Monday, December 11, 2006

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?


5 comments:

  1. Barbarity? Isn't that what the barber does to monkeys?

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  2. Well put. Someone needs to smack that Republican mouth piece Ann Coulter.

    Though I have to admit, she is kind of hot. :)

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  3. Maybe that's why Ann Coulter is so mad; she realizes that people hate her even though she is pretty hot. Most pretty women can't even aspire to so much hatred, but she can.

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  4. This reminds me ...
    A few years back, Eminem and his supporters were blabbing about his freedom to express his unique musical message. Based on my understanding of human history, violence against woman has been around for quite a while. Seems to me, the festering little pustule didn't have anything unique to say.

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  5. Maybe someday the m&m will save a small child from drowning. Then his life will not have been wasted.

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Abandon hope, all ye who enter here! (At least put on your socks and pants.)