Tag Archive for: pop

Pop Goes the Culture

America and the West as well as parts of Asia, such as Japan and South Korea, have a real problem on their hands.  It’s a problem that is growing.  But nowhere is it more glaring and out of control than in the United States.  Even Canada has sensed this growing problem and actually exports their problem to the United States.

I’m talking about Pop Culture.  You know what I am talking about.  We have a culture that is almost totally centered on entertainment.  Not just the product such as music or movies or art and such.  But centered on those that produce that music, movie, art or such.

We glamourize the “stars” and put them on a pedestal and no matter what these people say or do, they are hardly ever demonized in any way.  In some cases, the “star” can even get away with murder.  At least in the public’s eye, they can even if the law finds them guilty.

This is dangerous at best and a complete societal breakdown in the making at worst.  We have started to make our political and legal leaders “pop stars”.  We determine who will lead us locally and nationally based on how well they look on TV and how well they speak.

Substance comes second.  Especially if its Liberal ideology that they are spewing.  In that case, substance my actually come last.

We have an entire generation that is actually less educated than their parents’ generation.  Even though the younger set has a greater percentage of college degrees.  They actually know less and are heavily influenced by sound bites and pop culture.

That pop culture mentality bleeds into politics at all levels of government.  The younger set demand more government intervention and higher taxes but do not fully understand the ramifications of their wants and desires.  So when something hits them in their wallet, they blame others instead of realizing they got exactly what they asked for.

Yet they will take to the streets or hit the Internet and spew their limited knowledge and decry how unjust the current system is.  Not understanding that they are the main reason for their own discontent.

Politicians pay attention to this nonsense as well.  If you stop and think about it, you will notice all the laws that we have enacted that were influenced by pop culture.

The whole Religious Freedom Law fiasco in Indiana and Arkansas is proof of this.  This shows how shallow the knowledge of many in the younger generation is.  They don’t know or understand that many states have similar laws already on the books and the world is not falling apart.

The younger set doesn’t know or realize that then President Bill Clinton signed a similar law into existence back in 1993 with huge fanfare from the left, as I recall.  Yet sound bite pop culture has decided this “new” law in these two states is directed totally at the gay community and has nothing to do with religious freedom.

However, when you ask these same pop culture gurus point blank, if you had a t-shirt shop and you were gay would you want to be forced to print a bunch of shirts that were anti-gay?  Their immediate and total reaction is a flat no.  But they are too brain dead to relate that same scenario to the other side.

It’s a total selfish, self-absorbed mind set.  Its all about them.  Nobody else counts in their eyes.  Its all about being popular and doing the popular thing and thinking in the popular think.  There is no room for being thoughtful towards your fellow citizen.  There is no room for doing what is best for your community.  There is only room for what is best for each of them and what makes them feel good about themselves.

You may think that we cannot change that mindset and mentality.  But we can.  Its called real and complete education.  And that kind of education begins at home.  It takes parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles to counter the over simplification of pop culture.

It takes true patriots and true historians to set the record straight and to force the younger generation to think beyond the sound bites.  To delve deeper than the surface interaction they are used to.  It takes a few wise people to shout out the truth and do it often.

We can pop this pop culture so it goes back to the position and place it belongs.  Pop Culture belongs at the back of the bus and should be viewed only as entertainment, a temporary distraction and should not be construed as the main stream thought that rules our politics and our lives.

In the end, if we do not pop this pop culture, we will end up being popped and imprisoned by it.