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Thread started 07/23/16 5:56pm

anangellooksdo
wn

Time for some Prince philosophy

During an interview around the late 90s Prince was already philosophica and right about certain things, I see now. Anyway, he was talking about how we should all take a day or even a week where the TV goes off. He then says:

"Any time you place your life outside of yourself, you're going to suffer grave consequences."

Other than the media/TV issue he was specifically talking about, what else might he have meant? "Anytime you place your life outside of yourself, you're going to suffer grave consequences."

Get as deep as or stray from the tv issue as far as you want.
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Reply #1 posted 07/23/16 7:18pm

206Michelle

anangellooksdown said:

During an interview around the late 90s Prince was already philosophica and right about certain things, I see now. Anyway, he was talking about how we should all take a day or even a week where the TV goes off. He then says: "Any time you place your life outside of yourself, you're going to suffer grave consequences." Other than the media/TV issue he was specifically talking about, what else might he have meant? "Anytime you place your life outside of yourself, you're going to suffer grave consequences." Get as deep as or stray from the tv issue as far as you want.

I don't claim to know what he meant. In interviews, often times what he said was very "coded" or subject to interpretation. He certainly wasn't a straight talker. So my interpretation of "Any time you place your life outside of yourself, you're going to suffer grave consequences," is that it has a similar meaning to the statement, "If you don't own your masters, the master owns you." Basically, if you are not in control of your life/art/property, then bad things will happen to you. LEt's face it, for better or for worse, Prince was a control-freak. I think that the statement "Any time..." reflects his motivation behind being in control of as much as he possibly could when it came to his life, art, property, and so forth.

Live 4 Love ~ Love is God, God is love, Girls and boys love God above
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Reply #2 posted 07/23/16 8:13pm

perfume

Relative to the TV issue, I did a 40 day tv fast for Lent a few years ago. There was a radical change in my thinking - fewer inane random thoughts floating around. I was also more productive. I essentially stopped watching it. The only time it goes on is when my mom visits. smile
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Reply #3 posted 07/24/16 3:43am

kapo74

perfume said:

Relative to the TV issue, I did a 40 day tv fast for Lent a few years ago. There was a radical change in my thinking - fewer inane random thoughts floating around. I was also more productive. I essentially stopped watching it. The only time it goes on is when my mom visits. smile


Hmmm, let's see what's on the hellavision.

This is very interesting. With all the bad news lately, I considered doing the same. I watch the news and all kinds of stuff, just to be able to be in the know and for small talk at the coffee machine at work. But is small talk really worth it? I think I will follow your lead and see what happens.
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Reply #4 posted 07/24/16 4:41am

sonshine

avatar

perfume said:

Relative to the TV issue, I did a 40 day tv fast for Lent a few years ago. There was a radical change in my thinking - fewer inane random thoughts floating around. I was also more productive. I essentially stopped watching it. The only time it goes on is when my mom visits. smile

I don't watch TV either, altho I was a television junkie at one time. I take his comments as being true to oneself; not letting anyone else control your destiny; not putting yourself into someone else's hands.
It's a hurtful place, the world, in and of itself. We don't need to add to it. We all need one another. ~ PRN
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Reply #5 posted 07/24/16 9:56am

perfume

kapo74 said:

perfume said:

Relative to the TV issue, I did a 40 day tv fast for Lent a few years ago. There was a radical change in my thinking - fewer inane random thoughts floating around. I was also more productive. I essentially stopped watching it. The only time it goes on is when my mom visits. smile


Hmmm, let's see what's on the hellavision.

This is very interesting. With all the bad news lately, I considered doing the same. I watch the news and all kinds of stuff, just to be able to be in the know and for small talk at the coffee machine at work. But is small talk really worth it? I think I will follow your lead and see what happens.


Give it a try. You will actually BE the small talk when folks find out u don't watch TV. So many people find it 'fascinating' that I don't partake. Lol. The growing circumference of a starlets butt, or which candidate lied is no longer vying for a place at your thought table so there's more space for the creative and the constructive... 😁
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Reply #6 posted 07/24/16 9:59am

perfume

sonshine said:

perfume said:

Relative to the TV issue, I did a 40 day tv fast for Lent a few years ago. There was a radical change in my thinking - fewer inane random thoughts floating around. I was also more productive. I essentially stopped watching it. The only time it goes on is when my mom visits. smile

I don't watch TV either, altho I was a television junkie at one time. I take his comments as being true to oneself; not letting anyone else control your destiny; not putting yourself into someone else's hands.


Good point, and tv 'programming' will get u off track, and alter ur sense of reality.
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Reply #7 posted 07/24/16 2:49pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

I go without TV often.

TV has a lot of good to it, good programs:PBS, Documentaries, good movies/series ie Acting ie Art

It is when you live vicariously through tv that is when you die

When Prince did Talk Shows / Interviews / Award Shows / Performances... he obviously hoped people would watch TV to see him, right? like when he did SNL when he did other shows, movies when he talked about a 2nd chance @ acting etc

Listening 2 too much music can B bad 4 U too, especially music with a lot of words... that like TV is still other peoples ideas and opinions getting into your head...

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Reply #8 posted 07/24/16 5:19pm

laytonian

OldFriends4Sale said:

I go without TV often.

TV has a lot of good to it, good programs:PBS, Documentaries, good movies/series ie Acting ie Art

It is when you live vicariously through tv that is when you die

When Prince did Talk Shows / Interviews / Award Shows / Performances... he obviously hoped people would watch TV to see him, right? like when he did SNL when he did other shows, movies when he talked about a 2nd chance @ acting etc

Listening 2 too much music can B bad 4 U too, especially music with a lot of words... that like TV is still other peoples ideas and opinions getting into your head...

