Posted on 06/15/2005 6:43:04 PM PDT by CHARLITE
In his new book, Porn Generation, Ben Shapiro mocks the absurdity of some common liberal solutions to society’s ills. He exposes the outrageous advice of liberal celebrities and media figures, detailing how liberals have transformed the overthrow of traditional values into an art: by methodically watering down religion, undermining parental authority, and giving all views equal legitimacy, they’ve produced the cultural crisis that we see today.
This approach has left my generation plagued with moral relativism, narcissism, and many other unintended consequences that the hippie generation is unwilling to take responsibility for and which the aging leftists that now control academia are still trying to promote. By detailing this, Shapiro provides the slap in the face that America needs.
Perhaps my experiences at Wellesley College make me especially ready to embrace Shapiro’s ideas, but I would argue that anyone would consider this book a quick read and (if they have the stomach for it) hard to put down.
Porn Generation has all of the bite and harshness of a young conservative who has been pushed to the edge by the constant force of liberal propaganda within our education system, yet it also presents arguments which are thorough and unavoidably convincing for even the most liberally-minded.
Shapiro details the chronology of society’s moral breakdown – explaining how today’s trends can be traced back to the Kinsey study in the ‘40s, the Clinton scandal in the ‘90s, and other prominent events that changed our understanding of sexuality and culture.
Loaded with quality conservative sarcasm, this book analyzes the hypocrisy enveloping the liberal machine and looks at the various aspects of our culture – teen magazines, pop celebrities, and commercial marketing – that influence our youth.
The one warning that I must issue before encouraging you to read this book is that it does have very provocative titles and explicit language. The irony, however, is that this language is nothing that we do not see or hear every day watching the news, listening to the radio, reading popular magazines, or attending university seminars. Shapiro calls conservatives and liberals alike on their hypocrisy for buying into the new culture that they condemn in principle, yet support with their wallets.
Shapiro points out the craziness of a society which turns criminals into multi-millionaire rap stars, especially when they teach boys “that it’s okay to treat women like dirt” and that these “contemporary buffoons, vulgarians and misogynists are…the ones who are ‘keeping it real’,” while teaching young girls that boys only want strippers and prostitutes.
He argues that youth cling to “gangsta’ rap” because it “distances them from their parents, and in some sense, serves as a rejection of their parents’ culture and their race itself.” This new mentality, according to Shapiro, has only served to promote moral relativism and give young whites the “false impression that [gangsta’ rap] actually represents mainstream black America.” This highlights the hypocrisy of multiculturalism and empowerment within my generation. As the Rev. Al Sharpton said, “Civil rights marchers didn’t march so that a rapper ‘has the right to call your mama a ho.’”
Shapiro looks with disdain at the careers of pop idols Madonna; the former-Mouseketeers-turned-Madonna-wannabes Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera; and newest Disney “pop tarts” Hillary Duff (who hasn’t sold out yet) and Lindsay Lohan (who has). He also looks at the lyrics from such “artists” as Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Ozzy Osbourne (who compared Bush to Hitler just months after the President complimented him on his music success), and Marilyn Manson.
He lauds these artists on a few points, praising Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder for declaring that “any generation that would pick Kurt [Cobain] or [Eddie Vedder] as its spokesman… must be a pretty f–up generation” and admitting that Britney Spears is right about one thing: “It’s a fantasy world that [she’s] doing…It’s up to the parents to explain that to their children.”
Shapiro highlights a critical disconnect between parents and the current generation, citing such figures as: “While only 15 percent of surveyed parents believed that their teens had gone beyond kissing, 27 percent of teens reported being with someone in an intimate or sexual way.”
The recurring theme of this book is that parents are increasingly being cut out of the loop, with schools replacing their authority in sex ed, teenybopper magazines telling their kids what to think and “how to exploit…‘rents into letting [them] date,” and music contributing to the clash of generations. He summarizes his view of teenybopper magazines with the question “Where the hell are your parents?”
This book is the ultimate summary of how we “have been re-defining deviancy so as to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized,” while concurrently defining deviancy up so that the normal has been made to be found deviant. It differs from other conservative crisis-of-our-age books in that he doesn’t just scream bloody murder at the problems caused by the liberal hijacking of our culture, but also offers shrewd solutions for how each of us can help restore and transform our culture.
Overall, Porn Generation is well worth reading and very enjoyable -- assuming you can stomach knowing exactly how disgusting our culture is.
Maribeth Armitage is a former Witherspoon Fellow and a graduate of Wellesley College. She managed a congressional campaign in Boston before coming to work for Townhall.com.
"Loaded with quality conservative sarcasm, "
I guess Shapiro decided he needed sarcasm to sell his book to the Coulter crowd, but my guess is that same sarcasm will turn off the folks he really needs to reach with his book. IMO, sarcasm doesn't win converts. It might be amusing to the already converted at times, but it often just comes off as juvenile.
There are other positive indicators...
use of hard drugs, according to surveys, is down among high school students. High school drop out rates have declined.
If I had the time I could think up and google a dozen other indicators. My argument, however, is simple. The country isn't going to hell in a handbasket. There's an ebb and flow to these things.
