softgrey said:
that's fine..but posts always go by the date...so that would mean we would have delete everything and start over...or copy and re-post them idividually after faust's big opening speech...
i've moved over some posts which need to go back to avh...moving individual posts is super tricky guys...look what happened to secret shopaholics...so please ...it's very important to stay on topic...and post in the correct thread...thanks!!
(helena... this means you!!!...
...LOL)
Jeebus, talk about pressure
.
A lot of excellent points have been brought up on which it is useless to elaborate. Bad parenting, path of least resistance, jadedness, lack of time, etc. The topic of the Zeitgeist is complex. I've thought about all this so many times over that I don't exactly know where to begin. I guess I'll try to enumerate my points, and to note that each one is incomplete without the other when it comes to the US of A, because similar problems are found in different countries, yet the Zeitgeist there is different. I'm posting with very limited knowledge, of course, but I hope this will all make sense. I will highlight some points that I think are more important than others. Otherwise I'd have to write a book.
1. Foundation of the US. (Disclaimer: this post is not meant to look down on any group of people, I am just trying to state what I think happened historically)
In order to understand the US, I think one should look at the majority of people who came here from the earliest days up to before WWII. They were mostly peasants, factory workers, criminals fleeing prosecution, or criminals sent as a result of prosecution, African slaves torn away from their primitive tribes, puritan Christians who were being castigated for their way of life in the period of fast scientific and personal freedom advancement, and other groups of people of either poor or dubious background drawn by a promise of quick enrichment. These people were hardly people of culture. Even the rich aristocrats (very few and far between) who came here built their wealth on slavery - which would be unthinkable at that time in Europe. The governors, the generals were for the most part second rank - those who could not get in the immediate European governments. Most of people of the groups described above unfortunately and generally are ignorant, illiterate, cultureless, mannerless, moralless. That is the backbone of the US population today.
1a. Cultural heritage (a lack of thereof)
I believe that in order to produce culture, one has to teach culture. That is obvious. I think it is also important to have a cultural heritage on which one can built, even against which one can rebel and thus push for something new. The USA (given point 1) did not have such a base. The US did not have the dantes, the pushkins, the goethes, the bachs, etc. to be proud of, to admire, to emulate, to improve upon, to build upon, to draw inspiration from, to rebel against, to disdain, to hate. They just had nothing. Only at the end of 19th, beginning of 20th century the cultural heritage is beginning to be built. Jazz in music, Witman, Poe, Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Salinger in literature, etc...
2. Parenting (I won't elaborate, because you guys nailed it.)
As we know, parents influence the children immensely. Look at point #1, and see what the parents would teach their children. Especially look at the puritan Christians, and proliferation and strength of religion in the US, which can only be compared to Europe of 300 years ago is obvious.
3. Industrial revolution, Karl Marx, effect of the Soviet Russia.
When industrial revolution came and all of a sudden it has become easier to feed oneself, most people shifted from farming to factories. Urbanization (and hence proximity of the working class) grew at incredible rates. Then came Karl Marx with his ideas of Communism. These were the first signs of the common man beginning to free himself from the upper class. Demonstrations, sabotages, unwillingness to slave away in the factories, and common understanding of a better life has become a force that the upper class could no longer deal with. Consessions had to be made to the workers, or Europe and the US would fall to Communism, just like Russia did (think about the strength of the socialist parties in Germany, the UK, France, and Spain between WWI and WWII). 8-hour work day was introduced. All of a sudden, for the first time in history of the manking, a common man, the masses, the majority received
leisure time, which was a luxury of the upper class before that.
3. Leisure time
But what do the masses do with their leisure time without proper education and proper exposure to culture? There has become a void between the leisure time and the usage of it. Instead of filling that time with education, the upper class jumped on that void as a means of another money-making outlet. Think about when mass-sports and cineam proliferates? Exact same time period, late 19th, beginning of the 20th century. Dumb, easy entertainment, instead of culture. And the public bites, of course, because the public is still ignorant and cultureless, only now it has time and disposable income.
4. W.W.I, W.W.II, and change of the governing mentality in Europe
Both wars devastated Europe and showed that the age of reason does not have the upper hand before the instinctive feelings of hatred, agression, and the resulting war. What this taught Europe is that the role of the government is not only foreign policy and expansion (at which it utterly failed, give two great wars and failure of colonisation), but maintenance of the welfare of its population. Here, Europe goes the socialist route in government (not economics) - free education system (including higher education) is set up, free healthcare system is set up, pension system is set up. The U.S., having come out on top (thanks to the cunning politics of Churchill and FDR/Truman and some stolen information from the Germans about a certian bomb
), decides to go the more inhuman route. No free healthcare system, a bad public education system (including higher education), inadequate welfare system. Point #6 may explain why this happened.
