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I'm talking about waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when. Originally,"the flickers" (these weren't even movies on a screen,but those things one saw through a view-box,for a few brief minutes,like Little Egypt dancing at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1888)and were little more than a peepshow. The earliest of movies,shown on a screen,were base entertainment,at that time.Then,the likes of Adolph Zuckor,Louis B.Mayer,William Fox,Harry Cohn,and the Warners got into the business and things began to change rapidly! No longer were movies for the lower classes;though early movies DID indeed help immigrants to learn English and the ways,as portrayed in the movies,of America.Heck,if it wasn't for Mayer and Zuckor,America would never have had an image of itself as a collective at all!

Anyway,look at early talkies and movies through say the very early '60. Boys learned how to be suave from the likes of Cary Grant,Fred Astaire,David Niven,and many whose names you may not even know.Boys and girls learned how to kiss from watching it done on screen.People looked at how the homes of the very rich were decorated,Hollywood style,and as with clothes and hairdos and yearned to copy them in real life,as best they could.Parents were fonts of wisdom,bad behaviors only gave one grief or worse...death!Movies were a BIG thing and they greatly influenced ALL Americans!

Fast forward to today and the movies are garbage,full of technical effects,lousy acting,worse scripts,and the audiences don't know how to behave at all.

T.V. has been used as a babysitter for longer than the late '70s.

The death knell to a civilized America was the damned hippies,but the rot began to seep on a bit earlier than that.

And popular culture has actually been excruciatingly pervasive,for more than 100 years here.But we can talk about that another time.

That's a lot to think about (and I don't say this often) but you may be right. I'm not giving in just yet, but you may be right about a lot of that.

For the record, I sometimes go to movies at a certain "ghetto theater" here in NYC because I know that some movies will inevitably benefit from the yelling at the screen. I see it as "value added."

As for the acting -- I continue to see a lot of fine acting. Edward Norton is a terrific actor. So is Jennifer Jason Leigh. Denzel Washington is also good, as is Brad Pitt (I know, I know too pretty for movies). The problem with movies isn't primarily the acting, it's the material.

And people DRESSED UP to go to the movies,it was a social event;unlike today.They didn't talk to each other,they didn't talk at the screen,they didn't fight,and there were ushers who ejected people,if they acted up.

Fast forward to today and the movies are garbage,full of technical effects,lousy acting,worse scripts,and the audiences don't know how to behave at all.

T.V. has been used as a babysitter for longer than the late '70s.

The death knell to a civilized America was the damned hippies,but the rot began to seep on a bit earlier than that.

And popular culture has actually been excruciatingly pervasive,for more than 100 years here.But we can talk about that another time.

I think you hit the nail on the head to where society is at the point where it is today. True, we still have level minded conservatives as we did then but I think that is the point on how we have become a polarized society. "Free Love" ain't free, you could end up with STD's, AIDS, and unwanted kids, but it all falls under the old Robert A. Heinlein saying, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" (TANSTAAFL)

I have to agree, although we've always had that bugbear around, he was kept in his cage for the most part until the 1960's as you put it with the development of The Pill (I think it is too easy to get), "free love" and the hippies. When I see films of hippies and the like, me being an early model X'er (born in 1966), "I just shake my fist and say in a sarcastic tone, "thanks a heap!" Although it does sound like I'm blaming someone else and in this case, well we see the rot they have caused but in my own life, I try my best to live those values we know and love to the best of my ability despite the way things are. I'm kind of encouraged on how things could turn in our favor though if we play are cards right. Maybe the hippie culture is burning itself out, true I see a lot of what I call "neo-hippie" 20 somethings but I also see plenty of proud, upstanding, moral 20 somethings too.

About the debt thing, through bad choices, bad luck or bad circumstances, I do see a need for some sort of way out for people who really need it. I can see declaring bankruptcy and getting away scot free once in someone's life although again, it should be undertaken if no other options will really work. I guess this is the populist side of me speaking.

I know myself, I have it tough and still do but I'll never "break this glass in case of fire" unless I really, really have to.

About the statement "getting Western," well, it's the first time I've heard of it although I've used "getting Medieval," "going postal," "going crazy" or even "John Wayne-ing it." Like in my last role playing gaming session, my buddy runs his character like he's Superman, I made the comment, "ain't you John Wayne-ing it a bit?"