After I finished writing that last post I took a long hot shower so that I could reflect on what I had just wrote. And while I stood there basking in the hot water from overhead a thought occurred to me and I thought enough of it that I needed to get out and post it right away, to impart it on you, my readers.
And here it is...
If you look back into human history and in particular our history when it comes to our culture what names stick out? Certainly there are hundreds of greats in all the different media. Names like Leonardo, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Shakespeare, Bach, Brahms, and Whitman come to mind. But you can literally name hundreds of them. Now, when you think about those great names would you say that they were held in a higher esteem than most of their contemporaries? Would you say that most of these people behind these names were consider intellectually superior to the people around them?
I bet you're saying yes.
And that's what is perhaps the most troubling thought that comes to mind with regards to the state of our current culture. Think about the more prominent names in our culture. Names like Kevin Federline, Tom Sizemore, Tom Cruise, Ben Mulroney, Martha Stewart. Are those the kinds of names that pop immediately to mind? In some cases, yes. You can once again name hundreds of people who are leading our cultural endeavours. Now ask yourself again are these names that came to your mind, are they considered intellectually superior to the people around them? Are these the people we have to look up to for our enlightenment as a whole? Are these the people who are going to represent us in the annals of history?
Maybe it's time for the intellectuals to take the culture back.
And I'm not saying that all our cultural output has to be high brow and hoity-toity. Far from it. Sometimes mindless entertainment has its merits. Sometimes, turning our brains off can be a good thing.
But where the fuck is the critical mass with this shit? When has contemporary culture not only skidded, but started to dig into the earth below it?
What I'm saying is that we have to strike more balance. We've been without a fair balance for a long, long time and we're setting out species back because of it. How many more marginally talented individuals get to be immortalized while the great thinkers fall by the wayside? It doesn't make sense the way we have things. Reverence is something bought now as opposed to earned.
Where the fuck is the balance? Kevin Federline, I'm talking to you. Martha Stewart, if you can hear me over the echo in your vagina, I'm talking to you. Paris Hilton, I'm talking to you.
Take your culture back, people.
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3 comments:
What do you suggest Oh fearless leader. Shall I start taking braindead teens holding them down and start reading great classics of the 19th century to them?
What about a boycottt of mass media? Im already boycotting 15 different ideas/companys/people one more wont hurt.
Now that I've posted this rant I look back at it and I can't figure out an easy solution. There is definitely a discrepency between the type of entertainment and culture that humans as technologically and scientifically advanced as we are should be indulging in and the type of entertainment and culture that the people we choose to lead us give us. Maybe the first step is to get people in charge who are cognizant of our intellectual potential and create media befitting that potential instead of just spitting on our brains the way that they do sometimes.
I dont think of it so much as spitting on our brains as much as rape on our ears. If they would only use lube the fuckers.
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