dt’s puritanical values
quote:
Originally posted by DalekTek790:
Moral degradation is the biggest problem facing America today. People are becoming less and less concerned with morality and the consequences of their actions.
Pshaw. This has always been said by prudes and moralists, and the country hasn’t been brought down as of yet. People said it in the 1920s and 30s, with the rise of Jazz and moving pictures. People said it in the post-WWII era. People said it in the 50s with the rising popularity of comic books and rock and roll. People said it in the 1960s with the rise of the counter-culture. It goes on and on, and it’s a lie. It’s a lie said to instill fear in those who would question otherwise. It’s a lie to discourage independent thinking. It’s a lie, period. People aren’t concerned with the consequences of their actions? What would those consequences *be*, pray tell? Are you referring to the “AIDS is visited upon those who deserve it, and we invited the horrors of 9/11 on ourselves because we’ve offended JHVH” school of thought, or to the “You’re going to pay for this in the afterlife” school of thought? Because these are the only two schools of thought that would actually support your little hypothesis (if you use crime statistics, violent crime is not nearly what it was in the Prohibition era…which, strangely, was initiated by Puritanical thinking…you’d think that they’d learn their lesson by now), and both arguments are based on nothing but supposition and a healthy dose of pie-in-the-sky thinking.
And I don’t think that I need to point out the similarities between this kind of reasoning and certain interpretations of TV shows…
I think that it was the late Doktor LaVey who said, “Good is what you like. Evil is what you don’t like.” And this is the case here. People who claim that America (or the world in general) is going down the tubes, morally speaking, are those who see a shift away from something that they personally like to something that they don’t personally like. And as long as the people complaining are those who support repression of sexuality, denial of basic human instinct, the subordination of common sense and logic to dogma and suppression of those whose sexuality is too “different” in the eyes of the Moral Majority (an oxymoron if there ever was one, as it is neither…and BTW, I’m not implying that DT has ever said anyting homophobic or has said anything at all against homosexuality, though I’d *love* to hear his views on the topic…), then I’m a happy camper because I know that society is moving in the right direction as far as I’m concerned.
–Aleck