What is wrong with modern culture ?

[Alexandrah]

Well, for one thing, I think it has to do with the lack of public executions. No more of this hush hush done in a dark room stuff. Let's make examples of the heathens and be done with it so we can all get back to church, lock our chastity belts, and return to toiling in the fields. I think we could all use more toiling and public torture.

now get off my lawn!

 

[stan1980]

THis is so wrong...but I Have to say it...my fingers are forcing me to: IPU help me...

Your submission as the next logo for the Special Olympics?

x100

I shouldn't laugh, but that almost made me choke on my croissant!

 

[wanderingone]

Why do you think your images actually reflect "modern" culture? And what about that upper class victorian mess that you have offered as a more pleasant alternative do you think proves that past cultural norms have been so "right"?

 

[DeathMagus]

One thing I've come to realize about such things as Victorian niceties is that they existed primarily as status symbols to separate the classes. The old Victorian-style manners weren't about being kind to others, and they weren't done out of respect for others. Rather, they were simply a complex series of "rules" for niceness that only the rich had time and/or a reason to learn, and was thus as much a symbol of power and authority as the fancy clothing they wore.

 

[InigoMontoja]

People have been complaining about the decline of their current cultures for millennia, looking nostalgically back at older days (and ignoring the flaws of those older times in the process).

"A tablet from ancient Assyria, about 2800 B.C., has been found that states: 'Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common.' More than 2,000 years later, Socrates complained, 'Children are now tyrants...They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize over their teachers.' And Plato wrote of his students: 'What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents, they ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?'"

-- Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts, ed. Isaac Asimov. New York: Wings Books, 1979.

Just because two people complain about the same problem at two different times doesn't mean the they're both wrong. One could be right in the assessment of their culture, one could just be cranky. Maybe Socrates was right about that generation, maybe the prior generation was much more upright, and was even more generous, chaste, and pure than the generation before that. You don't know. All three examples here are 2,000 or more years apart, that's plenty of time for upswings and downswings, and polls indicate most people agree that our country is in a downswing right now.

 

[cantata]

polls indicate most people agree that our country is in a downswing right now.

Citation needed.

 

[TheManeki]

Just because two people complain about the same problem at two different times doesn't mean the they're both wrong. One could be right in the assessment of their culture, one could just be cranky. Maybe Socrates was right about that generation, maybe the prior generation was much more upright, and was even more generous, chaste, and pure than the generation before that. You don't know. All three examples here are 2,000 or more years apart, that's plenty of time for upswings and downswings, and polls indicate most people agree that our country is in a downswing right now.

I was illustrating that the OP was in a grand tradition of older generations moaning and groaning about the new generation being being worse than the last, while overall it seems that such fears are unfounded. Or do you think we were better off in 2800 BC?

Is the OP right or cranky? Only time will tell, but I'm have a hunch it's more crankiness than anything.

 

[Robbie_James_Francis]

polls indicate most people agree that our country is in a downswing right now.

And? 'Most people' are insufferably stupid, so there's no reason to care about what they think. Murdoch gives them their ration of idiotic commentary and they take it as gospel.

What exactly was better before? Do you think women don't deserve the vote? Are black people not really human? Should mental health issues be dealt with by exorcisms? Do people have a right to rule because of their ancestry? Is masturbation a fatal disease?

Let's face it: for all the nostalgia we may feel, modern culture is better than any culture before it. We are more free, more intelligent, healthier and have more access to communication with other people. If it weren't for 'modern culture' you wouldn't have made this post, because you wouldn't feel the right to express your opinions and you wouldn't have the means (the internet). It's hypocritical for you to argue against 'modern culture' just as it is for a womyn to argue against feminism. She wouldn't have the right to have her opinion heard if it weren't for feminism, and you wouldn't have the right to moan about modern culture if it weren't for modern culture's liberalism.

Of course you have the right to say what you think (the direct result of modern culture I might add) but I must disagree.

 

[Eudaimonist]

I don't see anything wrong with Goth or other alternative styles. I personally prefer a brighter Romanticism, but dark Romanticism is fun for the same reasons that vampire stories are fun.

I'm not much one for abstract art, and I hardly even consider it art, but I don't see anything wrong with it existing. As I see it, abstract art is a kind of experimental art -- almost a kind of art science that aims at probing the boundaries of art, and which asks: "What is art?"


On the other hand, why is traditional culture so pleasant and admirable ?



I find this design monotonous, not pleasant and admirable. Give me Frank Lloyd Wright any day.

This is nice. No argument here.

This has all the charm of an overfluffed French poodle.


Anyway, I don't see any connection between atheism and recent art. I'm an atheist, and I love beautiful representational art, stylish (not poodle-aristocratic) clothing, and cognitively interesting architecture (e.g. Frank Lloyd Wright).


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Beanieboy]

I had friends who used to go to parties "dead", using white face. (it the "traditional" days, they powdered their face as well.) I also spiked my hair back in the 8os. A lot of it was rebellion, because at the time, in college, every sorority girl had a bob haircut, pearls, Tretorns, etc., like an outfit. They had no originality, and basically had a herd mentality. My rebellion was closer to my problem with blind conformity than anything else.

People at the time would then complain about "the good old days," like the 1950s, when any nonwhite person was treated as a 2nd class citizen, and not allowed in the same restaurants, to drink from the same fountains, or ride in the same part of the bus. They couldn't even vote. And that was the good days?

Go back farther to the time periods of those pieces, and people were quartered if they didn't convert. Wouldn't you say that we have improved since then?

 

[Robbie_James_Francis]

My favourite thing about modern culture is that we can express ourselves. We're totally free to voice our opinion like never before.

 

[Eudaimonist]

On the other hand, why is traditional culture so pleasant and admirable ?

Upon reflection of your examples, I think the answer is clear, and quite mundane...

There is no longer an aristocracy that determines art trends any longer. What we have experienced is the democratization of art. What I mean is that art has become so easy to produce and consume that virtually everyone has their tastes satisfied by something.

I'm not suggesting that all art trends are determined by public tastes. I can't imagine that abstract art satisfies many people except for artists and art critics. But generally the "traditional" art was aimed mainly at aristocrats, and they just don't determine the trends any longer.


eudaimonia,

Mark