Perhaps it has been a little while since last writing, but I think this article is long overdue. After watching the mid-season finale of “South Park” last week, I guess Trey Parker and Matt Stone pretty much hit the nail on the head about some things I have believed for some time but really couldn’t express in words: everything is crap. To quote Randy Marsh, “It’s like the same story keeps happening every week, only it keeps getting more ridiculous”. Ignoring the double meaning of this line to the alleged ending of the show, the application of this line to life is remarkably on par to how things continue to progress today.
It amazes me that in 2011 you can learn more from a cartoon than any other program on TV (the news included because regardless of what side of the aisle you are on, it is one opinion and point of view after the other, the actual news end of it be damned). South Park, as crude and outrageous as it can be, is more culturally and politically relevant than anything else you will find on television today, and 90% of the time I usually come away agreeing with the underlying point they are trying to make.
“It’s like the same story keeps happening every week, only it keeps getting more ridiculous”.
Take your pick of topics on this one, but it holds true for everything. Politics—Anthony Weiner? That is both ridiculous and pointless, not to mention just plain sick. And he will not step down despite his sick behavior. Thanks Anthony for setting a new artificial rock bottom, because in politics rock bottom is shattered on an increasingly frequent basis. There’s one more in the book for sexual addiction. A sexually addicted male, yeah, there is a real shocker. Hate to break it to every media figure, political, athletic, or pop cultural, but wanting to have sex is not a medical condition. Rather most guys can control their impulses from doing extremely stupid things. I take that back—many guys can, because there are a lot of guys out there that do extremely stupid things and I am unsure if they are the majority or the minority anymore.
What about sports? What about LeBron James getting his own TV show to determine what HE is going to do picking his new team? You can chalk that up to narcissism and one more self-absorbed, selfish player in sports continuing the trend that we have seen over the last ten years. Plaxico Burress, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Terrell Owens, yes, people I think we all aspire to seeing as great role models.
Popular Culture. I’m not even going to talk too much about this, because I think this angers me more than most. I believe it is a major contributing factor to the cultural decay and amoral wasteland of what we see here in 2011. The media since the late 90s has given people the means, abilities, and licenses to be complete assholes. Respect and courtesy is gone. The family structure has been shot to hell. There is moral flexibility in everything, especially in the professions that claim to adhere to a moral code. It is a complete joke. And as far as the quality of the mass media market, if God had any sense of pity he would come and strike us down to prevent us from seeing one more ridiculous, overblown, and low budget reality TV show.
Technology. In a nutshell, this is my feeling about technology. Yeah, it is cool, and yes, I can use it. But is there really any point? I think technology has gone beyond the point of utility and has crossed into the plane of “ridiculous”. I think the obsession with these new technological “toys” is unhealthy. It doesn’t produce anything, it doesn’t create anything, it is just some form of equipment that we stare at for hours on end.
South Park had it right. Each week things get more and more ridiculous. Sure, some of this stuff may look all glamorous and impressive on the surface, but deep down it is what it always has been for the last two decades: crap.
You can call me a cynic or a pessimist, but forgive me if I look around at the world today and am completely unimpressed with where things are heading. We may live in a small corner of the world, walking around completely oblivious to others, what is happening in our towns, and what is happening in the world, but in the rest of the world things are in complete shambles and it is a very dangerous place. And yet no one seems to know or care, and they go back to listening to their iPod.
The Mang
Conservative Capo of Youngstown
It amazes me that in 2011 you can learn more from a cartoon than any other program on TV (the news included because regardless of what side of the aisle you are on, it is one opinion and point of view after the other, the actual news end of it be damned). South Park, as crude and outrageous as it can be, is more culturally and politically relevant than anything else you will find on television today, and 90% of the time I usually come away agreeing with the underlying point they are trying to make.
“It’s like the same story keeps happening every week, only it keeps getting more ridiculous”.
Take your pick of topics on this one, but it holds true for everything. Politics—Anthony Weiner? That is both ridiculous and pointless, not to mention just plain sick. And he will not step down despite his sick behavior. Thanks Anthony for setting a new artificial rock bottom, because in politics rock bottom is shattered on an increasingly frequent basis. There’s one more in the book for sexual addiction. A sexually addicted male, yeah, there is a real shocker. Hate to break it to every media figure, political, athletic, or pop cultural, but wanting to have sex is not a medical condition. Rather most guys can control their impulses from doing extremely stupid things. I take that back—many guys can, because there are a lot of guys out there that do extremely stupid things and I am unsure if they are the majority or the minority anymore.
What about sports? What about LeBron James getting his own TV show to determine what HE is going to do picking his new team? You can chalk that up to narcissism and one more self-absorbed, selfish player in sports continuing the trend that we have seen over the last ten years. Plaxico Burress, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Terrell Owens, yes, people I think we all aspire to seeing as great role models.
Popular Culture. I’m not even going to talk too much about this, because I think this angers me more than most. I believe it is a major contributing factor to the cultural decay and amoral wasteland of what we see here in 2011. The media since the late 90s has given people the means, abilities, and licenses to be complete assholes. Respect and courtesy is gone. The family structure has been shot to hell. There is moral flexibility in everything, especially in the professions that claim to adhere to a moral code. It is a complete joke. And as far as the quality of the mass media market, if God had any sense of pity he would come and strike us down to prevent us from seeing one more ridiculous, overblown, and low budget reality TV show.
Technology. In a nutshell, this is my feeling about technology. Yeah, it is cool, and yes, I can use it. But is there really any point? I think technology has gone beyond the point of utility and has crossed into the plane of “ridiculous”. I think the obsession with these new technological “toys” is unhealthy. It doesn’t produce anything, it doesn’t create anything, it is just some form of equipment that we stare at for hours on end.
South Park had it right. Each week things get more and more ridiculous. Sure, some of this stuff may look all glamorous and impressive on the surface, but deep down it is what it always has been for the last two decades: crap.
You can call me a cynic or a pessimist, but forgive me if I look around at the world today and am completely unimpressed with where things are heading. We may live in a small corner of the world, walking around completely oblivious to others, what is happening in our towns, and what is happening in the world, but in the rest of the world things are in complete shambles and it is a very dangerous place. And yet no one seems to know or care, and they go back to listening to their iPod.
The Mang
Conservative Capo of Youngstown
No comments:
Post a Comment