Idle thoughts on the culture war
Jul. 15th, 2005 03:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tahnanLast night on the Daily Show, I watched an interview with Bernard Goldberg, author of 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken Is #37), the premise of which seems to be that the culture is dying (afternote: Anna Nicole Smith and Eminem are on the list, so it's at least partly cultural).
Tonight I watched a movie with a high schooler smoking pot, two high school freshman girls discussing oral sex in a cafeteria and practicing on carrots, one of them lying about her age to a 26 year old to lose her virginity to him, later getting an abortion...that would be "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Looks like the culture was already ruined in 1982.
Great movie, though.
Idly trying to find the list of who the hundred people are, I learned from a right-wing blog that one of them is, in his opinion, "The man who makes a living teaching America college kids to hate their own country: Noam Chomsky" (who's in the book at #11). Aha! Finally someone has explained to me what Minimalist Syntax is about. (Since that's what the man makes his living teaching, after all. Well, he's retired now, but even so.)
Other searching tells me that the list isn't entirely cultural. Then again, I have no idea what Ted Kennedy is doing at #3; one senator in the minority party has that much power? I think I'm glad I voted for him. And apparently #7 is Margaret Marshall, chief justice of Massachusetts state Supreme Court. I might have to find the book to learn whether she is, in fact, ruining America in wide swaths, or if this is a symbolic choice representing a single that's screwing up America.
(And: Michael Newdow? He didn't even win his court case. And, wow, Eve Ensler? I wonder if I have the patience to read the book and find out why.)
Tonight I watched a movie with a high schooler smoking pot, two high school freshman girls discussing oral sex in a cafeteria and practicing on carrots, one of them lying about her age to a 26 year old to lose her virginity to him, later getting an abortion...that would be "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Looks like the culture was already ruined in 1982.
Great movie, though.
Idly trying to find the list of who the hundred people are, I learned from a right-wing blog that one of them is, in his opinion, "The man who makes a living teaching America college kids to hate their own country: Noam Chomsky" (who's in the book at #11). Aha! Finally someone has explained to me what Minimalist Syntax is about. (Since that's what the man makes his living teaching, after all. Well, he's retired now, but even so.)
Other searching tells me that the list isn't entirely cultural. Then again, I have no idea what Ted Kennedy is doing at #3; one senator in the minority party has that much power? I think I'm glad I voted for him. And apparently #7 is Margaret Marshall, chief justice of Massachusetts state Supreme Court. I might have to find the book to learn whether she is, in fact, ruining America in wide swaths, or if this is a symbolic choice representing a single that's screwing up America.
(And: Michael Newdow? He didn't even win his court case. And, wow, Eve Ensler? I wonder if I have the patience to read the book and find out why.)