In seeking out what's responsible for the degeneration of American culture over the last 70 years, one finds many culprits to choose from. Pro wrestling, Joe McCarthy, cage fighting, Richard Nixon, Ayn Rand, country music, Milton Friedman, Texas, charter schools, Donald Trump, punk rock, Henry Kissinger, a congress of anti-social misfits, Clint Eastwood, Richard Nixon and Dick Cheney all come readily to mind! But of all the injuries of an insulting age, perhaps the worst, from the standpoint of pure nausea, is our vast array of "TV personalities."
Like many people I only use television to watch movies now and have for decades. The reason is primarily these supposed human beings thrust on us by television networks night and day, week after week, year after year - people who in a sane world would only appear in mug-shots or the case notes of baffled psychiatrists. Yet they are, to a very great degree, the people who set the tone of our era.
American culture used to be created by the people themselves, but in our media obsessed age, through their incessant domination of communication, TV personalities now largely shape our culture - if you could still call it a culture.
I'll start with a single example, Joan Rivers! How in God's name did such an obnoxious, caterwauling, twit-wit find her way onto the national scene? It would be one thing, of course, if she was an exception, but just FORGETABOUTIT!!!
Let's have a look at a few of the wonderful people who've graced our public stage over the last half century. (I'm in my mid-fifties now, so some of these luminaries may be unfamiliar to younger people. If so, they should be deeply grateful!
Let's take Willard Scott! Under what rock did they find this simpering, jello-brained, hayseed? Or the film and theater critic Gene Shalit?! I guess they thought his absurd mutton-chop mustache and his mangrove swamp of hair made him resemble a circus clown and that was a good thing, but for one problem, he lacks the charisma! I can't see any other explanation, because he knew less about film or any other art form than a sedimentary rock! Like that other odious cream puff, Roger Ebert, he was just a cheerleader! Neither of them ever saw a movie they didn't like.
JACKASS 14. . . "A stellar cast give scintillating performances in this never to be forgotten Hollywood classic, blah, blah, blah. . ." Or take that vain, preening, beetle-brained closet-Nazi, Geraldo Rivera. How could he have been hired to clean the bathrooms of television stations, much less host his own show?
What kind of a society are we likely to have with people like these given a national podium from which to confound us with their babble? Then there's Egregious Philbin! What more need be said?
Even a partial list of such people would be shocking - and no, you can't tell me that someone like Geraldo Rivera is there because of insatiable public demand! I'm not buying it. He's there to facilitate a collective American IQ drop of another five points, because an educated public isn't in the interests of those who now own this country.
Okay, just for the hell of it, let's have a look at that partial list: Joan Rivers, Geraldo Rivera, Regis Philbin, Gene Shalit, Willard Scott, Pat Boone, Kaitie Couric, Bob Barker, Ed McMahon, Laurence Welk, Matt Lauer, Maury Povitch, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Al Roker, Andy Williams, Anita Bryant, Kim Kardashian, Howard Stern, Bill O’Reilly, Jay Leno, Barbara Walters, Martha Stewart, Paris Hilton, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Roger Ebert, Jerry Springer, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Sajak. . .
You'd have to hunt far and wide to find such a cast of morons to insult the intelligence of the public! We all know this; we all complain about it. It's a truism. Yet for all that it goes on for decades unabated, as if it were ordained by God. These people combined with a relentless attack on public education have contributed greatly to the decline of American intelligence and moral character in our lifetime. Why do we tolerate it? The excuse, of course, is ratings and by extension that holy of holy's, profits. Well, I'm sorry, there simply is no excuse for allowing such people to turn us into a nation of imbeciles. By giving clowns the public podium we've turned life into a circus.
Brent Hightower
Copyright 2018 Brent Hightower
21stcenturyperceptions.blogspot.com
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