Quote:
Originally posted by ARTelevision
I do not think children can handle multi-million dollar culture-for-profit campaigns that consist of total-immersion barrages of negative behavior portrayed as cool, chic, or hip by very insidious and outrageously bad role models who are propped up by hugely powerful corporate interests.
I do not see the children of this country doing very well under the cynical mega-buck manipulation conducted by the so-called music and entertainment industry.
What I do see is kids who are full of negative self-images, full of virulent fantasies of sexual assault, disrespect of self and others, aping behaviors of phony rebellion taught to them by trash culture merchants. I see the insidious effect of the media conglomerates and their amoral marketing campaigns as having a deleterious effect on all of us.
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Quote:
Originally posted by sixate
… I just don't see why such a big deal is being made out of this. If kids can't handle the bullshit the media puts in their face then parents need to do a better job of teaching them things. What you see as a problem with the media I see as a problem with parenting.
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Both of these quotes, in
this thread, got me thinking.
When I was a kid, the Astronauts were my heroes. Yeah, I’m a nerd, but great men like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Allan Shepard, Pete Conrad, Jim Lovell, Jack Schmitt, Ken Mattingly, Ed Mitchell and so many others, were looked up to in awe, by myself, and others of my generation. And rightfully so. These men put everything on the line for something far greater than themselves. I can remember sitting in front of the T.V. in July of 1969 watching man first step foot on the moon. I wouldn’t be seven years old for another few weeks, but even then I knew. These men, these…astronauts…were my heroes. My guess is that most of you won’t recognize but maybe one name that I’ve mentioned, if I’m lucky.
Now we have the likes of Britney, Christina, Justin, 50 Cent, Nelly, Eminem and P-Diddy put out there for us to admire and to adulate. Notice that even though I’ve used no last names, or any other identification, you know them. We’re told to idolize these people. Not because of any great achievement, other than some look better in various stages of undress than others, but because popular culture tells us to. Why? The pursuit of the almighty dollar. Our heroes are now designed, manufactured and mass produced for us. Make no mistake, we suffer for it. For every reason that Art mentions above, we suffer. We suffer as individuals, we suffer as families and we suffer as a society.
Sixate sees a problem with parenting. To a point, I’ll agree with that. I
do need to guide my children, and steer them in the right direction. I think that I do a pretty good job, but unfortunately, I can’t be there all the time. The media though…the media can, and
is there all of the time. The media that tells my daughter that she’s just so not cool, unless she owns all of Britney’s CDs.
People, and kids in particular, need heroes. But I think that we’ve spend so much time and resources in tearing our real heroes down, that we’ve missed what’s been filling the void. I look, and what I see is not pretty. So, I’m curious. Just who are, or were
your heroes? Who do, or did you look up to, and why?
*edited* because I was not an English Major.