Before the Fall
Ya gotta think that America's gotten off track, when you look around at the lunacy that masquerades as the post-modern culture. First of all, how dumb can people be to speak about living in a post-modern time? By definition that is flooey, as are the people who use the term, as though intellect could float the boat alone.
More proof that we've gone whacky are the folks who spend ten grand a year on botox shots. One of the network magazines showed a party of five post-yuppie yahoos who, after dinner, got shots. One woman was only 26 years old. None of them could frown after the poison froze the nerves in their foreheads.
The degree of narcissism was kinda scary. First of all that they were so young, and worried about aging. Second that they had the money and would spend it erasing wrinkles. And third, they seemed not to object to showing themselves as so remarkably shallow. I suppose that's part of the shallowness. Like the gorgeous girl-'n-guy in Annie Hall who explained that they were able to get along so well because they were so superficial.
Or maybe like the people in another television magazine who went on camera to acknowledge that, Sure, they hired people based on their better looks. The program spent a whole hour making three kinda obvious points; that (1) children learn better from more attractive teachers, (2) better-looking people get hired more easily, and (3) women will not go out with men shorter than they. In the second case, a couple of employers said candidly, without even a modicum of embarrassment, that they chose the chick 'cause she was cuter.
This needs to be said: It probably wasn't just about looks; there's such a thing as charisma. That these managers were dumb enough to reveal themselves as cheesy to an audience of millions suggests that they could well have been easily swung to the more charismatic, good-looking or not, and not known why. Another point is that there are a lot of real idiots out there, and over the years, many have risen to positions of decision-making. They're open about their criteria because they don't have higher standards. In the old days, even 20 years ago, there was more public humility and discretion.
Also on the botox program, a segment on a trashette who decided to tighten some looseness and decided to go to an American doctor who was practicing in Mexico. Hard to believe that Darwin wasn't waiting for her with a scythe, except that she survived. But not the 40-year-old woman who went to the same doctor in Mexico for co-operations with her husband, but she didn't survive the anesthesia. No offense, but if you're that vain and have the money to flatter yourself, why would you put your life in the hands of an American doctor in Mexico?
This is all we've watched on television for the past five weeks, and only because Linda's daughter called to tell her to turn on the program. These shows were so sordid -- such a cheap version of reportage -- that even Linda was disgusted. By the subject matter -- she's fascinated by it; hey, she's almost perfect -- and more so offended by the way the stories were covered, the transparency of their visceral string-pulling to get people to bemoan and cry.
I think we'll look back on this stuff 20 years from now and see it for the decadent depravity that passes for acceptable behavior in our society today. All empires have had such era, right before their fall.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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