>I can't but lament what seems to me the
>tremendous loss of cultural vitality that has happened in this nation in the
>postwar period -- unquestionably, IMHO, because of the relentless
>commercialization, regimentation, homogenization and blanding down of
>popular music and really all arts to different degrees. Much of everyday
>life itself, these days, has a mummified, museum-like feeling to me for this
>reason.
The twenty-year-olds around me always cause me to wonder at their vitality, optimism and general contentment. Dunno what it is that sustains 'em, meself. This might look like ennui to my bubbly young charges, bit I don't think that quite covers it. I suppose I'm already too old to keep up. Either that, or the world's just more stuffed than it was or I'm more of a libertarian than I used to be ...
We have a nanny-state, I reckon - bent on liberating big capital and its owners whilst it closes down every avenue of spontaneous self-affirmation on the part of the rest of us. A bloody great panopticon, bent not just on generating and enforcing rules, but on transforming the community into a battalion of smug health fascists, 'norm'-police and regularised consumption nodes
... drinking, smoking and drug-taking is hegemonically relegated to the ranks of antisocial perversion ... the lovely land all around is either privately owned or publicly regulated - thou shalt not leave the path, thou shalt not camp, thou shalt not fish, thou shalt not climb the rocks, thou shalt leave by 5.00 ... thou shalt not bring thine own beer to the cricket, thou shalt skateboard only at skateboard rinks, thou shalt have sex just like, and exactly as often as, it tells ya to in Cosmopolitan, thou shalt have a six-pack or big tits atop a scrawny waist, thou shalt shop only at malls, thy car's muffler may not be holed ... compulsory bike helmets, compulsory seatbelts, compulsory speed limits are decreased as cars become faster, compulsory shinguards for little 'uns who just want to play footie, thou shalt not serve intoxicated patrons, thou shalt not play loud music after ten, thou shalt not eat red meat, thou shalt not be fat, thou's a dupe if thou's too thin, thou must wear a suit, thou must exercise on a $1000 machine because thou hast neither the time nor the venues to exercise within the living of life itself, thou shalt not gamble with the bookmakers but at the privatised totalisator, thou must have an up-to-date licence for everything, thy cultural sacred grounds shall be given unto others and have little signposts put up next to the icecream stands, hotel rates-billboards and entry-ticket vendors to assure you of their historical authenticity ... oh, and thou art at school/uni to learn standardised techniques for your ordained career and fuck-all else ...
All stuff that's crept in since the Australia of the 1970s socialised me, sorta putting up a bullet-proof museum viewing-pane between us and life, I reckon ...
Splutter, fume, moan. Rob