Sunday, December 18, 2005
Talkin' with Todd
February 26, 2005
Spartacus O'Neal:
Kalle Lasn of the Media Foundation wrote in the July/August 2001 issue of Adbusters magazine about what public health officials describe as the American "epidemic of despair." He went on to note a number of psychosocial studies pointing to a toxicity in American culture that had reached dangerously high levels, leading to the conclusion that "socialization into American culture and society increase susceptibility to psychiatric disorders."
The AMA observed "American school children today are taking four times as many psychiatric meds as all of the rest of the world combined." The roots of these disorders says Lasn--rising expectations from media saturation, and reduced satisfaction from loss of collective family and community life--help to explain the rage, cynicism, and hopelessness enveloping our culture."
Todd:
Kalle Lasn was absolutely right, of course. Which spawns two questions, at least to my mind. First off, how do we become sane again - is it even possible? And can a society that exalts materialism over more traditional social values breed anything other than cultural dysfunction, even true cultural insanity? For viewed through any type of rational long-term lens, we are, collectively, nuts, bonkers, looney-toones.
Spartacus O'Neal:
Kalle Lasn of the Media Foundation wrote in the July/August 2001 issue of Adbusters magazine about what public health officials describe as the American "epidemic of despair." He went on to note a number of psychosocial studies pointing to a toxicity in American culture that had reached dangerously high levels, leading to the conclusion that "socialization into American culture and society increase susceptibility to psychiatric disorders."
The AMA observed "American school children today are taking four times as many psychiatric meds as all of the rest of the world combined." The roots of these disorders says Lasn--rising expectations from media saturation, and reduced satisfaction from loss of collective family and community life--help to explain the rage, cynicism, and hopelessness enveloping our culture."
Todd:
Kalle Lasn was absolutely right, of course. Which spawns two questions, at least to my mind. First off, how do we become sane again - is it even possible? And can a society that exalts materialism over more traditional social values breed anything other than cultural dysfunction, even true cultural insanity? For viewed through any type of rational long-term lens, we are, collectively, nuts, bonkers, looney-toones.
