[The Habitat Dr]

The media, yes. Foodstamps, no (It's not the intended purpose, anyway).

Religion used to be the opium of the people, but in the West it's been replaced by technology, specifically television, the internet, and video games. When all else fails, that's where people go nowadays.

[Haumea]

	I don't know how food-stamps are relevant to the OP, but I will agree that cable-media has been more or less monopolized by a few enterprising agents of the State.

Food stamps (and welfare checks) are very relevant to the OP.

Without free money the welfare recepients will riot. Of course it's a pacifier.

I don't know what else I would do if I were in charge. All the utopian schemes to raise up the underclass have failed (probably because they are based on egalitarian fictions.) Aside from welfare-tied eugenics (mandatory birth control), there isn't much to do there.

[tgulden]

Television is quite obviously a means of control. It served until recently as the primary means of information uptake for most of the world. Information is addictive. Too much information leads to unfocused thought. Unfocused thought leads to malleability of will. Just add some carefully crafted suggestive language, and add a sprig of mint.

[HAL 9000]

Media and substance, sounds as though we are going the Huxleyan route.

My question is this: Doesn't media have the opposite affect at times?

[Il Prodigio]

Media is either hot or cold. Hot Media serves to specialize, individualize. It is associated with industrialization. Cold Media is more associate with tribal communal perception.

Literacy was a medium that was introduced to tribal societies. It tore down the basic structures of communication, learning and world-view that the indigenous peoples had. The individual grasps the book, and learns to read and suddenly has a unique specialized experience in his/her mind. This leads to a countless other experiences and perceptions, but the thing is it happens on a individual basis. It is a High Definition medium. Meaning it puts the central nervous system in overdrive. There does not need to be as much participation from the viewer, one is affected by the medium.

A cool medium for example would be the introduction of the radio to western society. Which at the time was already hotted up from literacy, specialization and the "anti-tribal" socio-cultural lifestyle of the Westerners. It cooled us down from something so individual as literacy to a tribal interaction and form of "learning" when people would gather to listen. Cool media invites more participation of the viewer, and the viewer's central nervous system.

When a medium is introduced, the most naturally in tune or aware("artists" Think archetype here) are the first to see and accept the change.The change in sensory perception, whether it be audio or tactile. This change in medium produces a overload on the central nervous system, it creates a sort of "Narccisus Trance" in the viewer, initially until the body over-compensates for the new medium.

And....one more thing. The medium is often referred to as the just the avenue through which content is received. The reality however, is that the medium IS the message, in in fact is the content. Example would be the electric light, thought of as a content-less media. Yet, this medium suddenly made an infinite amount of possibility (Baseball games at night) and various other sensory phenomena.

Anyways...this is some of it... but societies can be hotted up or cooled down with various socio-cultural, socio-economic effects...there is so much more but im only on chapter 7. I hope someone could understand this.


*Sniped

[tyra]

aint opium its cocaine