Is it fashion - or is it the devolution of the species?
So, this week, I thought I’d write about something I know very little about – which some people in my life think I do most of the time…..anyway, thought I’d get into a little discussion of modern Western pop culture….which, admittedly, I am almost totally ignorant of. I am, however, totally and absolutely fascinated by it and sort of in “awe” of it. Sometimes, I’m flipping through the TV channels, and I hit a show like “Entertainment Tonight”, or “Inside Edition” or some other piece of mindless drivel, and I end up leaving the TV there and I watch a bit of the spectacle unfold.
Well, I sort of loathe awards shows, so do my best to avoid them, but I usually have the morning news running in the morning – without the sound. So, this morning I got a full run-down on the Oscars, which was certainly as much about the fashion and pizazz as the acting. I should say, as well, that I’m not generally against awarding excellence in pretty well any walk of life. I think people who do great work should be recognized for it – but, and it’s a bit BUT – things have really gotten totally out of control and are way overdone and overblown and a bunch more “over” words.
I really, really don’t understand all the attention paid to the fashion and general glitziness of the whole affair. In fact, I feel this whole obsession with decorating ourselves in sort of unbelievable and dazzling ways to be pretty primitive behaviour and I sort of thought we might at some point evolve or “grow” out of it. I thought way back in the 1960’s, we had put to death the concept that what you looked like was in any way important in life. Instead, it seems to be getting worse and worse….fashion, jewellery, makeup ….please explain to me the point of this type of behaviour and how it improves the human condition in the least.
I also feel we’re sort of rubbing the noses of poor people everywhere in it by carrying on like this in public. Back in the really old days, most poor people around the world really didn’t understand that they were poor. Most of them just lived their lives the way folks around them had always lived their lives, and there was really no thought about being poor….and that was mainly because they didn’t really know what they were missing. These days we blast out constant images of how wealthy and opulent life is for a bunch of people in this part of the world. And, of course, the result is that they want a piece of the action. And who could blame them? Who indeed?
Those of us who have most of the stuff on the planet are, of course, extremely bad at sharing. We are kind of like spoiled kids who won’t let the other kids play with our toys. So, poor people all over the world are simply starting to come to get it. You can see it all around the world….people trying to escape places like Africa and South America where life is particularly tough. And they will go to any length to try to get a “better” life for themselves or their kids. That is evidenced by the way they will send their children alone into great danger to try to save them. These people love their kids so much they’d rather see them die than continue to live in abject poverty and misery….imagine yourself in that position….What would you do?
So, the next time you’re sitting watching the Academy Awards or whatever awards show, you should be thinking of the message it sends to see our “pop” culture celebrities strut their stuff in such an insensitive and grotesque manner. We have to figure out some way to recognize the accomplishments of our fellow passengers on Spaceship Earth without getting all stupid about things….because that’s what’s happening these days…..I used to be fairly optimistic about humanity’s future, but not so much these days….we should be getting wiser and somehow smarter as we “evolve”, but that doesn’t seem to be happening….could it be we’re witnessing the “devolution of the species”……?