AIN'T IT COOL? A Tale of Two Cultures

I think the author is also confusing a traditional disconnect that has been demonstrated in previous conflicts between those fighting a war and the general attitude of the civilian population with this particular war.

One of the most poignant passages in "All Quiet on the Western Front" is when the protagonist returns to his village after receiving a weekend pass from the front. Life is continuing on in perfectly normal circumstances with absolutely no understanding of what is occuring on the front. This is the basis for his diatribe regarding the villagers' opinion of 'Germany's iron youth'.

Another example is the 6th(?) episode of Band of Brothers. The narrator is explaining that by Feb '45, everyone knew the war was over, yet they still had to push on till the end. The passage that caught my ear was the description of how hometown USA was rapidly taking on a post-war attitude (ie good times are here again) even though Japan still had to be dealt with.

I used the world "if", which I assume you read in a dyslexic fugue state.

As a native of Orange County, who's lived in So Cal my entire life, with parents who came here in the 1920's, I know a bit about the area. I know it was home to not one, but TWO Marine bases for decades, and has produced its share of not only veterans but Medal of Honor winners.

I noticed there was not one mention in your article about the Hispanic subculture here, and the recent immigrants who called Orange County home before going off to fight and die in Iraq. Maybe just a few words about the contrast of poor immigrants who arrive with nothing yet give all, but no, Orange County kids are all white surfer dudes who hang out at the beach spending their parents' money.

I'm sorry, but I think it is the height of poor taste to write an article that basically trashes the entire youth of an area of several million people at the very same time that hundreds of school kids are conducting candlelight vigils for their fallen classmates who've died in Iraq, without at least one throw away sentence for those who've fallen.

"Most in Orange County are from places like Colorada, Michigan, NY, Utah, Indiana, Ohio, very few in Orange County are actually from there."

Joe, I was going to make that very point. Growing up, my next door neighbor was from Arkansas, another neighbor and close friend was from Wisconsin, another's parents were from Mexico. And that was just on my street. My best friend's parents were from Chicago. My own mother was born in Oregon, though she moved to California as a young girl, and grew up in Los Angeles. I am fairly rare in that my father was born in California, and I think his also.

I'm sorry, but I think it is the height of poor taste to write an article that basically trashes the entire youth of an area of several million people at the very same time that hundreds of school kids are conducting candlelight vigils for their fallen classmates who've died in Iraq, without at least one throw away sentence for those who've fallen.

The piece is making a point about a certain irresponsible subculture, not about all the people of a certain place. he could have placed it in just about ANY big city in the USA. He chose Orange County. good as any other place. but, in your hypersensitive CA identity, you missed the whole point.

It's art. It's like poetry. One takes the greater meaning if he is capable. See what happens when children grow up without art?

"Bobby, honey, look at the pretty picture. See all the colors?
"Ahhhh! Ahh, Ahhhhhhh!"
"OMG! What's happening?"
"I'm sorry, ma'am. Your son doesn't seem to have an imagination."

It's good that you mentioned art, since I was an art major in college and I've been a professional designer for over twenty years. Now in visual arts, as I'm sure you know, there is something called composition and its two main parts, positive and negative space. How the composition is arranged is vitally important to how it is perceived. Usually the positive space is predominant, but what is left out is often as important. Also, especially in representational art, there are often themes and sub themes, patterns, symbols, and the like.

Written works can be similarly described, using "positive space"- what is written- and "negative space" -what is left out. They are also usually themes and sub themes, and variations in characterizations. The terms "wooden characters" and "cardboard cutouts" are often derisively used to label inferior works that use stereotypes devoid of shading and complexity.

I cannot ascribe content to the author's work where it does not appear. In this case I read only one theme, with no hinting at sub themes or contrast, other than the obvious. I see only broad brushstokes, with no subtelty to shade the characterization of the youth of Orange County as shallow, spoiled, and self centered.

Perhaps if he had used irony, as in a few words to contrast the kids who've died and their grieving families to the carefree youth he uses so many to document, or symbolism with a line about how the scene is repeated in communities around the nation, the connection can be drawn. But no such mechanism is provided, so one is left to judge as the piece is written.

Unless by art you mean finger painting where you can read into it whatever you want.

It's good that you mentioned art, since I was an art major in college and I've been a professional designer for over twenty years.

And you STILL missed the point. How sad. But you must keep in mind that unverifiable claims of authority mean absolutely nothing on the net. Anyone can claim to be anything, and still be just an other chest-thumping keyboard warrior with coke-bottle glasses and a greasy bag of Doritos next to his Beastie Boys mousepad.

That said, I have no reason to doubt your claims of authority, nor to doubt that your special CA sensitivity caused you to miss the guy's greater point.

Liberals and Islam are the enemy of the age, not the article or the author of the article, my friend.

BTW: The liberal morass and flood of illegal aliens is taking CA right out from under your nose. It is ceasing to be CA and will be a third world dump at some point unless something is done. But you knew that already.

I may not have inferred the point YOU took from it, but that's the problem with relativism, anybody can take away anything they want. Yes, the culture of cool is shallow and transient, and so was swing dancing in the 1940's, but that didn't stop GI's from heading to the dance hall every chance they got. And portraying the military as wholly unconcerned with pop culture is to say it consists of automatons apart from the rest of the country

The funny thing is, I tend to agree with his "greater" point, but I object to his characterization of Orange County, and nobody seems to get MY point. A far better article would have contrasted the traditions of Tustin Air Station, and the half million Orange County residents who annually viewed the El Toro Air Show for thirty years with the creeping "culture of cool" that now infests places like the Irvine Spectrum, which is located ironically DIRECTLY across the freeway from the empty El Toro Air Station.

I repeat, to ignore the deaths of Orange County's youth in the War on Terror is not an expression of CA sensitivity but a demand that their sacrifices be recognized.

Extremely bad idea, for four reasons.

1) It puts those who resent being there into the military. There's a reason pretty much every military professional in the US prefers an all-volunteer force.

That is a valid point, but maybe put them in for 2 years rather than 4 years. Just my opinion, but I think military service benefits a person no matter what career they eventually choose. If anything it makes them appreciate all the blessings of US citizenship.

2) It will get those currently apathetic kids interested in politics in a very non-constructive manner.

Again, I don't think it hurts them to become more aware of the importance of electing good leaders. Most people in the military see first hand the effects of certian policies.

3) It allows politicians to skimp on military pay, military equipment, and military preparedness in order to pay for welfare or pork barrel projects.

Maybe true in the short run, but one of the reasons politicians have been able to skimp on military pay is because there's no large constituency of military , ex-military and military famlies to raise hell when conditions get bad. When most everyone knows someone in the military you have to believe that politicians will think twice before cutting military pay.

4) It allows politicians to fight half-ast wars of attrition using an endless supply of cannon fodder rather than fighting wars to their conclusion as quickly as possible.

Again, for the same reasons as above, I'm not so sure of this one. As long as we elect amoral leaders they'll throw us into amoral wars. Personally, I don't think Clintoon would have plunged us into the Balkins, Hati or sold out the troops in Somolia if there was a large pro military constituancy. Bubba was if nothing else, a master politician who knew which groups (like the military) he could afford to dump on, and which groups (homosexuals, feminists etc) he dare not offend.

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