Signs of Decline

I don't believe there will be a Y2K apocalypse, but I do think civilization is in decline. I frequently note signs of this decay, but have never written any down. I thought this might be a good place to start.

I'll lead off with the most recent sign I've noticed:

Adam Sandler is a hugely successful movie star.

I think $20 for a pair of jeans is absurd.

Pauly Shore.

I used to sit in the box office of my theater and watch people spend 20 minutes trying to parallel park. That has to be a sign.

The prevalence of advertising, it's inescapable. Last week, I was flying on a business trip. OK, the "inflight entertainment" has commercials in it, that I've come to live with. But the pile of luggage tags at the ticket counter -- you know, the cheap little cardboard-n-string stuff, so that you can put identification on your luggage -- had an ad for a prescription drug on it!

"This #!&%$*! thread belongs in MPSIMS"
messages posted by the GQ mod.

a romance novel is sold every second of every hour of every day across the world

This quote came from Shirley Ujest in the "Women Seekin Abuse?" thread. I automatically thought of this thread .

CD:

Advertising? Doncha just love the little full sound& video commercials on the 7-11 ATM's? Not only do they ding you $2 for the privilege of getting your money at the ATM ,they force you to watch commercials before they give it to you!

After reagan got elected President I stopped keeping track.

I think $20 for a pair of jeans is absurd.

Are you kidding? They must charge us fat chicks more for the extra material our jeans require because I don't think I've ever paid $20 for a pair of jeans. It's more like $40.

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"I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it," Jack Handy

We have no national vision, that's the worst sign. We had manifest destiny once. And in the sixties we had the space race. Now we have the quest for $20 jeans. (I haven't paid less than $40 in years, either).

Speaking of clothes and the fall of civilization...Old Navy drawstring pants? People are buying these pieces of crap and actually WEARING them? In PUBLIC? Anyone with a yard of fabric, an old shoelace and access to a sewing machine can come up with a more attractive replica in less than an hour. And a hell of a lot cheaper than what they're pimping the damn things at.

Oh, and for cheap jeans...try Bugle Boy outlets...I get mine there for $12-$15, and the women's seem to be actually cut for women (of all things!) and fit great (me, anyways.)

Athletes earn more than brain surgeons and world leaders.
Marilyn Manson is actually popular.
WWF...nuff said.
50% of marriages end in divorce.
People think that wearing clothes that resemble underwear is ok.
Columbine.
Alcohol. Drugs. Cigarettes. Abortion. Suicide...etc....etc...etc....

Some of these things aren't brand new. But I could write a complete book about all the reasons I think society is immoral, and basically sick and wrong. It just makes me sad to even think about it.

Adam

Hey, Marilyn Manson is cool. Very cool, much cooler than most of his music would make you think. I have read several in-depth interviews with him and was really quite impressed. He's a classic example of a book that shouldn't be judged by its cover. (And he is NOT a Satanist, by the way)

I'm with you on the WWWF, tho.

H

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Stoidela

******Boycott shampoo! Demand REAL poo!******

Soap operas, Jerry Springer, no disclaimer about the Blair witch or the UFOs on tv with easily discernable tailbooms (the back ends of helicopters), a president who lies compulsively, kindergarten classrooms that do not have the alphabet posted anywhere...

And most especially, the people who blame the media when their poorly supervised, sociopathic spawn commit violent crimes. Why can't they just admit they should have noticed a problem sooner?

Did you see the old commercials for the new type of cellophane "lockable" sandwich bag? They suggest the average American lacks the skills required to operate a zip-lock bag.

The BBQ pit forum gets more traffic than the Great Debates forum.

South Park is judged an "Adult" movie.

Stores at malls pay for the "exclusive" right to sell tie-die shirts there.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the live action movie starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch, is coming out this Christmas.

In a recent CATO poll, most Americans gave the opinion that newspapers should not be allowed to publish freely without government approval.