He argues that youth cling to “gangsta’ rap” because it “distances them from their parents, and in some sense, serves as a rejection of their parents’ culture and their race itself.”
Uhhhh, gee, young people trying to distance themselves from their parents.....who woulda thunk it. Not exactly ground-breaking stuff here.
It is incredible that while it is okay to have laws against prostitution (and I agree with it), the Supremes declared that pron - prostitution with an audience - should be legal. Another example that judges have close to unlimited power.
BTW, another good book is Nancy Grace's OBJECTION!
Not have seen the book, I can only guess.
See the links in post #33
Or these hard core stats
Violent crime rate has declined through the 1990's, as well as The pregnancy rate for unmarried women has continuously declined through the 1990s and the abortion rate dropped by about 25 percent for both married and unmarried women through the 1990s , The teen Pregnancy Rate Reached a Record Low, More Teenagers are saying no to sex and Drug use by teenagers continues to decline.
Ignore what you see in the media, the pendulum is swinging the other way
The article in the link says it best
Wave away the colored smoke of the Jackson family circus, Paris Hilton, and the antics of San Francisco, and you can see how Americans have been self-correcting from a decades-long experiment with “alternative values.”
Wave away the colored smoke of the Jackson family circus, Paris Hilton, and the antics of San Francisco, and you can see how Americans have been self-correcting from a decades-long experiment with “alternative values.”
I don't believe that. The pendulum swings one way and then the other.
There seems to be this overwhelming belief that we are headed for the sewer.
I disagree. I believe that as long as science continues to prove that there is no gay gene and that a human life begins sooner rather than later, we as Republicans can make a convincing case.
Just compare since then the yearly gatherings on the anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death with the yearly gatherings for anniversary of John Lenin's death.
I can't picture down the road when we are in our 50's & 60's many Gen-Xers still holding vigils for Kurt Cobain as the baby boomers still do for John Lenin.
Plus, Look how many Xers showed up at Regan's funeral, Now there was a generational leader
If you look in your TV remote, there are buttons to change the channel and even turn the television off.
Nobody is required to watch offensive television programming. If people were not interested in trashy television, it would not be on the air.
Abortion harms the rights of the unborn child. Not comparable to "sleaze."
If you don't like methamphetimine, don't smoke/inject/snort it.
I agree. It is not the government's job to protect people from their own stupidity.
If you don't like spousal abuse, don't practice it.
Assaulting another person is a violation of their rights. Government has been granted the power to protect rights. Again, not comparable.
If you don't like porn shops on the road where your kids walk to school, have them walk a different route.
There is no right not to be offended by the sight of legal businesses that you dissaprove of. Should a Mormon have the right to demand that their children not be exposed to the sight of liquor stores? Do Jews have the right to demand that their kids not be exposed to the sight of a pig roast?
Even if, for instance, one set of parents carefully monitor what their kids watch, a bunch of other kids don't have such careful parents.
And the solution to this is what? More government control over how parents raise their kids?
i agree with you.
it's a truism of history that every generation thinks that its era is "going to hell in a hand basket."
my remarks above were unclear. i think the boomer generation was given a lot by this country, but the boomer leftists, and the communist predecessors and successors in the media and universities, have given back little in return. they turned this country against the vietnam war and they are trying to do the same now with iraq. now, that is evil.
So many celebs and others...do what they want, when they want. And then later, feel like they can pontificate to the rest of us. Ozzy, Madonna, the others, all of their credibility and integrity could fit in thimble.
When I was younger, before I was married, I used to have an unspoken rule that I did not want to date girls from divorced families. It was not a hard and fast rule, but I think is has some basis. One girl I dated had both parents on 3rd marriages. Her idea of sticking it out though tough times was not quite the same as mine - and how could it be, you are a product of your upbringing.
You keep repeating this claim, but it is not consistent with current Supreme Court decisions on the matter. Communities have the power to greatly limit where adult businesses operate. SCOTUS has upheld, IIRC, zoning restrictions that excluded adult businesses from something like 95% of a community's territory.
And what have they been replaced with? A situation where even if the majority of people want very much, and vote for, or their elected representatives vote for some kind of restriction on, say, what level of disgusting obscentity or sexually explicit stuff should be allowed in some particular venue, a couple of judges in black robes, assisted by lawyers from the ACLU, tell the citizenry what must be.
Example, please. AFAIK, public indecency is still illegal pretty much everywhere in this country.
I'm not sure how this is relevant to the conservative position. Whether or not homosexuality is genetic shouldn't change the conservative position on such things as gay marriage.
In my very small rural town, a porn shop opened on the main street, where lots of high school and middle school kids walk to and from school. You wouldn't believe all the letters to the editor, people arguing at the town meeting or whatever it's called. The mayor said there was nothing in state law that could stop the shop. So there it is - with kids walking by it all the time.
No, there hasn't been a referendum in this little town, but judging by the letters, the majority of people here did not want that porn shop in the middle of a very small downtown. Yet there it is, courtesy of the ACLU and a bunch of jackass judges.
No doubt it will be out of business in months since nobody is going to patronize it...
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