6. Money worship
It's hard to say what really propelled the US to go a different route from Europe, but I think it was something in that "land of opportunity" mentality, in which if you don't succeed in making money, the fault is entirely yours. I think Kurt Vonnegut sums it up best in
Slaughterhouse 5, "America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and por Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hummbard, 'It ain't no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify thier betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?'" The worship of money over intellect is obvious in the US. In this country, to most people it only matters how much you make, not what you do. Hence the adoration of sports stars, pop singers, etc...
7. Hippies, beatniks, punks and WTF happened?
The period of enlightment in the US culture is a period of revolt against the material culture of the after WWII prosperous and consumerist America, imperial aspirations of the US, and the Vietnam war. It roughly started in 1947 with Kerouac's and Co wanderings and evolved into a philosophy of non-consumerism, bohemian way of life, and preoccupation with something "higher" than the everyday consumerist rut (spiritualism, art, etc.). Kerouac, Ginzberg, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, Hunter S. Thompson, the Doors, etc. led the cultural revolution and young people followed. The wrongfulness of the way of life and the foreign US policy (Vietnam, McCarthyism) was just too apparent. It was the high point of revolution, but it should've transcended culture into politics, where (unfortunately) the real power is concentrated. This never happened. What happened instead is that the government, and the capitalists learned quickly how to fight the rebellion. The biggest lesson the Doors taught the world was not that a human being has a right to personal freedom and peace, but that a rebellion is fashionable and charismatic, and can be turned into a money making machine. Why do you think Jim Morisson killed himself? Why do you think Sid Vicious killed himself? Why do you think Kurt Cobain killed himself? Why do you think Rage Against the Machine fell apart so quickly? I believe all these people had integrity in their heart which they could not reconcile with the fact that the message of their art was misrepresented, misused, and turned against them (in the effect of creating an image instead of truth, and enriching a small group of people, including thesmelves, at the expense of the ignorant masses). People without principles (money worshippers) came out on top, once again.
8. Where we are today
Where we are today, is the product of everything I've stated before (of course). There is not much to say. More and more people are getting money and free time, but bad education and valueless attitude. Teenagers have their parents' credit cards. There is nothing to do, except go to the mall and spend, spend, spend. Money worship, and its ostentatious display reigns. It's not cool to be smart, it's cool to have a car. Rebellion is quickly turned into money-making by the entertainment industry. Conglomerates swallow the little fish. People are kept dumb by inadequate education systems. Dumb people are easily influenced and will always take a path of least resistance. So we have TV, Hollywood, Vogue, pop music, which to any person with a brain cell is just painful to see. I don't know what will fix it. I'm banking on education and higher moral values, which will destroy consumer culture and money worship. It is all up to the people on how to spend their income. Noone twists your hand, but they can surely put immense pressure on you with advertising, peer pressure, etc. It takes a strong character to break away from this. But, I'm optimistic enough to think that this will change. Hollywood films are getting dumber and dumber, TV is getting worse and worse, so is music. I think there is a threshold to everything. Hopefully there is a threshold to ugliness and stupidity. I've shifted my belief in society to belief in the individual. Society is ruled by people without principles. Alber Camus said it best about politics, but I think it pertains to all aspects of life, predators will always be on top, "Politics and the fate of mankind are formed by men without ideals and without greatness. Those who have greatness within them do not go in for politics." As a result of this shift my life has become so much more relaxed and interesting. I don't watch TV, I rarely read papers, I don't read popular magazines, I've taken myself out of the pop culture that has nothing to offer, and instead I'm pursuing the culture that has tons to offer. I now choose what I do, where I go, what I read and listen too, without society's effect. And I'm not concerned with missing something new and interesting, because there are enough interesting things to fill many lifetimes.
So, if you refuse to accept this Louis Vuitton culture, don't fight it, take yourself out of it. Faust has spoken, and I hope it makes sense
. I don't pretend to be a sage, but this is what I think.
P.S. Once again, I would advise for everyone to read
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence that adresses a very important point pertinent to this discussion, on which may be I'll comment later on. As it is, this post took half out of my workday, for which I would like to thank Softgrey, who pointed me to this thread.