Your Quadell

Hey, Marilyn Manson is cool. Very cool, much cooler than most of his music would make you think. I have read several in-depth interviews with him and was really quite impressed. He's a classic example of a book that shouldn't be judged by its cover. (And he is NOT a Satanist, by the way)}}

I was always under the impression that he was involved in the Church of Satan. Or maybe he just hung out a bit with Anton LaVey (And for the life of me, I can't remember how to spell his last name.) I'm sure I could look it up somewhere, though.

I find him (and some of his music) entertaining. It's funny how some people make such a big deal about it and blame him for just about everything, when there are real problems in the world to think about. And hey, he's an Ohio guy, so he can't be all bad.

Hung out with LeVey, eh? LeVey died on November of 1997. I suppose he's with God now.

Here's LeVey's amusing obituary:
http://www.panix.com/~scmiller/goodbye/nov97/lavey.html

Your Quadell

a definate sign of the decline:

the other day in Washington state a woman dragged a puppy to death by holding it's cian out the window of her van while driving because the puppy nipped at her neice. It was someone elses puppy too!

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To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.

That's awful, that's just really repellent - Jim Carrey as the Grinch.

I heard this on the news last night. An eight year old girl lost both her parents and her older brother in a car crash. The driver of the other car survived with minor injuries,failed the breatheliser (sp?) and has a record for drink driving and driving without a license. He is now suing the girl and her relatives for earnings lost!!!!!
I couldn't believe it.

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Life is a fatal, sexually transmitted disease.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

"inappropriate" use of, punctuation!!! and possessive's instead, of plural's

are a sign of the coming apocalypse. That and Shania Twain.

dont even START on that f-ing shania twain! she looks like a hick hooker, and her frigging tunes are so catchy, and they are EVERYWHERE!!!
oh wait, you guys probably dont hear them as much as we are FORCED to in canada because of the can con laws...
anyway...she sucks!(lit.& fig.)
and the price of clothes for fat chicks...you got that one, try being hugely bosomed...I pay upwards of $50 for an ugly bra!
definite sign of decline...loverock.

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"the sex was so good, the neighbours needed a cigarette! '

A good friend of mine called Shania Twain
"the best-paid lap dancer in the world". Pretty much sums it up.

BTW, I swear before all gods, about a month ago I was in a department store, and some woman had a baby (girl), approx. 16-18 months, and she had named it...Shania!!!

Now now mr Hill? dont be knocking my punctuation" I go't to be me<

A society that rewards it's entertainers (including pro athtletes, as ARG220 pointed
out) more than thoes who do truly important work, is in decline!

First of all, "society" doesn't pay them; customers do. It's not like your local pro sports teams get paid from your tax money. They get paid what the market will bear.

Second of all, entertainment is pretty important. Life would be pretty dull without it.

Third of all, unless you pay your doctor extra every time you visit, or slip your kids' teachers a little bonus every week, shut up.

First of all, "society" doesn't pay them; customers do. It's not like your local pro sports teams get paid from your tax money. They get paid what the market will bear.

Phil, I'll agree with you that the public demand has driven athlete's compensation up. And it's been able to rise a little higher than market because owners have manged to offload some of their overhead by getting a raft of new publicly subsidized tv studios (stadiums) abuilding of late. We've got one going up here in Houston that I'm not exactly high on.

Rodd -- it's worse than you think...at a game last week I had to sit in front of a woman constantly chastising her toddler son KEANU! I glanced around me and all the other people in the section were sharing the same look of horror I had.

beatle:
I know what you mean about the stadium! Did you read Ken Hoffman in the paper today? I hadn't realized that it was going to be an open air-stadium! In Houston! With our "100-degree temperatures and 200-percent humidity"! Insanity!

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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
-- Henry David Thoreau

A society that rewards it's entertainers (including pro athtletes, as ARG220 pointed out) more than thoes who do truly important work, is in decline! Also, LOVEROCK!

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Zymurgist

quote:
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A society that rewards it's entertainers (including pro athtletes, as ARG220 pointed
out) more than thoes who do truly important work, is in decline!
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First of all, "society" doesn't pay them; customers do. It's not like your local pro sports teams get paid from your tax money. They get paid what the market will bear.

