Thanks to the DeathVaxx and the rapid decline in healthcare, if the death of the boomers is what you want, you are likely to get your wish very soon. The whole purpose of the gain-of-function research coming out of Wuhan and continuing in other parts of the world is precisely aimed at the old and the sick, so that broken, underwater Ponzi schemes such as Social Security and government/union pensions are relieved of their obligations to those who paid into it and want to collect. Cultural Marxist/feminist teachings, it turns out, have been disastrous for keeping the Ponzi schemes going. It taught women that being a good corporate slave was far superior to serving their husbands and families, and that children were unnecessary drudgery. And now the chickens are coming home to roost, brought to you by Bill Gates and his Davos pals. This won't work out well for anyone. Hope your health improves. No doubt you wouldn't have access to real early treatment in Canada, but it sounds like you are young enough to recover just fine, as long has you haven't been poked with the poison spike protein needle.
Disney has efficiently beaten the Star Wars fan out of me, and I was a pretty diehard purist at one point. The endless vomit of “content” is breaking everything. (I also traveled to Astoria, Oregon, at least three separate times to pay homage to the Goonies. Nothing inspires that level of fandom anymore.)
Also, pretty sure I had the virus back in January when everyone did, and it left me feeling somehow depressed for at least two weeks after. It was the most bizarre feeling. Not sick. Just...down. Here’s hoping you exit the fog quickly.
I laughed out loud at the wrinkly arm waddle! Hahaha! I CAN laugh because I have a couple of those!
You make some good points about the generational influences on culture. I consider myself extremely lucky I grew up without computers, the internet, cell phones, etc. We were encouraged out of the house at 9 am on Saturdays and didn’t come home until dinner unless to grab a snack. We were wild and free… roamed the neighborhood, made up games. Collected pop bottles from neighbors to go buy candy at the 7-11.
These days, you wouldn’t dare let your children roam free. Well, I’m just an old fogey reminiscing about “the good ol days” but our generation was creative and independent at least.
Oct 1, 2022·edited Oct 1, 2022Liked by John Carter
IQs also lower ( up to 10 points lower! ) as result of widespread bottle feeding too. And the pollution in cities/urban areas apparently.
With ref "cultural exhaustion"; yes, I think that "story" ( in the west at least ) experienced a sudden decline sometime after 2005/by 2010. It's very noticeable in video games aswell as films. There don't seem to be any really good/satisfying stories anymore. There are lots of beginnings, backstories, unending soap-opera-style additions to things, mood pieces, etc, but fewer and fewer solid/well constructed stories.
I think it has something to do with what stories are, which is the vivid colourful involving presentation of the arguments for and against a certain belief/the protagonist, which may end up, ( after exploration of various increasingly challenging "points" ) either revised and strengthened, or weakened/defeated, or clarified and confirmed/reaffirmed.
And it's difficult to do that in a society which seems to have decided that all beliefs are equally valid, while at the same time suppressing anything which argues that they're not.
I think the story of our time is the zombie, living/walking dead, and we are waiting for a new narrative, in the same way as a person exhausted physically may only start having new thoughts as their body recovers strength/vigour.
PS. Totally agree about 80s films. :) And fashion, hairstyles, music too!
It is a lesson in relativity for us Boomers to be routinely savaged by the children of the 80's. We seemed so groovy back in 1970, too. Except for your preamble about COVID, it's clear you have not been replaced by one of the Pod People.
Yes, Ghostbusters and Raiders of the Lost Ark were wonderful. Yet, they heralded in the time when computer generated images replaced dialog and acting. I would argue that 1974 marked the best year for movies (both Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein came out) and members of the Greatest Generation would certainly argue for 1939, 1940, or 1942 (The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca) as being the best years ever for movies.
We can all agree that another Fast & Furious or another Star Wars makeover do nothing but prove how insipid and stupid the newest generation of movie makers are.
We're all ready for an escape from the constant arguments about COVID and the self-righteous pontification regarding the Ukraine war.
The 4th Turning is definitely a book worth reading in 2022.
That spike protein really sucks the will to live, don't it? I'm glad to hear you're on the mend. Don't worry about the ubiquity of globohomo, you'll not only live to see its demise, but stand to gift the world the next great sci-fi adventure series! I know that this seems out of reach with the malaise you're experiencing, but this will pass and you'll be back to kicking ass in no time!
I just read this this week, which I think is also a piece in the jigsaw puzzle as to why the kids of the 21st century and their works seem so flat, callow and monotonous.
(More or less: the writers, actors etc of the 20th century were free-range animals who wandered the world and lived through experience, whereas the writers and actors of today are cosseted zoo animals who live through screens.)
There were plenty of far lefties in my generation back in the day, but I recall few, if any, Snowflakes.
---
And on a completely different tangent: the plot of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is an upgrade of the old Republic Serial: "The Perils of Nyoka." The daredevil archeologist was female -- but she also had to get rescued frequently by the daredevil doctor played by Clayton Moore, in his first speaking role.
