marginal messages

there are three types of messages. the first coperate messages. These are messages, such as money makes you happy, that are mainstream and are being yelled at you from every tv show and ad. the second type are prohibited messages, such as things wil not get better, that will never be shared by corperations. the third is marginal. these messages you dont always see. While they arent as broadcasted as coperate messages, they can sometimes be seen in movies and tv shows. This can include such messages as challenge athority.

A strong example of marginal messages can be seen in the 1999 movie Fight Club. The movie tells the story of a man who starts off with an unhappy life. he is a slave to the ikea catolog and is more focoused on his materail possesions then anything else. but after having his apartment explode he meets a man named Tyler Durdan who shows him a life with out depenency on material goods. Tyler's view on life is that life should not be perfect "let the chips fall where they may". He thinks that the dependency of material goods is a women thing and that if you care to much about what you own you are a bitch. This is shown with the constant connection to material goods and having your balls cut off. He claims that martha stuert is "polishing the brass on the titanic its all going down." The message is that we are so focoused on things that we think will make our lives better but we are just letting our self be owned.

This is the total opposite of coperate messages which usually say material things will make you happy. The whole idea that the pursuite of "shit we dont need" is preventing our self from being happy is very revolutionary. unfortunetly this movie could be an attempt to control us even more. Since this idea is new, revolutionary, and logical people want to identify with it. To do that they buy the movie on dvd, get fight club posters and buy fight club t-shirts. Coperations are selling you everything, even anti-corperation ideas.

Walmart worker trampled

I am speechless at the death of the walmart worker. I personally am not materalistic and i find it hard to see how people can be. This being said i find it outragous that people would go so crazy over some sales. I find it hard to believe that not only did people kill a man, but after he was dead they kept shopping. When the store said they were closing because some one died people got angry because they were still shopping. These people had put money saving deals over a human life.
We truelly are the ultimet consumer.

I am struggling to understand the reason for such madness. The world is full of exploitation, greed, corrupt and dirty governments, and lack of understand for what is really important. "Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror"

black friday?

So today was black friday and all i bought was some icecream, which had no discounts. The day went past unnoticed to me. my family doesnt shop alot and i dont watch that much tv so there was no way for me to get hyped out it. Some of my other friends who shop more then me got very excited. Its funny that the day after you are thankfull for all that you have, you decided that you dont have enough and go shopping.

media messages

“There's a war going on for your mind. Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks.” (Flobots) In our daily lives the media shove messages in our faces about how to be happy. They show pictures of models and tell you that you too can have flatter abs. There is no tolerance for being different. There is known “you could try this product, but you’re still beautiful with out it”. Usually the messages are clear, but sometimes you have to analyze.
Many remember the ads on the subway for Trimspa. Until her passing the star of the ads was Anna Nicole Smith. One advertisement Shows Smith, coming out of the water in a wet suit and holding a surf board. This is suppouse to be an image of the good life. The advertisement almost seems to say that you can have this life too. Along the side of the picture there are smaller pictures of other people who have lost weight. In the after picture all of them are standing on a beach. The only way you would know this ad is trying to sell a pill is by the small bottle in the corner. Next to the bottle it says “are you ready”. This gives the idea that you can look good and be on a beach when ever you decided to start taking the drug. This ad says that the meaning of life is to be able to look good on some beach.
VH1 has a show called I Love Money. It is a battle between 15 contestants. The one who lasts the longest gets $250,000. They stick the 15 people in one house and turn on the cameras. The show comes out to be a bunch of people who will do anything for money; in most cases it involves a small loss of dignity. This is a common theme in pop culture. Do what ever you have to do to get money. Or as Curtis Jackson puts it “Get rich, or die trying”. This message means that life is only good when you have a lot of money. You may be happy now, but you’ll be even better with more money. It also portrays the message of the ends justify the means. You can do anything from dance drunk on a table to spit on some one, as long as it gets you money its ok. In one they go around asking people to do stupid things for money. One example is for $100 a guy got a tattoo, but he didn’t know what tattoo he was getting. It ended up being an embarrassing tattoo that questioned his sexuality. Unfortunately tattoo removal surgeries cost more then $100. VH1 gives the message that the solution to all problems is to get a lot of money.