.

He was very sly about New Girl, wasn't he? He knew it would be on right after the SuperBowl (and 25 MILLION people watched it).

I really don't believe it was his favorite show. He was calculating and crafty, that boy.

.

Welcome to "the org", laytonian… come bathe with me.
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Reply #9 posted 07/24/16 6:20pm

morningsong

anangellooksdown said:

During an interview around the late 90s Prince was already philosophica and right about certain things, I see now. Anyway, he was talking about how we should all take a day or even a week where the TV goes off. He then says:

"Any time you place your life outside of yourself, you're going to suffer grave consequences."

Other than the media/TV issue he was specifically talking about, what else might he have meant? "Anytime you place your life outside of yourself, you're going to suffer grave consequences."

Get as deep as or stray from the tv issue as far as you want.



I'd just like to say, that I understand and agree with his statement to some degree. We do spend too much time watching others live life instead of living it ourselves.

But then I think it's funny about the irony of his livelihood is greatly based on others paying him a great deal of their attention. I'm speaking as someone with no musical any type of bone in their body. It is not my field of study like it was for him. Outside of simply enjoying the songs I like why the heck do I care about any other aspect of this man's life? His guitar, his musical influences, his makeup? His struggles with the record industry. What the heck do I care? I'm not a musician, it isn't my fight. It isn't going to benefit my life in the slightest. But I had to hear about it A LOT. Continuouly. Why? Because as a fan I'm prone to have interest in things/people that have nothing to do with my life. I rolled with t, showed interest, even empathized. So obvious the idea of other having interest outside of themselves worked for him. There I said it. I love him but sometimes he gets the eyeroll on the contridictions.
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Reply #10 posted 07/24/16 7:13pm

fen

avatar

anangellooksdown said:

During an interview around the late 90s Prince was already philosophica and right about certain things, I see now. Anyway, he was talking about how we should all take a day or even a week where the TV goes off. He then says: "Any time you place your life outside of yourself, you're going to suffer grave consequences." Other than the media/TV issue he was specifically talking about, what else might he have meant? "Anytime you place your life outside of yourself, you're going to suffer grave consequences." Get as deep as or stray from the tv issue as far as you want.

Hi,

I differ with many of Prince’s “philosophical” ideas, especially toward the end his life (not that I think he was a fool by any means). This, however, strikes me as one of his more profound insights. As I interpret it, he’s suggesting that whenever we sacrifice our own desire and creativity to forces outside of ourself (social imperatives, a sense of obligation to those around us, some pre-established moral philosophy or other, the multitude of meaningless distractions that bombard us etc), we risk estranging and limiting our proper “self”. Regardless of the criticisms that can be levelled at Prince, he was an individual in the truest sense of the word, and I think that this kind of extreme “selfishness” and focus is characteristic of many true artists, poets and thinkers. The work and the internal creative drive must take precedence over all else (even if that makes us monstrous in some circumstances). Similar sentiments regarding individuality, freedom and the things that limit them can be found in the work of Nietzsche and Sartre among others. Take a look at Sartre’s concept of “Bad Faith” for example. That's how I read it anyway. All the best smile:

https://en.wikipedia.org/..._Bad_faith

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Reply #11 posted 07/24/16 7:47pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

laytonian said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I go without TV often.

TV has a lot of good to it, good programs:PBS, Documentaries, good movies/series ie Acting ie Art

It is when you live vicariously through tv that is when you die

When Prince did Talk Shows / Interviews / Award Shows / Performances... he obviously hoped people would watch TV to see him, right? like when he did SNL when he did other shows, movies when he talked about a 2nd chance @ acting etc

Listening 2 too much music can B bad 4 U too, especially music with a lot of words... that like TV is still other peoples ideas and opinions getting into your head...

.

He was very sly about New Girl, wasn't he? He knew it would be on right after the SuperBowl (and 25 MILLION people watched it).

I really don't believe it was his favorite show. He was calculating and crafty, that boy.

.

I don't think he was shy about it at all. He went for it. If he didn't like it I don't think he would have been on it.

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Reply #12 posted 07/25/16 5:33am

hezekinap

avatar

perfume said:

Relative to the TV issue, I did a 40 day tv fast for Lent a few years ago. There was a radical change in my thinking - fewer inane random thoughts floating around. I was also more productive. I essentially stopped watching it. The only time it goes on is when my mom visits. smile

yeah cool! relative and complimentary i think the idea of being dependent/addicted to something outside yourself is they key here. for him, in the 90s TV was a threat, Now its the intenet. Imagine going on an internet fast. That would really change world view. that includes all smart fons and apps.

hezekina! pollutina!
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Reply #13 posted 07/25/16 6:18am

justAmeda

I think he was referencing how if we look around we can all get "addicted" to something. There is internet addiction, TV addiction, the list is endless of the various types of addictions that are out there. I think he was saying we need to set one day that we remove ourselves from those addictions and focus on being more personable to those around us and also take some down time for ourselves to just withdraw from the world and let not just our bodies, but our enitre beings just rest.

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Reply #14 posted 07/25/16 8:12am

AnnaStesia10

avatar

That is a loaded stated by Prince. Do you happen to have the full article?

+++

I do too believe we all watch too much TV, news and on YT and internet way too much.

I am guilty of this and I love this post because I have been trying to come up with a detox plan for the internet. I am weaning myself off of TV but my "addiction" switched to internet, which is still putting my time outside of myself.

+++

Now when it comes to music that is a tough one for me. I sometimes go to sleep listening to music.

Someone here said too much music could be an addiction. Music for me does something different than going on-line or watching TV, it evokes an emotion and takes me to a surreal happy place. Especially Prince right now, it's my therapy.

"A strong spirit transcends rules." - Prince
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