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textualdevianceOh, SNAP!
"There might have been a time when being caught on camera in flagrante delicto or hoovering up lines of coke would have ended a career. But as Paris Hilton proved, being videotaped by one's boyfriend in a zonked-out state and naked on all fours does not put a hitch in one's five-year plan. If anything, the bubble-gum divinity apotheosized on the basis of a homemade pornography loop, a moronic catchphrase and a mental vacancy cavernous enough for storing yellowcake appears set to enjoy a media half-life about as long as that of a spent plutonium rod."
Personally, I think it's an exponential loop.
The media feeds the audience vacuous crap because that's what the audience wants. And because the audience doesn't get anything other than vacuous crap, whether they want it or not, they don't know any better to want anything else. And then that demand begets more copycat dreck, and more copycat dreck begets more mindless demand and...
Somewhere in this thing, schools are supposed to intervene, and feed kids something mentally nutritious along with their steady diet of id-tickling pop culture cheetos. But thankyewverrahmuch to one Mr. Reagan and his "ketchup is a vegetable" way of hacking apart the public schools, that just isn't happening.
It's not the fault of the teachers--though some are clearly in the wrong field--nor many administrators. It's the fault of school boards populated with people who sincerely believe the earth was created in six days and a government unwilling to do anything about that.
This isn't a wholesale trashing of pop culture, mind. Goodness knows I spend quite a bit of time on it myself. We all like the occasional foray to the entertainment equivalent of Taco Bell. But somehow we need to solve the anti-intellectual, anti-education attitude. We need to find a way to convince people that silly stuff is good in moderation, but ultimately, more substance is more satisfying.
More people may be enrolling in college than ever before, but when they only do so to get a lucrative job after graduation, or because they want to live away from their parents and drink a lot, it's not really improving anything. And likewise, if they're only getting into these schools because high schools have dumbed down their curricula enough so that even Fear Factor addicts can manage a 3.5, we're not getting anywhere, either. Cooking the books by lowering the standards and then saying, "But look, our students get plenty of good grades!" completely ignores solving the real problem.
I don't think the solution is to shove academia down kids' throats. I think the solution is for adults--particularly those they come into contact with the most--to demonstrate a love for learning. When mom and dad don't read, don't pay attention to the news and consider schoolwork an evil beast to be dispensed with as quickly as possible, it's not a surprise that Junior is the same way.
And frankly, the media have to stop pandering, too. There is more to life than ratings. Branding by quality does work, and in the long run, it gains more loyal audience than simply parroting the latest Fox sitcom. Producing something shallow may attract a horde of fad freaks, but once they've tired of that, they're on to the next thing, and you get to spend even more money developing the next big thing. Something with depth, while it may not immediately attract flies, will hold attention longer and ultimately be less expensive because you're not constantly adding startup costs.
Job #1 in this? Someone stop Paris Hilton's career. Immediately. Stop hiring her to do stuff, stop taking pictures of her, stop giving her airtime and print space. Yes, I know there are thousands of equally-insipid teen girls who adore her, but too bad.
(Sometimes I wonder if this stuff happens only because the straight guys running the show want a continually-fresh crop of future porn stars and pole dancers...)
Then we can start on the careers of Hillary Duff, Ashlee Simpson and her hosebeast sister, and work on the himbos, too.
Eventually, if the people who get the most face time are the smart, thoughtful and actually talented ones, kids are going to start modeling their own lives after those celebs. And eventually, the demand for more smart, thoughtful and talented people will grow.
"But if we don't do it, someone else will" is not an excuse. Neither is, "But our shareholders..." Fuck the shareholders. They can afford the lube. The U.S. is in the middle of a serious cultural crisis, and if we are ever to elect politicians who will bring back real education, we have to get a populace who will vote for those guys instead of just going with the one who seems like he'd be the most fun at a kegger.
"There might have been a time when being caught on camera in flagrante delicto or hoovering up lines of coke would have ended a career. But as Paris Hilton proved, being videotaped by one's boyfriend in a zonked-out state and naked on all fours does not put a hitch in one's five-year plan. If anything, the bubble-gum divinity apotheosized on the basis of a homemade pornography loop, a moronic catchphrase and a mental vacancy cavernous enough for storing yellowcake appears set to enjoy a media half-life about as long as that of a spent plutonium rod."
Personally, I think it's an exponential loop.
The media feeds the audience vacuous crap because that's what the audience wants. And because the audience doesn't get anything other than vacuous crap, whether they want it or not, they don't know any better to want anything else. And then that demand begets more copycat dreck, and more copycat dreck begets more mindless demand and...
Somewhere in this thing, schools are supposed to intervene, and feed kids something mentally nutritious along with their steady diet of id-tickling pop culture cheetos. But thankyewverrahmuch to one Mr. Reagan and his "ketchup is a vegetable" way of hacking apart the public schools, that just isn't happening.
It's not the fault of the teachers--though some are clearly in the wrong field--nor many administrators. It's the fault of school boards populated with people who sincerely believe the earth was created in six days and a government unwilling to do anything about that.
This isn't a wholesale trashing of pop culture, mind. Goodness knows I spend quite a bit of time on it myself. We all like the occasional foray to the entertainment equivalent of Taco Bell. But somehow we need to solve the anti-intellectual, anti-education attitude. We need to find a way to convince people that silly stuff is good in moderation, but ultimately, more substance is more satisfying.
More people may be enrolling in college than ever before, but when they only do so to get a lucrative job after graduation, or because they want to live away from their parents and drink a lot, it's not really improving anything. And likewise, if they're only getting into these schools because high schools have dumbed down their curricula enough so that even Fear Factor addicts can manage a 3.5, we're not getting anywhere, either. Cooking the books by lowering the standards and then saying, "But look, our students get plenty of good grades!" completely ignores solving the real problem.
I don't think the solution is to shove academia down kids' throats. I think the solution is for adults--particularly those they come into contact with the most--to demonstrate a love for learning. When mom and dad don't read, don't pay attention to the news and consider schoolwork an evil beast to be dispensed with as quickly as possible, it's not a surprise that Junior is the same way.
And frankly, the media have to stop pandering, too. There is more to life than ratings. Branding by quality does work, and in the long run, it gains more loyal audience than simply parroting the latest Fox sitcom. Producing something shallow may attract a horde of fad freaks, but once they've tired of that, they're on to the next thing, and you get to spend even more money developing the next big thing. Something with depth, while it may not immediately attract flies, will hold attention longer and ultimately be less expensive because you're not constantly adding startup costs.
Job #1 in this? Someone stop Paris Hilton's career. Immediately. Stop hiring her to do stuff, stop taking pictures of her, stop giving her airtime and print space. Yes, I know there are thousands of equally-insipid teen girls who adore her, but too bad.
(Sometimes I wonder if this stuff happens only because the straight guys running the show want a continually-fresh crop of future porn stars and pole dancers...)
Then we can start on the careers of Hillary Duff, Ashlee Simpson and her hosebeast sister, and work on the himbos, too.
Eventually, if the people who get the most face time are the smart, thoughtful and actually talented ones, kids are going to start modeling their own lives after those celebs. And eventually, the demand for more smart, thoughtful and talented people will grow.
"But if we don't do it, someone else will" is not an excuse. Neither is, "But our shareholders..." Fuck the shareholders. They can afford the lube. The U.S. is in the middle of a serious cultural crisis, and if we are ever to elect politicians who will bring back real education, we have to get a populace who will vote for those guys instead of just going with the one who seems like he'd be the most fun at a kegger.
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