Hope you feel better soon. As well as the 80s, the 90s also wasn’t bad as far as films/culture: Fight Club, Dark City, The Matrix, Heat, all films that wouldn’t be made now. In the 00s I had a brief foray into anime that still had some interesting storylines too, as the Japanese like to challenge their audience to understand the material rather than coddle them. The last decade has been a fucking cinematic desert. As you say it seems like all the colour has been drained from everyday life (I’m sure it’s intentional). Dune actually wasn’t bad though.
Oct 2, 2022·edited Oct 2, 2022Liked by John Carter
John, another great piece. The Granny State...what an expression!
Over the years, I have given a lot of thought to the decline in the quality of movies. My best guess is that it is a confluence of factors. The great studios are now overly cautious in artistic management because there is so much money at stake. Film schools now attract middle class, mostly upper middle class, students who bring with them the worldviews of the credentialled (but undereducated and uncultivated), above all the weird asexual social psychologies which assume that men and women are (or should be) interchangeable. The employment of female college graduates as casting directors has ensured that male leading roles are now mostly played by feminised men.
The post-war era generated a subtle but distinct individualistic and antiauthoritarian strand in Western culture...IMO a reaction to the experience of mobilisation and conscription. This last flared with Punk and New Wave but has now disappeared. The dullness and blandness of the aesthetic is essential for humanising the creeping conformism and normalising the standardisation sweeping the culture industries.
The great wave of conformism, de-individualisation, de-vitalisation and cultural exhaustion is clear from the successive incarnations of Dr Who. Compare the 4th doctor (played by Tom Baker) who was anti-authoritarian, sceptical, querulous and eccentric....today Dr Who is woke and (for me) unwatchable and disgusting. Younger people who follow science fiction do not see it. This is not so much an effect of changing taste as it is a curated restriction of vision.
Excellent piece, as usual. I’m one of those “young” boomers, but I plan on being dead the week after my 70th birthday, (just like Lemmy ), leaving all my useless shit to my kids.
I feel your distress. Excellent exposition of covagony. I love your linguistic creativity so thought I'd try one, too. I won't ask what a memberberry is, but enstupidating is excellent.
I hope you recover quickly. I look forward to your normal curmudgexcellence.
love this post. I recommend Star Trek Below Decks. I laugh every episode. I'm tried of the rehash of movies/shows that were better the first time. New Interview with the Vampire is terrible for all the reasons you listed. I'm tired of our whiny boring culture.
As long as you are funny, it's all good.
Thanks to the DeathVaxx and the rapid decline in healthcare, if the death of the boomers is what you want, you are likely to get your wish very soon. The whole purpose of the gain-of-function research coming out of Wuhan and continuing in other parts of the world is precisely aimed at the old and the sick, so that broken, underwater Ponzi schemes such as Social Security and government/union pensions are relieved of their obligations to those who paid into it and want to collect. Cultural Marxist/feminist teachings, it turns out, have been disastrous for keeping the Ponzi schemes going. It taught women that being a good corporate slave was far superior to serving their husbands and families, and that children were unnecessary drudgery. And now the chickens are coming home to roost, brought to you by Bill Gates and his Davos pals. This won't work out well for anyone. Hope your health improves. No doubt you wouldn't have access to real early treatment in Canada, but it sounds like you are young enough to recover just fine, as long has you haven't been poked with the poison spike protein needle.
Disney has efficiently beaten the Star Wars fan out of me, and I was a pretty diehard purist at one point. The endless vomit of “content” is breaking everything. (I also traveled to Astoria, Oregon, at least three separate times to pay homage to the Goonies. Nothing inspires that level of fandom anymore.)
Also, pretty sure I had the virus back in January when everyone did, and it left me feeling somehow depressed for at least two weeks after. It was the most bizarre feeling. Not sick. Just...down. Here’s hoping you exit the fog quickly.
I laughed out loud at the wrinkly arm waddle! Hahaha! I CAN laugh because I have a couple of those!
You make some good points about the generational influences on culture. I consider myself extremely lucky I grew up without computers, the internet, cell phones, etc. We were encouraged out of the house at 9 am on Saturdays and didn’t come home until dinner unless to grab a snack. We were wild and free… roamed the neighborhood, made up games. Collected pop bottles from neighbors to go buy candy at the 7-11.
These days, you wouldn’t dare let your children roam free. Well, I’m just an old fogey reminiscing about “the good ol days” but our generation was creative and independent at least.
IQs also lower ( up to 10 points lower! ) as result of widespread bottle feeding too. And the pollution in cities/urban areas apparently.
With ref "cultural exhaustion"; yes, I think that "story" ( in the west at least ) experienced a sudden decline sometime after 2005/by 2010. It's very noticeable in video games aswell as films. There don't seem to be any really good/satisfying stories anymore. There are lots of beginnings, backstories, unending soap-opera-style additions to things, mood pieces, etc, but fewer and fewer solid/well constructed stories.
I think it has something to do with what stories are, which is the vivid colourful involving presentation of the arguments for and against a certain belief/the protagonist, which may end up, ( after exploration of various increasingly challenging "points" ) either revised and strengthened, or weakened/defeated, or clarified and confirmed/reaffirmed.
