Society is in decline!
Aug. 6th, 2005 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Serva me! Serva me! Undae magnae sunt!
(I love that line. Latin for Americans, people!)
I hate that argument. Loathe and abhor it. Do you know how many times I've heard some self-righteous little mind cry that society is in decline? Wish I knew. And when I read back through the pitiful collection of historical documents I, um, read through, guess what? That's the unifying thread. No matter when or where you are, somebody is there getting up on a soapbox and declaring that society is in decline, that children don't obey their parents, that life was better when they were young, and it's a crying shame that we should Do Something About.
The books are all wrong now, the winters are too short, and we don't get proper sunlight nowadays. Why, when I was a young whippersnapper, I hiked three miles, in the snow, just to get to school, and I was happy for it! Uphill, both ways!
People were saying that before there were schools, and it was a lie then just like it's a lie now.
Society can't possibly be in constant decline. We'd've noticed. Among other things, at this point we'd all be pointing, grunting, and having sex with our brothers and sisters. Instead, what we've got here is a classic case of overexcited hyperbole by somebody who doesn't like Harry Potter, and who thinks that's linked to the current decline of society.
I wonder if I should take my time to argue. All this has happened before, and will happen again, right? (Look at me, all Ms. Pop-Culture-referency!) So I could correct her, but another three would take her place (and you know what I blame that on the breakdown of? Society!). So it's a bit of a waste of time, really.
Still irritates me. A lot. Grr.
As for "what is literature", that's just a stupid question. I note that nowadays many people reference Uncle Tom's Cabin as literature. I've read that. It's a piece of well-written, fairly-honest, useful propaganda, but I wouldn't deign to call it literature. I do suppose it's better than anything about a boy called Tom Swift, though.... (But, gasp, at least they didn't have Famous Harry Potter to idolize then!)
And now he says, when I call him out on his sexist, ageist, and racist language (and I still think that was racist): You're not the boss of me! This is a free country! And other such playground classics from the man who wants us all to graduate "highschool". I've removed myself from the discussion, because he apparently doesn't realize that it doesn't matter whether I rule the world or not, that sort of thing is not acceptable. We've all refrained from commenting on his age, race, gender, sexuality, the whole of it, the worse any of us has done is called him "stupid". He gets to try to do the same now. Fair's fair, right?
(I love that line. Latin for Americans, people!)
I hate that argument. Loathe and abhor it. Do you know how many times I've heard some self-righteous little mind cry that society is in decline? Wish I knew. And when I read back through the pitiful collection of historical documents I, um, read through, guess what? That's the unifying thread. No matter when or where you are, somebody is there getting up on a soapbox and declaring that society is in decline, that children don't obey their parents, that life was better when they were young, and it's a crying shame that we should Do Something About.
The books are all wrong now, the winters are too short, and we don't get proper sunlight nowadays. Why, when I was a young whippersnapper, I hiked three miles, in the snow, just to get to school, and I was happy for it! Uphill, both ways!
People were saying that before there were schools, and it was a lie then just like it's a lie now.
Society can't possibly be in constant decline. We'd've noticed. Among other things, at this point we'd all be pointing, grunting, and having sex with our brothers and sisters. Instead, what we've got here is a classic case of overexcited hyperbole by somebody who doesn't like Harry Potter, and who thinks that's linked to the current decline of society.
I wonder if I should take my time to argue. All this has happened before, and will happen again, right? (Look at me, all Ms. Pop-Culture-referency!) So I could correct her, but another three would take her place (and you know what I blame that on the breakdown of? Society!). So it's a bit of a waste of time, really.
Still irritates me. A lot. Grr.
As for "what is literature", that's just a stupid question. I note that nowadays many people reference Uncle Tom's Cabin as literature. I've read that. It's a piece of well-written, fairly-honest, useful propaganda, but I wouldn't deign to call it literature. I do suppose it's better than anything about a boy called Tom Swift, though.... (But, gasp, at least they didn't have Famous Harry Potter to idolize then!)
And now he says, when I call him out on his sexist, ageist, and racist language (and I still think that was racist): You're not the boss of me! This is a free country! And other such playground classics from the man who wants us all to graduate "highschool". I've removed myself from the discussion, because he apparently doesn't realize that it doesn't matter whether I rule the world or not, that sort of thing is not acceptable. We've all refrained from commenting on his age, race, gender, sexuality, the whole of it, the worse any of us has done is called him "stupid". He gets to try to do the same now. Fair's fair, right?
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:05 am (UTC)From what I've heard of that "Dukes of Hazzard" movie, then, society is absolutely screwed in some areas. ;-)
Though (to be slightly more serious) most kids *are* being raised to be more obxnoious here than they were when I was young. Even the last 10 years have been a major change for the worse.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:23 am (UTC)I don't know of any Great Classic author of his or her time to ever puff up so much as to say that that's just what they are (or are going to be) gad dammit! Not like this person.
Heh. Just occurred to me; the OP at that link and Anne Rice share something in common: the full-of-onesself-ness. Wankity wankity wank. Talk is fucking cheap. I was just saying this the other day. Do something, or STFU.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:29 am (UTC)Why should we expect the classics of today to be the same as the classics of the past? They're being written in a totally different time period!
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:33 am (UTC)"...there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them. "I am no novel-reader -- I seldom look into novels -- Do not imagine that I often read novels -- It is really very well for a novel." -- Such is the common cant. -- "And what are you reading, Miss --?" "Oh! it is only a novel!" replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame."
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:40 am (UTC)"Please please pleeease!"
*dark maniacal laughter and a scream*
- Information Society. Good stuff. :-)
But yeah...society is always "in decline" one way or another, and it's also usually in some upswing one way or another. It just changes slightly in the focal points of that and of course the perceptions from people and societies that make it seem so.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:43 am (UTC)Walk into any local supermarket or bookstore and gaze at the books being sold--proof enough of the filth.
Look at the spread of AIDS and other STDS, and couple it with the increased rates of divorce and remarriage.
Incidentally, I punctuate as I please.
You know.... *shakes head* I'm not going to start.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:49 am (UTC)A pair of Mormons (suits, nameplates) are at an old guy's door and he's reading one of their pamphlets stating "You call this literature?".
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:49 am (UTC)It makes sense if you've had to read the drug-addled text which is Latin for Americans.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:52 am (UTC)Racism, McCarthyism, Duck and Cover, the Korean War, Westerns, and women being paid 70 cents on the dollar. Maybe it's just me?
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 03:53 am (UTC)You know what? I'm a maintainer there. I'm going to call his ass out on some of the shit he's said, and tell him that if he keeps it up after I've left the discussion, he can consider himself forcibly removed.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 04:01 am (UTC)Also a scrolling "Javert kills himself" and "Arthur Dimmesdale is Pearl's father!!11!!".
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 04:08 am (UTC)See what being civil can do?
*falls over laughing*
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 04:09 am (UTC)...also, Zeus is Hercules' real father!
no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-07 04:13 am (UTC)*dies*