Generational Attitudes
A few nights ago, I ate something that disagreed with me and I had to threw up. Funny thing about this is that I haven't "thrown up" since I was sixteen, (an inexperienced teenager experimenting with alcohol). -- This started me thinking about a new TV sitcom (Starved) I'd recently seen dealing with purging, and I wondered how anyone could deliberately do this. -- This started me thinking how crass it was to make a sitcom about eating disorders, which result from serious psychological problems and are hardly comic fodder. -- Then I thought how so much of our current culture, which is so highly influenced by the media, seems to have lost its sense of civility and decency, and its sense of what is and is not appropriate. Then I cringed as the thoughts "back in my day..." and "the kids today...", went through my mind. "I can't believe I just thought that. Damn, I'm gettin' old."
Mind you, I'm not a prude. I do enjoy raunchy, off-color, politically-incorrect humor. I even enjoy pornography; some of my interests could be deemed downright perverted. But there's the matter of propriety, a proper time and place. In today's culture, the salacious has become commonplace and a part of the daily vernacular ...while we simultaneously proclaim our "values". We accept young girls dressing and looking like sluts, and then (hypocritically) make a big todo over JJ's nipple. We allow our youth to be bombarded with a constant stream of intense sensory stimulation, and wonder why it's impossible for them to just "be still". We've exchanged class and style for crassness and vulgarity.
I know every generation has to "do it's own thing". I'm sure the previous generation thought the same things about us ...and the generation before that about them. And we thought we were being radical as we "rebelled" against the oppressive attitudes of the 50's ... with our beads, bellbottoms, big shoes, and brownies. Looking back, all that seems so tame by comparison.
But where does it all end? Or will the pendulum start to swing the other way; will we end up moving toward an oppressive*, less-expressive society? Only to do the whole thing over again ...and again.
*(There're already signs of this -- our liberties being curtailed under the guise of "The Patriot Act"; "legislation to amend the constitution to prevent same-sex unions"; "the possibility of a reversal of Rowe vs. Wade" -- but those are topics for a whole 'nother blog.)
Quote of the Week: "Be careful in casting out your devils, 'lest you cast out the best part of you."
Mind you, I'm not a prude. I do enjoy raunchy, off-color, politically-incorrect humor. I even enjoy pornography; some of my interests could be deemed downright perverted. But there's the matter of propriety, a proper time and place. In today's culture, the salacious has become commonplace and a part of the daily vernacular ...while we simultaneously proclaim our "values". We accept young girls dressing and looking like sluts, and then (hypocritically) make a big todo over JJ's nipple. We allow our youth to be bombarded with a constant stream of intense sensory stimulation, and wonder why it's impossible for them to just "be still". We've exchanged class and style for crassness and vulgarity.
I know every generation has to "do it's own thing". I'm sure the previous generation thought the same things about us ...and the generation before that about them. And we thought we were being radical as we "rebelled" against the oppressive attitudes of the 50's ... with our beads, bellbottoms, big shoes, and brownies. Looking back, all that seems so tame by comparison.
But where does it all end? Or will the pendulum start to swing the other way; will we end up moving toward an oppressive*, less-expressive society? Only to do the whole thing over again ...and again.
*(There're already signs of this -- our liberties being curtailed under the guise of "The Patriot Act"; "legislation to amend the constitution to prevent same-sex unions"; "the possibility of a reversal of Rowe vs. Wade" -- but those are topics for a whole 'nother blog.)
Quote of the Week: "Be careful in casting out your devils, 'lest you cast out the best part of you."
posted by gieau_sf (10:05:00 AM)
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