And it's difficult to do that in a society which seems to have decided that all beliefs are equally valid, while at the same time suppressing anything which argues that they're not.
I think the story of our time is the zombie, living/walking dead, and we are waiting for a new narrative, in the same way as a person exhausted physically may only start having new thoughts as their body recovers strength/vigour.
PS. Totally agree about 80s films. :) And fashion, hairstyles, music too!
It is a lesson in relativity for us Boomers to be routinely savaged by the children of the 80's. We seemed so groovy back in 1970, too. Except for your preamble about COVID, it's clear you have not been replaced by one of the Pod People.
Yes, Ghostbusters and Raiders of the Lost Ark were wonderful. Yet, they heralded in the time when computer generated images replaced dialog and acting. I would argue that 1974 marked the best year for movies (both Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein came out) and members of the Greatest Generation would certainly argue for 1939, 1940, or 1942 (The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca) as being the best years ever for movies.
We can all agree that another Fast & Furious or another Star Wars makeover do nothing but prove how insipid and stupid the newest generation of movie makers are.
We're all ready for an escape from the constant arguments about COVID and the self-righteous pontification regarding the Ukraine war.
The 4th Turning is definitely a book worth reading in 2022.
That spike protein really sucks the will to live, don't it? I'm glad to hear you're on the mend. Don't worry about the ubiquity of globohomo, you'll not only live to see its demise, but stand to gift the world the next great sci-fi adventure series! I know that this seems out of reach with the malaise you're experiencing, but this will pass and you'll be back to kicking ass in no time!
https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/the-least-interesting-generation/
I just read this this week, which I think is also a piece in the jigsaw puzzle as to why the kids of the 21st century and their works seem so flat, callow and monotonous.
(More or less: the writers, actors etc of the 20th century were free-range animals who wandered the world and lived through experience, whereas the writers and actors of today are cosseted zoo animals who live through screens.)
So many possible explanations!
Smaller families means more helicopter parenting, and putting off the age when kids can operate machinery, etc.
Raising the drinking age means a smaller market for bands catering to the college aged, and thus a death of pop music.
And then there are the chemicals:
https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/rule-4-culture-is-downstream-from
There were plenty of far lefties in my generation back in the day, but I recall few, if any, Snowflakes.
---
And on a completely different tangent: the plot of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is an upgrade of the old Republic Serial: "The Perils of Nyoka." The daredevil archeologist was female -- but she also had to get rescued frequently by the daredevil doctor played by Clayton Moore, in his first speaking role.
Hope you feel better soon. As well as the 80s, the 90s also wasn’t bad as far as films/culture: Fight Club, Dark City, The Matrix, Heat, all films that wouldn’t be made now. In the 00s I had a brief foray into anime that still had some interesting storylines too, as the Japanese like to challenge their audience to understand the material rather than coddle them. The last decade has been a fucking cinematic desert. As you say it seems like all the colour has been drained from everyday life (I’m sure it’s intentional). Dune actually wasn’t bad though.
John, another great piece. The Granny State...what an expression!
Over the years, I have given a lot of thought to the decline in the quality of movies. My best guess is that it is a confluence of factors. The great studios are now overly cautious in artistic management because there is so much money at stake. Film schools now attract middle class, mostly upper middle class, students who bring with them the worldviews of the credentialled (but undereducated and uncultivated), above all the weird asexual social psychologies which assume that men and women are (or should be) interchangeable. The employment of female college graduates as casting directors has ensured that male leading roles are now mostly played by feminised men.
The post-war era generated a subtle but distinct individualistic and antiauthoritarian strand in Western culture...IMO a reaction to the experience of mobilisation and conscription. This last flared with Punk and New Wave but has now disappeared. The dullness and blandness of the aesthetic is essential for humanising the creeping conformism and normalising the standardisation sweeping the culture industries.
The great wave of conformism, de-individualisation, de-vitalisation and cultural exhaustion is clear from the successive incarnations of Dr Who. Compare the 4th doctor (played by Tom Baker) who was anti-authoritarian, sceptical, querulous and eccentric....today Dr Who is woke and (for me) unwatchable and disgusting. Younger people who follow science fiction do not see it. This is not so much an effect of changing taste as it is a curated restriction of vision.
Excellent piece, as usual. I’m one of those “young” boomers, but I plan on being dead the week after my 70th birthday, (just like Lemmy ), leaving all my useless shit to my kids.
You should watch John Carpenters The Thing. Very fitting for the time of year and the state of distrust a lot of society is feeling
I feel your distress. Excellent exposition of covagony. I love your linguistic creativity so thought I'd try one, too. I won't ask what a memberberry is, but enstupidating is excellent.
I hope you recover quickly. I look forward to your normal curmudgexcellence.
love this post. I recommend Star Trek Below Decks. I laugh every episode. I'm tried of the rehash of movies/shows that were better the first time. New Interview with the Vampire is terrible for all the reasons you listed. I'm tired of our whiny boring culture.
Watch "Big Trouble in Little China", John. Chicken soup for the chi... err, soul, I mean.
Glad to see you back in action.