Blog 2: Visual parasites.

I have seen over 1000 films in my life. 1000 may even be a bit too conservative of an estimate. I own over 300 DVDs currently, purchasing roughly one new film a month, including television, feature length films and live concert captures, 20 of which are on the hip new Blu ray. This implies that I have the necessities to play this new format, HDTV, Blu ray player (mine happens to be ps3 which means I need a fancy HDMI cable) and to take full advantage of the formant a 7.1 digital surround sound system. I see an average of 3-4 movies in the theater a month. So lets do some math here:

3-4 movies on the big screen a month = $27-$36 or $324-$432 annually.

300 DVDs purchased at an average of $20 = $6000 dollars

1 new DVD a month at an average of $20 = $240 annually

1 new video game a month = $65 = $780 annually

HDTV = $1200

Ps3 = $400

HDMI cable = Market value $100 dollars (Having a friend at Best Buy apparently means you can get cables for next to nothing so I was fortunate enough to get this cable for something like $6)

7.1 digital surround sound speaker system = $400

Grand total = $9552 + $1452 per year

Average paycheck (bi-weekly)= $350 plus roughly $250 a week in tips

Annual pay = $21,400 - $5760 (rent, gas, bills etc) = $15640

So, assuming I purchased all of the items in the course of one year (which is pretty much the case) that means I have spent just over 60% of my income on visual stimulus, a depressingly large portion of my hard earned pizza money. This number gets larger if I include related items such as popcorn at the movies, merchandise from the ones I really like etc. The questions that all of this data brings to my attention are, first and foremost, why? I’m poor. Each month I barley skid by with roughly $100 in the bank if I happened to be frugal with my food and social interaction budget but if you take out all the money spent on movies and video games a month I would be left with an extra $121 dollars a month, roughly a third of a pay check! What drives me to spend money on visual stimulus like this? Building on that, could it perhaps be that such visual stimulus has a parasitic nature?

Perhaps the best way to answer both of these questions is to determine whether or not this visual stimulus benefits in a way that justifies the financial input. I would really like to be able to justify the time and money spent on visual stimulus but I cannot. With the extra money I would have per month by not indulging my visual addiction I could have such things as decent car insurance (instead of just liability), a bed that is NOT a futon (as comedian Jim Gaffigan wisely observes, futons are indeed filled with hatred) or maybe even put it into savings for some future goal, like a trip to a foreign country or more likely a weekend in Vegas to watch my savings evaporate in a matter of hours. Every movie I watch can run from ninety minutes to over three hours, every video game I play can eat up another two to four hours. During that time I could be reading to improve my knowledge about many things, exercising in order to not be so pudgy or maybe even studying for once in my life as a student. The films can provide knowledge etc but ultimately all of these stimuli are entertainment and nothing more.

So, with ultimately a negative affect on my life (not to say movies and video games are bad by any means, just in the excess that I enjoy them) it is important to look for who or what really benefits from this relationship, and that’s the easy part. Time Warner, Disney any and all of the five major corporations that own and control nearly every facet of media in America, they are the benefactors in this obviously parasitic relationship. Is that not the definition of a parasite? An entity that takes from the host without benefiting or killing it? I am not the host in this relationship, only part of it. The host is of course all of our county and our culture. The relationship is not just in regards to visual stimuli products but to products as a whole. We as a people are trapped in the parasitic relationship of materialism. Through their media control this collective corporate parasite convinces us of what we need, what we should buy, how much we should buy, how often we should buy (which is all the time in the corporate eye) but really the vast majority of these products are more detrimental then helpful, this life style as a whole is more detrimental, to the individual, then helpful. This parasite, however, is not in total control, not totally unstoppable. Like all parasites it needs a host to live and as long as we indulge its needs it will thrive. Without us, it will perish or adapt, just like any other parasite, and that is a comforting thought. Id like to say that I will lead the way and cast off my visual addictions in favor of a simpler and more frugal life…but Bioshock 2 is coming soon and the summer movie season is fast approaching so for the time being I will continue to feed this parasite. Here’s hoping someone reading this has a stronger constitution then I!