media messages

“There's a war going on for your mind. Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks.” (Flobots) In our daily lives the media shove messages in our faces about how to be happy. They show pictures of models and tell you that you too can have flatter abs. There is no tolerance for being different. There is known “you could try this product, but you’re still beautiful with out it”. Usually the messages are clear, but sometimes you have to analyze.
Many remember the ads on the subway for Trimspa. Until her passing the star of the ads was Anna Nicole Smith. One advertisement Shows Smith, coming out of the water in a wet suit and holding a surf board. This is suppouse to be an image of the good life. The advertisement almost seems to say that you can have this life too. Along the side of the picture there are smaller pictures of other people who have lost weight. In the after picture all of them are standing on a beach. The only way you would know this ad is trying to sell a pill is by the small bottle in the corner. Next to the bottle it says “are you ready”. This gives the idea that you can look good and be on a beach when ever you decided to start taking the drug. This ad says that the meaning of life is to be able to look good on some beach.
VH1 has a show called I Love Money. It is a battle between 15 contestants. The one who lasts the longest gets $250,000. They stick the 15 people in one house and turn on the cameras. The show comes out to be a bunch of people who will do anything for money; in most cases it involves a small loss of dignity. This is a common theme in pop culture. Do what ever you have to do to get money. Or as Curtis Jackson puts it “Get rich, or die trying”. This message means that life is only good when you have a lot of money. You may be happy now, but you’ll be even better with more money. It also portrays the message of the ends justify the means. You can do anything from dance drunk on a table to spit on some one, as long as it gets you money its ok. In one they go around asking people to do stupid things for money. One example is for $100 a guy got a tattoo, but he didn’t know what tattoo he was getting. It ended up being an embarrassing tattoo that questioned his sexuality. Unfortunately tattoo removal surgeries cost more then $100. VH1 gives the message that the solution to all problems is to get a lot of money.

VH1 is one of the strongest displayers of materialistic life styles. from the show cribs to I love money, Vh1 shows have a strong message that to have a happy and meaningful life you have to be rich. Untop of that they show reality shows where people do crazy things for money. this gives the message of the end justifies the means. you can do what ever you want, even sell your soul, as long as at the end you get alot of money. VH1 says that the best way to improve your life is to get alot of money, and when you have all this money your life will be good.

Thoughts on the election:
When Obama was announced the 44th president my apartment went wild. i could hear jumping from the floor above, cheering, and even a birthday horn. While all of this went on, i checked my email. For some reason i was the least excited about the election then anyone i know. I had friends my age wearing Obama buttons before i even knew who he or Mccain was. This brings up the question; am i just another ignorant un educated teen, or do i have a realistic point of view.
I have a friend who wore obama buttons and shirts before it was cool. I never got why kids do all of that. They spend money on T-shirts and Buttons so they can tell the world who, if they were old enough, would vote for. Infact I dont even think she is for Obama, i think her parents are. When i look at kids who cant vote and yet fight for a polition, i dout they had done enough researche on both nominees and put enough educational thought into the matter to really pick wich one they like more. What i see is the parents brainwashing their kids into rebulicans or democrats and then the kid fighting for the only side they know.
It is clear that i am the total opposite. In this writting i wont call obama a republican or a democrat, because while i think he is a democrat..im not really sure. It was only this year that i became pretty sure hes a democrat. before now i had no idea who was who. All i see are a group of men who use excitting words like change, but then dont ever say how. I have no problem with it either. I could do the researche, wear buttons, hand out fliers that will be not read and thrown out; or i could just do what i would do at this time in any other year. The fact is what ever i choose, the same guy will be elected he will make the same desicions and ill still be a high school student with no job waitting to break free of my parents. I have no problem with the people who put up sighns in thier door that say OBAMA. When the end of the election comes, they will be just as politically active as i was during the champain. (see i cant even spell it)

big paper thing

money, family, love; are these aspects of life or is one of them the meaning of life. In the last couple weeks the class has explored what the meaning of life is, what other people say it is, and what people tell us is the meaning of life. During this exploration I have come to the conclusion that there is no real meaning of life, there are just excuses that people think up to make their life worth living.
There is no such thing as a meaningful life, but there is such thing as a wasted life. When people spend all day in a cubicle then go home and watch tv, just to end up in the cubicle the next day, that is a wasted life. A non wasted life is a life in which someone takes chances and creates stories. to me a "meaningful" life is one that is full of new things and adventure. we are on this earth for a set amount of time before we die and are forgotten. as long as we are on this earth we might as well have fun.

The first person I asked was a white business man. The first question was “On a scale of one to ten how meaningful is your life?” He replied “Ten”. “How so?” I asked. He once again replied with a small answer “Because I’m alive and that’s what is important.” This was similar to the answers I got from most wealthy looking people. Another business man replied “A full ten because I live in this great country.” It seemed that the richer they looked the faker the answer seemed.


The middle class people’s answers were much more scattered. One white middle class man said “I like my life because of my friends and trees.” When I asked him to clarify what he meant by trees and he said he meant nature, and not marijuana. While this answer was unique it was a little dull. The most interesting answer came from a working class Latino man when asked what makes life meaningful he replied “Helping other people because your life is meaningless unless you change some one else’s” This answer is exactly like mine. It seemed that the middle class people were more humble then the upper class, but still had lame answers.

