Brainwashed Billions
I have been watching a showtime show called Billions and cannot help but notice how much it glorifies Evil. Hollywood, it seems, is working overtime to influence the masses with shows like this and has been largely successful. We have seen a massive moral decline over the course of just decades thanks to the films and TV shows that have been released. Comparing the amount of sex, violence, and drug use of today's popular media to that of the 1950's and we can see just how detrimental this has become to our society. In this video I give my thoughts on Billions and how it is used to promote abhorrent behavior.
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I see it a bit differently. I think the media (radio/ TV) resisted displaying all content that could even hint at there being an ugly side to the human psyche, back in the adoption years (early 1900's) on into around the time of the big war in Vietnam, and that the coverage of the disgusting acts in that war finally opened these avenues up to exploring our "shadows" (dark side).
I'm of the opinion that we each need to look at that side of ourselves in order to be powerful individuals, with the freedom (within our own psyche) to react appropriately to the conditions of the moment, as opposed to being stunted by a lack of self-awareness, which is likely the reason (lack of self-awareness) why we've collectively allowed so many evils to rule and govern society, in the first place.
Whatever the intentions of those who choose to demonstrate the shadow side of human nature through the medium of TV, and despite there being obvious negative consequences, particularly among a small subset of viewers who are negatively conditioned by watching this type of content, having this content out in the open is a net positive as far as I see it. We can't hide from our dark side and expect that things will be positive because of it, the opposite is always true. Instead, we need to especially focus on that side of ourselves, which something like the TV series that you mentioned helps us to evoke, so that we can be aware of the totality of who we are and, more importantly, open up access to the understanding of why it's there and of what use to us.
The knowledge that is inherent at that level of understanding gives us both the clarity and power necessary to EFFECTIVELY guide our instinctive drives, many of which we'd label as "bad" or "evil", in a way that truly benefits oneself and society, as opposed to unconsciously running away from that knowledge at the cost of being a constant victim to bits and pieces of that evilness leaking around our attempts to appear good (both, or either, to ourselves and/or others), mostly without having any control over them.
To put it more succinctly, we're more effective, logical, reasonable, natural human beings when we are no longer at conflict within ourselves about our true nature. To hide from a part of oneself is to lie to oneself, but, more importantly, it's to remove awareness from one's inner power to control and/or "transmute" evil forces that lie within the psyche. It's to be at the mercy of these forces, unarmed with the knowledge necessary to overcome them, completely ignorant and, quite frankly, psychologically weak.
Hollywood has been very aggressive in pushing the line of what we accept in society and changing our norms for the worse. We used to have strong family values and a good moral compass just 60 years ago but much of that has been eroded due largely to what young generations are viewing on television. In the 1990's you had high school prom movies that made it all about sex at the end of the night like American Pie. That movie seems tame compared to what we have coming out today. Neighbors 2 Sorority Rising is a movie that features homosexuality and multiple scenes where toddlers are playing with dildos. That would cause an outrage if a movie like that were released just 20 years ago. Today we have more teen pregnancies and single mothers than ever before as well as an alarming increase in STD's. The music industry has a large role to play in this as well with music videos featuring half naked performers grinding on each other preaching sex, drugs, and money. Popular TV shows include Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, Jersey Shore, The Santa Clarita Diet (A show about cannibalism), The Kardashians, Vampire Shows, Shows Featuring Witchcraft, and that is barely scratching the surface. This type of content is directly designed to corrupt our society and has been very successful. I am not abdicating for censorship or that media needs to be controlled by a central power but it would be nice to see some type of push back against the filth that is being pumped out.
I won't argue against your argument that this recent stage of evolution has had its negative consequences. I fully agree that it has been more negative than positive (at one level of viewing it).
My point is that, for our evolution (as a species), it's likely good that we're going through this phase (one that is likely inevitable and can only be pushed down the road with great efforts to suspend what needs to happen), wherein our DARKSIDE is coming out into the open for us to more consciously explore, but, far more importantly, to overcome (gain control over).
