April 19, 2013
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State of the World (discretion advised)
I just have to tell you… something has hit home this week with me. And that’s that I think we’re in a very different place, just recently, than we’ve ever been in before. At least, I just seem to have got hit with it broadside, which means that – at least for me – we’ve hit a milestone.
And what’s hit me is that right now, it feels like people have never had more knowledge. Never has it been at our fingertips like it is, today. But more than that, it’s suddenly ‘unleashed’… unlike ten years ago when the Internet first linked all information and people to each other. Then there seemed to still be a certain amount of reservation, or sense of propriety out there. But suddenly it’s like the WHOLE WORLD has just stopped holding back, and knowledge is completely unbridled and available.
An example: We were at dance class on Wednesday, and I always bring our K’nooks (Lydia’s and mine) and my cellphone (which has little games on it) for the boys to play while they’re waiting for Lydia’s class to wrap up. And while sitting with them, I picked up a teen magazine, because I recognized the girl on the front (Anna-Sophia Robb) as the little girl from “Race to Witch Mountain”… only she’s now a skanky teenager in clothing Madonna once was demonized for showing up in, hello. It was really tacky, t’boot. (Here. I found you a picture of it. The outfits she had on inside were even worse.)Anyhow, I open the magazine, and thumb thru looking at really freaky pictures (I guess the ‘Hunger Games’ had
more of an impact on society than I thought, because everyone is styling like that freaky Elizabeth Banks character, Effie, where make-up is concerned, anymore. These girls look like what used to be aliens in movies). And I get to a page with actual WORDS on it, and the first column is a three paragraph thing about how awesome it is for girls to masterbate. Hell, I didn’t even know girls COULD masterbate until I was almost thirty, for pete’s sake! I thought it was for pubescent teenage boys and wasn’t even sure it wasn’t sinful, truth be told. You didn’t TALK about that, ever! Then the article directly under it was called “My boyfriend’s Blue-Balls”. I kid you not. I snapped the magazine shut and tried to pick my jaw up off the floor.Now… I’m way more open-minded than I used to be. I got a slow start in the world of… that kind of knowledge, but c’mon! Should we be giving our teens magazines like THAT?! I’m just saying… when I was an adolescent, I had a subscription to Teen magazine for three years. I learned how to do a french braid, what new TV show was cute, signed up for my penpal, and voted for who should be Miss Teen 1987. It was about the emergence of twin set cardigans and how periwinkle was the new summer shade.
It was NOT about sex, not blatant and unapologetic and so… so… lewd. It’s almost like nothing is special or sacred anymore. And it’s the same on-line… there are articles that literally make my eyes boggle on a daily basis… it’s stunning how no topic is off-limits or private, no subject is kept from being contorted into something base and… it just feels dirty.
Last night, I picked up my latest novel, to start it. It was something different – it was a futuristic mercenary dystopian chick traveling back in time to Regency England to stop an old text from being written (that will start the end of the world, at a later time). I thought it sounded interesting – like Blade Runner meets Pride & Prejudice. Except that it wasn’t. By page ten we were dealing with succubus and spawn of hell, using summoning totems and chanting, and by page twenty the Regency dude is conjuring, and its describing in graphic detail how the erotic influences of his evoking majick are affecting his cock.
Forgive me, but… Yikes. I had to get rid of it… I don’t NEED that kind of thing. From my point of view, her future rebellion and his past majick are BOTH the losing team, and only the one *I* serve wins in the end, and I don’t see the point of wasting my time with any of their crap. That’s just the way I look at it – I don’t need to taint myself with the losing teams antics – because they end up defeated. No contest. Period. This past summer, I remarked how it seemed that novels were moving from just dark and mythological (werewolves, vampires, faeries, and superpowers) to demonic. But now it seems that it’s… I don’t know. It’s gone beyond the point of no return? I said then that I didn’t know how it could get any worse, but… I think it has. Now. And I think He brought it to my attention so that I could say something about it. For posterity’s sake.
But the crux of all of this, what really gets to me isn’t the information, the open and affrontive nature of sharing. It’s more that there’s a lack of WISDOM where all of this information is concerned. Do you know what I mean? We have more knowledge than ever before – right at our fingertips! – but it’s like at the same time, w
e have less discernment and wisdom to handle it with. I think that’s what is happening to the world. Everyone is bemoaning how STUPID people are, but it’s not that they’re stupid, they just have no filter, anymore. It’s like things have a free-flow, all things, even things that should be restrained.The free-flow cap came off in 2012, I’m telling you. But the amount pouring out? It’s gotten worse. So much so that… I don’t know. It feels very, very wrong. And it just came over me this week. We’ve hit another turning point. And He’s driving it home to me. We’re nearly there.
