[lbo-talk] Re: Corporate Porn to Kids

Christian Gregory christian11 at mindspring.com
Tue Mar 23 17:26:59 PST 2004



> We're sorta back where we were when you joined the list. You think
> that people are manipulated by corporations into feeling desires that
> they wouldn't otherwise feel. I think things are a lot more
> complicated than that. People like gadgets and fashion, and they
> think about sex a lot. Kids are often very sexual creatures, though
> it makes adults nervous to think about that. If you'd like to
> criticize American culture for its simultaneous puritanism and
> prurience - two sides of the same coin, etc. - that's one thing. But
> that's a lot bigger than spring break on MTV.

Many of the people on this list have grown up in the era of MTV, and I daresay we're not dangerously more neurotic than the rest of the populace--in fact, quite the opposite. I interact with people a generation younger than me every day, and they seem no more or less clueless than I was when I was 17 or 18. In fact, they are more aware of the way the media works than I was.

Yes, MTV can be mindless, but we also have it to thank for Madonna and Outkast --whom I take to be really good. Not to mention _Daria_ and _Beavis and Butthead_ (great and great in my book). Moreover, I can't really see how TRL is less mindless or more harmful than Spring Break--in fact, the thing young people seem to consume most when they watch spring break is ideas about their bodies, rather than sex per se. This may be healthy or not, but the solution is the same today as it was when I was a kid: teach the young ones how to watch TV, instead of wringing your hands about what's on TV.

Christian



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