Sometimes we have to go through painful mistakes to grow and while it may take many generations for the majority of people to not be swept away by their "Mr Hyde", I think we will collectively find a way to integrate the two pieces of our psyches (what we , or society, divide and label as "good" and "evil") so that we can operate as psychologically strong human beings, who aren't at the mercy of automated unconscious desires.
You have to realize that things usually have to get worse before they can get better, especially when it comes to psychological growth. This is true for us at the individual level and it's compounded many times over when whole societies are involved. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that the 1950s were some kind of "golden age" that can never be surpassed by humanity. Things can get much better than they've ever been for humanity and its systems of society, but it's going to require some growing pains and a whole lot of looking at ourselves in the mirror and we're going to be left with no choice but to invite the venom in our eyes to that self-reflection if we're going to have any chance of peaking as a species, which is our only hope at a true golden age for humanity.
We have been through this phase multiple times in our history. Rome started as a group of people who decided build a system for the betterment of their society and grew into something monumental. At the end they suffered from the same debauchery we are seeing now and it destroyed their empire. Alexander The Great died from following the same path and his empire fell to ruin. I am not referring to the 1950s as any type of golden age but as a reference point as to how fast we are falling away from traditional values and going down the same path we have seen repeated throughout our history. This is not progress it is regressive.
I'm aware of the cycle and I agree, again at one level, that this is, as you said "not progress it is regressive". However, failure to not evolve to the next higher step of psychological evolution in past cycles is not indicative of present or future cycles, which (and you might disagree, here) are inevitably going to continue repeating until we learn the lessons and, only then, break the cycle. And the point in the cycle that we're most likely to break it is when it is "in our (collective) face(s)" and we cannot deny the utter ridiculousness and pettiness of our actions; thus, my previous comment about it usually requiring that things become worse before they can get better (than ever before).
As a whole, we're presently still relatively highly immature, compared to even where a lot of humans are in psychological development at this very moment, and their progress came without the reward of the widespread validation that would come with a "tipping point" event, wherein the majority are moving in the direction of, or have already accomplished, surmounting the mountainous obstacle (of "self-sabotage", to pin it down to the real culprit).
If the majority of humanity could manage to even match what the small percentage have already accomplished (probably less than 5%, currently), I'm sure we'd be at a sufficient level of maturity (of awareness) to stop us from following the same path that has been repeated seemingly forever up until this point.
As is always true with evolution, things are the same... until they no longer are.
Well the whole point of the video is to bring awareness to the fact that we are at the very tipping point you mentioned. It is unfortunate that most people are ignorant of the lessons of history and we seem doomed to continue repeating it.
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There is no such thing as pure evil or pure good. Most of life operates in the grey zone between the two. I think this show really shows that. The storyline and character arc show that even the most morally driven people can never the less do bad things in the service of their own egos. As for TV and media promoting a decline in moral values. I think your view is far too simplistic. As long as there has been any kind of art, philosophers, politicians, and religious leaders have complained that it leads to a decline in the moral fiber of the populace. However, this kind of criticism is always a veiled attempt to impose a moral order that usually turns out to be just as corrupt if not more corrupt than the art form it was meant to protect us from. The bottom line is, people are smart enough to use their own critical faculties to decide what is right and wrong. I doubt most people are blindly following what TV tells them to do. In fact, it is shows like this that raise interesting questions that often people don't ask themselves.
This show is in fact not driven by any morals just the selfish interests of the characters. There are plenty of things in life that are pure evil and pure good. Murdering innocent people and raping children would be an example of pure evil. Feeding the hungry and promoting ethical behavior would be an example of pure good. The show billions in my opinion is "pure evil" because of everything it represents. I do watch the show and enjoy the story even though I find all the characters to be terrible because it really does accurately portray what goes on in politics and wall street. The point is not that people are not smart enough to discern the right from the wrong it is what popular culture has become. We are being presented terrible role models through tv, movies, and music. I am not advocating for imposing anything on anyone. I am simply giving my opinion on the show.
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