I'm so glad there is so little pretentious cultural pessimism on SDMB

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

During the holidays, I had some time to catch up on reading my so-called quality newspaper. In the cultural section, there were two full-page articles, of a kind I had thought to be obsolete. Both were transcripts of more or less prestigious lectures, and both dealt with the broad subject of “modern media, art, cultural values” .
Both articles, unsurprisingly, claimed the world was going to hell in a handbasket. The reason? People’s “values”, of course. People don’t value, don’t know, don’t revere and consume far to little Art with a capital A. Art as in Museum Art, either classic or “modern”. And, somehow, because people eschew Art and succumb to a fast modern culture of Internet, and mass-media, society suffers.
When written down as compact as I did here, it is clear how silly, short-sighted and pretentious this argument is. Still, I bet that many people who read the whole article or sat out the entire lecture, may get a vague feeling that there is some truth to it.

Now, I remember reading my share of such articles ten-twenty years ago. I remember reading them the same way one sits out a sermon. A vague feeling of being chastized for one’s own good. I even remember feeling vaguely morally superior because I did occasionally visit an art exhibition, read “the classics” and because I snubbed (without having watched, of course) most TV shows my classmates watched.

And yet, I kept having a vague nagging feeling that all of these sermons were not based on real-life mass-media, and real life art, or even on real life itself. That these sermons were the secular version of the old Dutch Christian Protestant –Reformed sermons. Those linked morality with such random things as not riding a bike on Sunday or not listening to radiostations broadcasting popular music. And my kind of sermons linked morality with Art and reading pessimistic media. Pessimism about culture, the Third World, the environment…A Dutch politician coined the phrase: “Leftist Church” for this kind of cultural pessimism. Very apt, IMHO

I just wanted to say that one of the most refreshing aspects of the SDMB, to me, is the absence of such pretentious cultural pessimism. Instead, real cultural and technical developments are discussed by people who argue their real impact on everyday life. Thank God for the SDMB!

2

Huh.

I was expecting sarcasm and a rant about some pretentious cultural pessimism on SDMB. I feel slightly let down. :slight_smile:

3

I still don’t know why people hate modern architecture! :wink:

And what’s the deal with this hippity hop rap stuff passing for music?

Good thing I didn’t post my impressions after viewing the Jasper Johns Grey exhibit. Of course, some of those works probably qualify as antiques by now…

4

Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS.

5

That’s certainly not the sort of compliment I’d expect to see given to the Straight Dope Message Board.

Obviously an internet forum won’t collect many users who think that the internet is a totally inferior medium. However, I think this board has its fair share of snobbishness.

6

You really need to change your user name.

7

Maybe you should just change your newspaper.

8

You’re wrong. And as someone with under 5000 posts, who cares what you think? :stuck_out_tongue:

9

It wouldn’t help. Probably something would go wrong and I’d end up banned for being a sock.

10

You’re posting about something that you read in a newspaper? How tawdry. Ring us again when you’re ready to discuss Milton or Chaucer.

11

Milton or Chaucer? Mass-market twaddle!

12

And it all starts going wrong now, because your going to have to explain to my wife why I suddenly burst out laughing in the middle of her shows. Eeyore would be a more appropriate name for you.

13

It’s been a very long time since I sat through a chastizing sermon. I can’t even remember the last one. Most sermons are encouraging, supportive and challenging – in the churches that I have been to (Episcopal, Unity, Presbyterian).

And in thinking about those art museums, I’m reminded of what Yogi said, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

The Straight Dope is as good a record of the thinking of the common literate human being, primarily American, at the turn of the century as is likely to be found.

14

That would be awesome. I’m looking forward to it.

15

And thus ends “Intro to Sarcasm 101” Please see Professor Bobo to register for the advanced class later this semester.
:wink:

16

I knew posting would just derail the thread.

I suspect people railed against Mozart fans for abandoning the Real Culture of whatevercamebefore. Same for Picasso and Michelangelo, probably.

But I live in the suburbs and avoid art museums, so what would I know?

17

Dayum, for years I read his nic as Bob The Optomist. :smack:

18

You’re not alone, there. Back to reading comprehension, I go …

19

If it makes you feel better, when I read his name I read it as “Bobbio the optimist”, yo Bobbio!

20

Yesterday, Mom said something like “well, your grandfather and your great-grandfather never had much to talk about, once my dad was grown up. I mean, all he talks about is soccer; my grandfather loved bullfighting.”

“OK, so each of them was passionate about the form of mass entertainment that was popular with his generation?”

Blink. Blink blink. “You know, I’d never thought of it in that light!”

Some of these things have been going on since that Roman dude exclaimed “o tempora, o mores!” (I’m feeling too lazy to look it up)