Comments (11)
Yup. And games…..not just video, but board games, too – have gone WAY off the rails. The kids watch You Tubes if some of the video games…..yikes. (Yes, I’m in the room with them.). It’s….gone from puzzle-type games (Portal is an example.) to ones with unnecessary violence. I’m not against first-person shooters, because my kids understand it’s just a game (with more violence Thani like…but Cowboys and Indians is the same basic thing) but some of these? O.o. And sex is EVERYWHERE. It’s…not the world I thought I’d be living in, that’s for sure!
young women and young men for that matter unfortunately have become sexualized, with materials marketed to them to be as open as possible. the thinking being that kids will have sex no matter what, and parents still prudes and terrified of discussing it, won’t talk about the things they are curious about. so magazines and tv are filled with all sorts of things older generations would never dream to think or be educated about. and its one of the reason the youth are rather hurting, and messed up. no one really cares to understand the children they are raising or the world they are forced into.
information is out there yes, but people have a complete unwillingness to understand it. I do feel like people are getting more stupid, with less empathy, less respect, and more cynicism and narcissitic egoism. it’s less about informing themselves, and more about everything about themselves.
ya know I am not sure how it was in your public schools – but I thought that when I was in school also. Out here in California the teachers at school that were teaching a Health class on reproduction (which My son thinks is the most bizzare thing EVER – learning about sex from people you don’t even know??)
But they actually said in the class ‘everyone has homosexual thoughts and fantasies and even homosexual experiences – it doens’t mean you are gay.’
And then the teacher described all kinds of crazy sex and stuff people use around the house – and I was like wow that is a lot of information
how many kids went home from school that day thinking – well I must be a weirdo because every one else knew what the teacher was talking about and I don’t! I am so lame, everyone is doing that stuff but me! it isn’t really sex anyhow, lets have a slumber party and try it!
You nailed it. There are no boundaries, nothing is special or sacred…..not even human life. It is appalling!
I guess I am not surprised…
It’s been pretty open for years in my opinion & experience? I’ve been seeing things like this talked about openly everywhere-but then again I am surrounded by some very expressive people otherwise known as artists. Crazy taboo things have ALL was done and talked about to each other all the time. Experimenting with girls was very common back in the 1980′s as well as like-Forever (1880′s hahaa!)!
But now you can talk about it across the universe in almost real time. If it happens on FB and Twitter it just becomes common and not shocking-so companies are cashing in on it. They have to keep up with social media in order to stay current.
Now parents just have to step it up a bit and really get to know their kids-which is going to be hard for many because that requires effort. And seriously kids are raised on machines since birth these days so… The line of what is taboo is being pushed.
Again-just my experience. I am in a condensed area of the USA and spend a lot of time around a LOT of people somewhat daily.
(*Could it be the lack of religion? I hear that religion is dropping off lately so there seem to be less restrictions & guilt?)
P.S. A friend of mine did some fun research work in art history- and the 1960′s-makeup and styles are VERY similar to the things you see now. Reminding us that nothing is really new. Google search “Makeup of the 1960′s) Crazy stuff! Lipstick that is green, eyeshadow that is red… Fantastic stuff.
good post!–karen
Style trends are always recycled. There is rarely anything new or different in fashion since.. ever. Simulacra and Simulation… as Baudrillard put it.
Guilt is one large part of the problem actually and a lack of desire on the part of parents to raise their children. Parents don’t want to educate themselves, and children are too terrified to ask. If sex and the strangest of related question the child hears about, is still seen as something shameful, gross, and taboo — then what parent or child for that matter wants to discuss it? There was no sex education in my homeschool, and do you think my parents wanted to talk about it either?
Topics like this that are discussed in public schools or seen in tv or in magazines, only open pandora’s box. It stirs up the questions and the curiousity the child might have — but does little by way of actual info. It doesn’t placate that curiousity, nor does it give the child the courage to discuss it with their parents… who are of course.. still clueless.
You bring up an interesting topic. Youth being open and comfortable about their sexuality is good but our society built a sex culture but irraticated communication and DISCUSSION of sex and sexuality. The kids now can go online and google ‘sex site’ and thousands of sites will crop up with nudity or acts of sexual intercourse…but no actual communication or debate over what they are veiwing or what is going on or why they are doing what they are doing. Usually those people on those sites keep verbal and written languge to the bare minimum of slang and abbreviation to a point where it makes no sense and tends to confuse them even more.
Why are these comments about sex? My POINT was that there is a lack of wisdom while an increase in knowledge. It’s not about sex. Sex is only a portion of information…
Sorry Anna – seems that I was trying to make a point and veered us into the woods here – so let me attempt to redirect.
I think the main issue is the recent generations (and I don’t mean just parents of kids today – I mean my parents parents also!!) have left their children to the vultures. not all of them – but many of them have allowed school, society, media, peers, etc, to pit children against their parents. Much like the serpent from the garden - oh c’mon! Your parents want you to think they were so perfect they don’t want you to know what fun is! they did it – why should you have to wait? Like they never drank with out their parents permission – Or snuck out of the house late at night! what hypocrites! you are grown you can handle it!
What they are really saying is – deny authority – you don’t need it. Do what you want! Live for today!