. A passive television viewing I wonder how it can constitute of a hobby.

For me the problem is not watching television is more about opening the television when we are bored. This is the time that we are fed with all kinds of trivial information that could be potentially damaging. This is when viewing becomes a state where our reality becomes determined by our TV set. This is when people stop being critical and accept the reality that the various programs of the television broadcast.

Inside the TV reality people start feeling unsafe, anxious scared, and entangled in a vicious circle of misery. They are afraid that something bad will happen to them they become suspicious and they become more and more introvert. Then their world becomes dependent from the images that are showed on the daily news that crave for blood, fear, sex and gossip. The world becomes unsafe and there is no one you can trust. So, you stay inside your house and watch some more. Besides the TV is the world and it’s always a nice topic for conversation at work. This is when TV becomes a hobby.

Our little box rarely broadcasts nice things as they don’t sell well to the audience. I am not saying that we are living in an angelic world but we tend to forget that most events that are broadcasted especially on the news are exaggerated, one-sided and many times manufactured. Watching TV is not bad as long as we watch actively and critically and don’t let them choose for us what we want to see.

(art by gnato)

Watching others living their lives...

The latest fashion in television is making shows where famous people gather and talk about their lives.The new element is that they don't only talk about what they have succeeded in life but they drink, eat and dance together. The studio looks like a club and everyone seems to be having so much fun! The strange thing is that these shows have very high ratings which means that many people are watching those shows.
I feel it is so sad that people don't have money to go out and instead they stay in and watch these shows of other people having fun. But even without money there is surely so many better things that one can do inside the house.We can relax ,we can communicate with each other, we can create and we can do trivial everyday things that make life meaningfull. But instead we have learned to live in a lie and we have forgotten that we too have a life to live.

I have a friend that he is the complete opposite. He is always outside on the street. He is at my age and when he finishes work he goes to the square and hangs out with his friends. He is going through Athens with his bike and almost every day he watches an underground music concert. I was always telling him that you can not be all the time outside, it's impossible, and that you can have fun inside the house as well.Well he told me that when you stay inside the house you don't meet new people and you forget to communicate.You don't learn about life inside the walls and this is exactly what society wants.
Mindless people watching TV.
Although his lifestyle is a bit extreme it is better being outside sitting in the square all day than watching other people to live their lives on television.Watching famous people selling a plastic lifestyle and fake emotions.


(image by krecha)