For many reasons, I think...
For one, we're undeniably in late stage canc... I mean late stage capitalism. America has exhausted itself with superficiality. To the point where it's no longer attractive. The American dream used to be something attractive. Attractive enough to even hook someone like me. And I think it was attractive for a reason. It was humble and it was modest. A nice home nestled away in a nice, cozy, leafy suburb somewhere with a loving wife, two kids. A golden retriever. You had a middle class job that didn't require you to work from 8 to 5:45 every day in order to barely stay afloat. Today, that's a pipe dream. At least for people in my generation. The concept of owning a nice home without shelling away over half my income seems unthinkable.
I also think the culture has changed so much. The culture is so venomous and cancerous, poisonous and toxic today. Wealth is no longer displayed in a classy way. It's so base-instincts and superficial. Adults aren't at the helm of the culture anymore (whether it be music, television, movies, or what have you). Instead we have a bunch of self-consumed young adults who are still in a "party mode" mindset who have control over the machinery of our culture...
When the culture was controlled by adults - things were tasteful and subtle in all forms of art. Today it's obnoxious and excessive. Think of reality TV culture, or Instagram culture for example. Tasteless, tacky display of wealth. The television landscape is a complete wasteland. It's just a bunch of reality television stars or famous-for-being-famous people arguing and bickering with each other in base-instinct childlike drama. Almost entirely for show and ratings. Or a rehashed show involving some semi-famous person. Or some game show hosted by or involving famous people as contestants.
Our culture has exhausted itself with wealth and celebrity obsession and worship. We've far passed that sweet spot where the idea of wealth and reaching the top in American society was attractive. Today, it looks miserable. A lot of our celebrities are washed up and shamelessly clinging to the "spotlight" (if you can even call it that anymore - considering our hyper-fragmented media landscape with Netflix, cable, YouTube, hulu, HBO, etc.).
Even our big cities in America have completely been fleeced of their culture. Big cities in America were once occupied by adults. Actual adults. Not young adults playing adults. The gentrification (and quite frankly Disneyfication) of our large cities is another sign of our degraded culture. Go to New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, or San Francisco. You're met with the same cookie cutter post-hipster, politically correct, "quirky" millennial. And due to the obsession of traveling in these same group of people along with the standardization of culture through our mass media, these cities have lost their individuality. Compare a movie filmed in Los Angeles or Miami in 1983, for example, vs. something filmed in either city in 2017. It's night and day.
Sigh.. I'm ranting now. But I don't know. I feel like our culture is an absolute shell of what it used to be - even in the not-so-distant past. The explosion of the internet but particularly social media (ie. the on-boarding of the unextraordinary masses) really put the final nail in the coffin.
I don't mean for this post to come off so "lewronggeneration" but surely you guys can see some truth to what is being said here?
Submitted August 14, 2019 at 11:40PM by JawsOfTheMachine https://ift.tt/2Mh2CtV
No comments:
Post a Comment