When looking at corperate culture you see alot of the same dominate messages. many of them are focused on material goods and how they can improve the quality of life. In the music video lipgloss by lil mama, the message is that material goods, such as lip gloss, can improve your life by making everyone want you. “Is that my lip gloss is cool my lip gloss be poppin all the boys be jokin and chase me after school”. She is saying that her lip gloss is the reason she is so popular. This brings up the point that to be popular you need the best material goods. “the girls don’t speak they rollin their eyes they lip gloss cheap.” According to this song there is nothing more to a person then what they are wearing. The girl is cool because she has nice lip gloss, all the boys want her because she has nice lip gloss and all the girls are jealous because she has nice lip gloss. The video backs up my points. The beginning Lil Mama wants to be in the cool crowd, so her friend giver her some make up and in one day she is the coolest kid in school. This gives the impression that they key to as meaningful life is to be popular and pretty; and the key to a popular and pretty life is to buy material goods.

A major part of dominate messages is that you are almost perfect, but by buying some products you can be truly perfect. this can be seen most in diet pills. such ads that scream "get flatter abs" give the impression that to have a truly meaningful life you need to be skinny. In early 2000 a very common ad on the subway was trimspa. these ads usually included anna nicole smith on a beach along with other "success stories". in the corner of the add it says "are you ready". this message tells you that you are close to living a meaningful life, in this case being sexy on a b each, but all you need to get it is one material good that you can get in three easy pavements of 19.99.

another type of message is marginal messages. these types of messages usually go against the dominate messages, but there is some factor that makes it so we dont take it as seriosly. An example of this was the movie fox fire. The movie is about a group a girls who become friends and learn to depend on each other. This idea of women dont need men to survive is not seem very often. It says that a meaningful life can be lived with out a member of the opposite sex. The message in this movie is unfortunetly contradicted. In the movie the group is started by a girl name legs, played b angloina jolie, who defies the rules.

you need more then love

Video 1: lip gloss
This song talks about how small material things, such as lip gloss, can improve your life by making everyone want you. “Is that my lip gloss is cool my lip gloss be poppin all the boys be jokin and chase me after school”. She is saying that her lip gloss is the reason she is so popular. This brings up the point that to be popular you need the best material goods. “the girls don’t speak they rollin their eyes they lip gloss cheap.” According to this song there is nothing more to a person then what they are wearing. The girl is cool because she has nice lip gloss, all the boys want her because she has nice lip gloss and all the girls are jealous because she has nice lip gloss. The video backs up my points. The beginning Lil Mama wants to be in the cool crowd, so her friend giver her some make up and in one day she is the coolest kid in school.

Video 2: good life
This is another song about how great it is to have material wealth. Unlike the lip gloss song, you need much more material wealth to have a “good life”. “Im going back to vegas cause I always had a passion for flashin before I had it I close my eyes and imagen good life.” Kanye is saying that he has the good life and most people don’t. To have a good life you need to have enough money for material goods. The video backs up the same point. You see kanye having nice stuff, traveling the world, going on shopping sprees and getting ladies.

Video three: al you need is love
This song goes against the need for material wealth of the first two songs. It states “all you need is love”. It tells you that as long as you have love you don’t need anything else, which is ironic coming from a group of rich guys who are in a popular band. This “all you need is love” idea which is backed up by a simple and happy video; is naïve and is more meant to sound nice then to be actually true. We can all say that all you need is love. But if you ask a homeless man who needs to beg for change to get some food, I’m pretty sure he will ask for a little more then just love. The Beatles can sing this song because they can get what they want. They can have this happy mushy all you need is love life style because they don’t have much to worry about. It is just as hard for a poor struggling family in the ghetto to relate to this song as it is for them to relate to the other two songs.

revised meaning of life

There are over two billion people in the world. Each one has there own opinion on the meaning of life, even if it is there is no meaning. In order to see other people’s answers I went around asking people questions of the meaning of life. I ask how important there life was on a scale of 1-10, what made their life meaningful, and if they liked their life. I asked strangers, friends and family. I realized that the wealthier they were or looked, the lamer and more generic there answers were.The first person I asked was a white business man. The first question was “On a scale of one to ten how meaningful is your life?” He replied “Ten”. “How so?” I asked. He once again replied with a small answer “Because I’m alive and that’s what is important.” This was similar to the answers I got from most wealthy looking people. Another business man replied “A full ten because I live in this great country.” It seemed that the richer they looked the faker the answer seemed.


