 |
|
|
|
|
 
|
|
January 08, 2006 THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION... and then some. There's something wrong with the world. If not "the world", then maybe there's something wrong with its people.Is it just me, or do you (whomever you may be) sense the inherent "wrongness" that seems to be seething, no longer beneath the surface, but rather, conspicuously above it? Call it the decline of civilization, or the fall of Rome… what have you, but it seems rather evinced to me that our society, specifically American society, is basically on a fast track to destruction. I mean tell me I'm wrong here, because honestly, I would love it if that were the case. However, I see far too many specific reasons as to why I am right (this coming from a man who readily, and often, admits to not being the brightest star in the night sky). Take television shows for instance. When I was a kid, even a teenager, it was always about the drama: Miami Vice, Battlestar Galactica, X-Files, even to a lesser extent Buck Rodgers and Star Trek. And then, there were the sitcoms like Seinfeld, Friends and others, both mentionable and unmentionable. Now, here in the bloody twenty-first century, we have… "Reality Television" (whatever the hell that's supposed to mean). I have watched some reality shows; admittedly, I'm a sucker for American Idol. But there are some, the most popular, namely Survivor and Big Brother that are down right prurient. These two shows in particular trumpet avarice and deceit as if they were virtues, eschewing honorable conduct and fair play as bad television while at the same time reveling in the lies, the back-stabbing, and the double-cross of their most despicable players. Sure, a panel of their peer's judges the liars and the cheaters, but it does not deny the fact that they rose to the top through manipulation and deception. I hate these shows. They applaud bad behavior as Jerry Springer applauds chair throwing. And there is simply nothing "real" about any of them. Take for instance Survivor, claiming to voluntarily maroon a bunch of people in the worst environments possible, and yet with each tribal council (yes, I did, much to my chagrin, watch Survivor this year) the women, in particular, showed the signs of not just being "made-up", but pampered. I noticed that all the women's under arms were shaved often and frequently. Not only that but it was painfully obvious that they had been to "hair and make-up". Makes me wonder just how tough, and just how "real" all that living off grubs and corn really is. Not too much I would think. Then there's this immature mentality that seems downright pervasive, even among people my own age. I speak specifically about the terms "boy and girl", and their flagrant overuse and misuse. I fucking hate this! I am 36 years old. I have earned, through trial and tribulations, the moniker of "man". I am no boy, and refuse to be called one. Nor do I appreciate a female near to my age that would blissfully refer to herself as a "girl". I do not deal, unless forced to, with boys and girls. I am an adult and prefer dealing with adults; that means, men and women. A man or a woman who would readily call themselves boy or girl is not just juvenile, but stupid; seemingly more than willing to allow themselves to regress both emotionally and mentally to a time when the word wisdom had no meaning, and knowledge was only a whisper. The way I see it, if you've lived long enough to see your thirtieth year of life then you have, indeed, earned the title of man or woman. Don't be silly and call yourself a boy or a girl, you will only appear foolish. Then… we have this god's forsaken "war", led by a mindless, ingrate who thinks 2,000 plus dead Americans is "worth it", and who sees well over 30,000 dead Iraq citizens as "acceptable losses". What I cannot understand… what floors me every time I see and hear it, are the hundreds upon hundred thousand of U.S. citizens who still support this blood bath and its Texan poster boy. How much reality does this country need, to know that their president, a man of small consequence and an even tinier intellect, has done something horribly wrong? How many lies can these people swallow before they start to choke? How many lives, both Iraq and American, need to be sacrificed to assuage the zealot urgings of one man? It is absolutely mind-boggling! Clinton, a president who, mark my words, will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen, got his, not to mince about, cock sucked and was impeached for it. Bush has lied to the American people, time and time and time again, engaged in an invasion of a country that posed no threat to the U.S. whatsoever, readily admitted to conducting unlawful, and I might ad, un-American practices such as illegal wire taps, torture, illegal search and seizure, not abiding by the Geneva Convention, and he is still, to this day, untouchable. That's what really terrifies me. This man, this tyrant and his regime of yes men is no worse than a modern day Hitler, and yet he is paraded in front of the American people like a hero, like the conqueror of Rome. Insanity. Bloody madness! What has happened to intelligence? Furthermore, what has happened to good common sense? I don't have the answers. And the answers, if not just the questions, terrify me. [Add Comment] [View Comments] 3 |
||
 
|