Second of all, entertainment is pretty important. Life would be pretty dull without it.

Third of all, unless you pay your doctor extra every time you visit, or slip your kids' teachers a little bonus every week, shut up. >>PLDennison

I don't mind OTHER people paying vast sums of money to see an athletic event. I do resent cities/counties building new arenas for a specific sports team, and using MY tax money to do so!

I never gave my daughter's teachers a bonus every week...but I did send them little gifts a few times a year. They seemed to especially like gift certificates for bookstores and craft stores. A nice fruit basket was always welcomed, too.


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Lynn the Packrat

[gene]

To me, the biggest symbol of our decline is Bill and Hilary Clinton. Looking back in history, I cannot find a president who has disgraced himself more. Moreover, most people don't care. I guess we are happy with the lowest common denominator. My only hope is that the Clinton's crimes will eventually be brought to light.

[Dr Smooth]

Dan Quail running for president.


It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century.
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 9/15/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92, The New Yorker, 10/10/88, p.102)

This election is about who's going to be the next President of the United States!
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 9/2/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is `to be prepared'.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 12/6/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, to the Phoenix Republican Forum, 3/23/90 (reported in Esquire, 8/92) Also reported by Reuters, 5/2/90

Let me just tell you how thrilling it really is, and how, what a challenge it is, because in 1988 the question is whether we're going forward to tomorrow or whether we're going to go past to the -- to the back!
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 8/17/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle winning friends while speaking to the United Negro College Fund, 5/9/89 This gem has been added to Bartlett's `Familiar Quotations'. (reported in Esquire, 8/92) (reported in the NY Times, 12/9/92)

Take a breath, Al... Inhale.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle politely cutting off Senator Al Gore during the VP Debate in Atlanta, 10/13/92. Gov. Zell Miller of Georgia said that Dan Quayle reminded him of one of his grandkids when they've had too much sugar.

Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.
-- Senator Dan Quayle, US News and World Report (10/10/88)

Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, 4/25/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle addressing the 20th anniversary celebration of the moon landing, 7/20/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 8/11/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

The loss of life will be irreplaceable.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle after the San Francisco earthquake, 10/19/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

Bobby Knight told me this: ``There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.'' In other words a good offense wins.
-- Senator Dan Quayle, in a speech to the City Club of Chicago, comparing the offensive capabilities of the Warsaw Pact with the defensive system of NATO, 9/8/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

[Narile]

Lynn, I definitely agree with you on the stance that tax money should not be used to build professional team stadiums, unless and this is the big unless, the city/county gets free use of the stadium in return, for such things as holiday celebrations, city sponsored little league games, etc. And this would have to be in perpetuity.

As to the legal problems, this is what happens when you allow conflict of interest to occur without challenge. Laws are complex because complex laws pay lawyers who are big political supporters. Also, the more laws you have, the easier it is to avoid them. People sneer at tradition, but in the end it is far more effective at controling behavior than law is, peer pressure always is.

My personal evidence of the decline of the American society is our tax system. Every society that has allowed the taxman as many powers as ours, has collapsed. From the Sumatrins(sp?) to the Romans. Taxing the rich heavily has never worked, because the rich can afford to avoid it if it becomes to onerous a duty.

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&gt;&gt;Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry....unless the other guy is bigger than you.&lt;&lt;

---The dragon observes

[hansel]

"If caterwauling cockroaches isn't one of the seven signs, it should be" - Opus.

[matt_mcl]

America is sick. It's a country that worships basketball players and supermodels as deities and treats the poor as an enemy. You can see a human being shot to death on network television, but a human breast is too obscene to make the cut. We love war, we love our country, but we hate each other. Our entire society is structured around making money, often at the expense of another, and "entertainment" assures us that it's all normal. Families are almost nonexistent, and the only safe neighborhoods are patrolled by armed guards with attack dogs. - Crash Site