I sit, chin in my hands while my daughter takes, once again, a spray can to the column of the Stoa. Popular culture is such a drag, but is certainly as indicative for the illness of our culture as pus streaming from your eyes may indicate illness in a person.
She is a big fan of the show "Bridezilla's" and other shows of its ilk. I attempt to avoid them as if they were a DNC commercial, but sometimes you just can not. Despite trying to be busy doing other things, I could not help but hear the several episodes she watched. After grinding my teeth for awhile, it finally dawned on me that this fits well with what I feel is the ongoing rot and symptomology of our once great culture.
This show details spoiled little girls who's personal bubble barely escapes their skull. Everyone and everything around them are just shadowy tools to be used for their own self-gratification and edification. Men are simply sources of money that they need not earn and are items of amusement when they want them. Women are "bro-hoes" who join up in shifting wolf packs to hit the bars and troll for illicit men with money and toys...and trouble. Fathers make excuses and mothers usually hide in shame over the behavior of their spawn.
That their parents allowed these brats to grow up this way is unconscionable, it is another thing for our culture to revel in their antics. What are we doing? Why is this interesting? If you want to see spoiled brats throwing fits then just hang out at the mall. What do you learn from watching this show...other than there are a lot of parents and friends and businesses that put up with WAY, WAY more than I ever would.
These pathetic excuses for womanhood are put on TV and people tune in to watch them. It boggles my mind.
Other shows exist like this that clearly show the stress that our culture is under. You have shows that describe the frustration of our Border Patrol agents and their impossible mission to keep our borders sealed. There are a variety of pawning shows that see people trading in family heirlooms for a dinner in Vegas or to pay the bail bondsman in Detroit. One shows the middle class and the well to do turning in their family legacies for quick, and quickly spent, cash while the other shows those struggling in Detroit to keep the lights on and food on the table, going so far even as to pawn their artificial leg.
Various Storage unit shows tell the saga of tens of thousands of people who can no longer pay the rent for their storage units and subsequently lose everything to the stars of the various shows. They are vultures who pick over the bones of the less fortunate in our society. I'm not saying that what they are doing is any more wrong then what real vultures do, they are just symptoms of a declining society.
The video put together by the talented and gorgeous Jessica Frech about the "People of Walmart" shows what people feel is acceptable cultural behavior in our big retail stores. Watch the video, you will definitely get what I'm talking about.
Are we civilized barbarians? Are we a rotted culture just waiting for someone to kick in the door and put an end to our unique (yeah, Barak, I said it) culture?
I see lots of trash. Trash that piles up relentlessly. I'm sorry that Amy Winehouse is dead, but she was an out of control drug user. It happens sometimes. I'm sorry for Charlie Sheen, he may be the American Keith Richards with an invulnerability to drug overdoses. The trash piles high with divorce court, newlywed games, reality TV, etc. Trash as far as I can see sometimes.
I also see the shiny paint under all the splattered excrement. Jeopardy! is a great show, despite it HUGE leftward lean. We continue to unravel the mysteries of the universe with M-theory and Super Gravity, despite most of the PhD grads all having Chinese and Indian last names (that is a dig at us Americans in case you didn't get it). I see private industry trying to get us back into space quickly after Obama retreated on NASA. I see iPads and iPhone 5's coming out, even though they are built in China. We are still creative and dynamic. As long as we remain relatively consistent in our business practices and government then we will survive as a nation. As long as we continue to honor the military and their sacrifices on our behalf then we will be worthy of those young men and women. As long as women like Jessica Frech continue to work hard to better themselves, help the poor because they WANT to help the poor and create fine music then I feel we are on the right track, in general.
All is by no means lost, though it sure stinks out there with all the excrement heaped at the base of the Stoa.
I must hose off the Stoa and the steps and then take a shower myself.
Live well.
--Zavost
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