The middle class people’s answers were much more scattered. One white middle class man said “I like my life because of my friends and trees.” When I asked him to clarify what he meant by trees and he said he meant nature, and not marijuana. While this answer was unique it was a little dull. The most interesting answer came from a working class Latino man when asked what makes life meaningful he replied “Helping other people because your life is meaningless unless you change some one else’s” This answer is exactly like mine. It seemed that the middle class people were more humble then the upper class, but still had lame answers.

The deepest and most meaningful answer from strangers came from a homeless person. When asked what made her life meaningful she replied “Man, I use to go to school, life was stupid. Then I did drugs, life was different but still not meaningful. Now I’m a hopeless addict and life is still as meaningless as it ever was. The only difference between the different lives is I went through different problems.” This was the most interesting to me. It gave me the perspective that there is no meaning to life. The point of life is to deal with the problems handed to you. This made sense because the wealthier a person is the fewer problems they usually have. From the answers I got the wealthier they are the more they find life meaningful. It seems those who have the easiest lives think they have the most meaningful ones.

While some seem to have put much thought in it like the homeless person, others had a different view of meaningful. When asking a friend who’s name doesn’t not want mentioned how meaningful their life is she said eight. When I asked why and eight she said “I don’t know because I love it and I don’t find anything bad enough for me to make me hate my life” Even after a few tries to clear up the question I realized two things. The first thing I realized that she had not put much thought into it; and that she was confusing life being meaningful with life being enjoyable. This raises a question; is there one meaning of the word meaningful? Or are they both right, or are some people wrong and other rights?

When I asked my family members I got the same reply “family”. I could not tell if this is what they really felt or if they were saying this because a family member was asking them and they wanted me to feel special. But I began to think about what the homeless women said about dealing with problems. Maybe family being important is one way of dealing with a problem. You are born then forced to spend every day with the same people, which sounds like a problem. The way you fix this problem is by learning to love them. This can also be seen when you spend a lot of time with a group of people. Over the summer I worked in a camp and spend everyday working with the same six kids; we became, as they say, like family. The project gave me an interesting insight into the meaning of life. The meaning of life is to deal with problems given to you. The rich have the least problems and stupidest answers. The middle class probably have a few more problems and more interesting answers. The poor has the most problems and the most meaningful answer. Family all had the same problem, so they had the same answer. There really is no meaning to life, life is just the processes of solving all the problems handed to you.

There are over two billion people in the world. Each one has there own opinion on the meaning of life, even if it is there is no meaning. In order to see other peoples answers I went around asking people questions of the meaning of life. I ask how important there life was on a scale of 1-10, what made their life meaningful, and if they liked their life. I asked strangers, friends and family. I realized that the wealthier they were or looked, the lamer and more generic there answers were.
The first person I asked was a white business man. The first question was “On a scale of one to ten how meaningful is your life?” He replied “Ten”. “How so?” I asked. He once again replied with a small answer “Because I’m alive and that’s what is important.” This was similar to the answers I got from most wealthy looking people. Another business man replied “A full ten because I live in this great country.” It seemed that the richer they looked the faker the answer seemed.

The middle class people’s answers were much more scattered. One white middle class man said “I like my life because of my friends and trees.” When I asked him to clarify what he meant by trees and he said he meant nature, and not marijuana. While this answer was unique it was a little dull. The most interesting answer came from a working class Latino man when asked what makes life meaningful he replied “Helping other people because your life is meaningless unless you change some one else’s” This answer is exactly like mine. It seemed that the middle class people were more humble then the upper class, but still had lame answers.

The deepest and most meaningful answer from strangers came from a homeless person. When asked what made her life meaningful she replied “Man, I use to go to school, life was stupid. Then I did drugs, life was different but still not meaningful. Now I’m a hopeless addict and life is still as meaningless as it ever was. The only difference between the different lives is I went through different problems.” This was the most interesting to me. It gave me the perspective that there is no meaning to life. The point of life is to deal with the problems handed to you. This made sense because the wealthier a person is the fewer problems they usually have. From the answers I got the wealthier they are the more they find life meaningful. It seems those who have the easiest lives think they have the most meaningful ones.

While some seem to have put much thought in it like the homeless person, others had a different view of meaningful. When asking a friend who’s name doesn’t not want mentioned how meaningful their life is she said eight. When I asked why and eight she said “I don’t know because I love it and I don’t find anything bad enough for me to make me hate my life” Even after a few tries to clear up the question I realized two things. The first thing I realized that she had not put much thought into it; and that she was confusing life being meaningful with life being enjoyable. This raises a question; is there one meaning of the word meaningful? Or are they both right, or are some people wrong and other rights?