Monday, September 17, 2007

Shocked and Awed, No More.

I was driving to work the other day and I got distracted by a billboard of a TV series called "Californication". I could not believe what I just read. I could not believe it not because I got offended, but because I could not believe the word "fornication" could be used in some approving manner. What it implied to me by that title was that "yes, this is a TV drama about fornications and fornicators, it is the story of their escapades". Now, you can fault me for being a prude, I have not seen any of its episodes. But frankly, I don't think we have a famine of such stories. That is just one story line after the ones we have seen before. If you ask me, there is already plenty of that value system in the movies we see today.

Then after a few weeks I read this on ABC News.

Just by coincidence, for the last couple of Sundays now the documentary called Decadence - The Meaninglessness of the Modern Life, is being shown in our SBS.



I so like this documentary and I do recommend it. I recommend it because it makes you think, it ashamedly critiques modern Western culture, what it has become and continues to become. It is no wonder that Islamists have no bit of respect for what the West stands for today.

As an example, several decades ago, explicitly having pornographic lyrics in songs in my generation was unheard of. Even in the lyrics of "Hey Jude" by the Beatles one had to be given the angle of looking at it in a suggestive way before one gets it. You got to think hard in order to get it. Today there is none of that. It is in your face and in your ears.

Zeks sells.

What does a scantily clad girl have to do with an advertisement for roast chicken? What about the Big Brother program which is nothing more but helping you indulge in satisfying your voyeur curiosities? Am I an idiot, as if I do not know what these TV stations are trying to do to me? They are marketing to me, they are involving me at the same time they want me to buy what they are selling, all of these at my expense. I am insulted not because they show people in their depraved worsts, but because they have the nerve to think I am stupid enough not to notice what they are doing.

There is a cultural transformation happening and the engine for that is Tinseltown - Hollywood. It is the fueler of pop-culture. No, it is not just porning America, it is porning the world. Hollywood has a lot more influence in the world than the White House, don't be naive. There are many things Hollywood can accomplish that will take the White House decades to get going. A few years from now, what used to be R rated movies will have X rated scenes, and they will make it appear ok, it will become the norm. A movie house who won't run them would miss out on the money.

In today's culture you do zeks first and try to develop the relationship later. I often observe that there is idolizing of romantic love in Hollywood movies as if you are not fulfilled if you do not have a boy friend or a girl friend who is in love with you. I do not mean such love is not needed, what I am amazed is the obsession of Hollywood with it. I pity my kids and their children, they are fodder for marketeers.

Do not think that women will come out properly treated after this mayhem of filth is over. No not at all. Just think, who are the role models of teenage girls? Paris Hilton types, it is the model who has the body but no brains. No wonder boys today want these types but little do they realize is that they are looking for a trophy they can hold in their hands and put on the book shelve. Well trophies are just that, objects to be put on a shelve, you pick them up and look at them if you are in need of some comfort and when that is done, you put them back on the shelve.

In fact, women are becoming more and more objects for indulgence. They do become a thing for one's pleasure, this is what Hollywood is making them to be. Zeks is a recreation sport and women are the equipment. What bothers me is that I do not think young women are resisting, I think they see Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan as people to be envied and admired. They seem to be flowing where the river flows, they are gliding along with the marketeers, oblivious that they are swimming the sewer lines.

I hope I am wrong.

7 comments:

Dizma said...

Unfortunatelly you are not wrong. It is a good analysis of today's society.

LPC said...

Dear Bro. Dizma,

I am honored to be added in your blog, if only I know Slovenian ;-) But this is not impossible, languages are my interest.

But praise the Lord you are blogging and I can see you are blogging about the Christian faith too.

Yes, the West (and I live in a Western country myself) as it continues to undress itself of Christianity, will continue to have more complex problems for us and our children and no matter what, the East will be affected by this too, it is a matter of marketing. I do hope it gets resisted. The East is communal and not individualistic, this good must not be lost.

As the Bible says - take what is good, throw what is bad. The bad must be chucked out.

God bless,

Lito

Dizma said...

"But praise the Lord you are blogging and I can see you are blogging about the Christian faith too."

We must be like Abraham "Who against hope believed in hope." (Rom 4.18)

In Christ,

Dizma

Kelly Klages said...

"Hey Jude"? There are double entendres in that song? I never noticed... not in *that* song, though in a lot of other Beatles tunes... and I'm a pretty crazy Beatles nut. What am I missing? That song was supposed to be addressed to a little boy of about 4 or 5 years.

LPC said...

Kelly,

The part that says "and let it out and let it in". In my time, you have to be given a suggestion before you can suspect what such songs might be saying but today well, they just go explicit. And btw, the songs mostly r& b and rap are quite monotonous in sound, about 3 bars repeated 8 times etc.

So sometimes, I do not blame parents who home school.

LPC

Anonymous said...

Hi Lito,
Thanks for the tip about Decadence.
Must see if it's on DVD.
Californication I can happily live without.

LPC said...

It is thought provoking and it was not even started by a Christian. You can find the DVDs here www.marcom.com.au (try this).

LPC