I don't think it's exactly news that kids become desensitized to violence by playing violent video games.
It's not news that we've gone from Lucy & Ricky sleeping in separate beds to people literally shitting on television for our entertainment.
It's not news that we now entertain ourselves with music & movies that condone violence & death & destruction & hatred.
It's not news that we make excuses for people who commit crimes.
It's not news that those who work hard, sacrifice and become successful are now looked at with suspicion and doubt and worse.
Our society is okay with the above. THAT is how culture is playing into this.
Anyone who doesn't see a decay in this culture and how it is manifesting simply isn't paying attention. Or perhaps they're enjoying it.
.
How ironic it is that we go through life trying to make as much money as possible, by doing actually nothing but investing, and decry the social degradation that is causing? The system feeds off society, first by trying to maximize profit by moving jobs off shore and then by trying to sell the goods to the same people just put out of work. It is crazy. Myself, I enjoy the lower cost goods coming in because I don't need to worry about a job. It helps me but I see it is dragging the country down. Just like I have said since WJC, he was the worst president ever because he started the whole process of the sucking sound of jobs.
But you can be a ease as long as your portfolio increases.
I think it began before Clinton. I think what happened in the 80's is the genesis of the economic attitudes that are causing damage today. General statements, meant to start a conversation, were taken as gospel.
Obvious examples would be "greed is good" and "government is not the answer to our problems, government IS the problem". These bumper-sticker phrases were absorbed and turned into absolutist philosophies that remain to this day.
.
When I first opened this thread I wondered two things. How long it would be before the shooting was blamed on a video, wasn't long. Second was, when would Reagan get the blame, wasn't long.
You do understand that Gordon Gekko was a fictitious person in a movie? Besides, that actually does agree with what I was saying, and I think it is the slogan of most investment strategists. Which is what the movie was all about.
Stating that government is the problem has lead to what? What? We are moving to bigger government not smaller government. If anything the quote is more applicable today then it was when Reagan said it. In my opinion the best leaders are the ones you hardly know they are there. The best government is the one that hardly interacts with people. We have moved very far from both those ideas.
Look at what
I actually wrote.
I'm not blaming Reagan
at all. His line was a standard-issue political slogan, a pretty good one. As I said, it was MEANT to stimulate conversation, but it was essentially turned into a specific political philosophy by many conservatives. Two different things entirely.
No,
Wall Street was
not just a movie about a slogan of investment strategists. It was specifically
an indictment of aggressive capitalism by director Oliver Stone. It was
anti-Wall Street. Yet so many took that "greed is good" thing and ran with it, not even realizing that they were proving Stone's point for him in real life. Obviously
those people didn't understand it was just a movie. No doubt he's grateful for that.
And finally, stating that government is the problem has led to part of the GOP breaking off into a zealous, absolutist wing that simplistically calls every and any government program "socialist" or "Marist" or "communist", which has actually helped the Democrats across the board.
.
