The New Barbarians

Who Are They And Why Won’t They Go Away?

I admit that “barbarity” is a purely subjective cultural thing, a matter of quibbling over details. To me, the barbarians in the current culture might first have seemed to be the hip-hoppers and the country-and-western elements, who both seem to make such a matter of pride out of their ignorance. To be “different” is one thing, to insist on being “one’s self” is not a terrible thing. But I fail to see the point in being so prideful about never having learned anything to start with. And, in the case of some who have learned a little, they hide it, pretend to despise it, talk extra “down-home” or ultra home-boy. Is it homey or “homie”—if they can’t spell it, how can I?

What makes one “civilized”, I think, is a willingness to absorb a little—hopefully, the best—from all cultural influences you encounter. But the cultural norm these days is to pretend to never change, to never learn, to never improve. We’re all going to end up as cornpone gangstas if current influences and pretensions continue.

That’s the group who are proud to be stupid. The other new barbarians are the people on TV who think that everyone else is stupid. We are overwhelmed by all the overwrought vulgarians of the entertainment talk shows and all the in-your-face argumentative screamers of the News Talk Shows. I wonder how it all came down to this Pride about shallowness and rude behavior?

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