Reply #340: Yes, your answer confirms what I am saying. [View All]

[Jim__]

Certainly some politicians preach "family values." But is a slogan. Its success as a slogan shows how much people relate to the idea. But the very same politicians who preach family values vote against things like family leave laws, labor laws that protect a person's right to have some family time. They vote against universal health care because they are paid by corporations to oppose it. The verbal homage paid to "family values" shows how much people are longing for them. The lack of any real action taken in support of these values, shows that they are actually devalued.

No, you are not speaking of the same cultural values that I am. Multiculturalism degenerates into a fight over language and dress, aspects of culture, but aspects of culture that are always present and the fight is over their manifestation. The values I am talking about are more in terms of art, literature, music. One reflection of the decline in these values is the number of people who major in these areas in college. While the number was always somewhat low, it has been halved in the last 30 years or so; while the number of business majors has nearly doubled. People don't study these subjects because they are not valued in our society. Traditional values are sacrificed to the demands of corporate values.

Hyper sexualization is more of a sign of the decline of the value of bodily pleasure. Make-up, lingerie, and bulimic bodies are not reflections of a high value being placed on bodily pleasure. Think of a Rubens beauty as compared to the female form that is considered beautiful today. Restaurants deliberately designed to rush people through their meals are not signs of a value attached to bodily pleasure. I am talking about the fight between Dionysian pleasure, earthiness, vs Apollonian pleasure, mental pleasure. The pleasures that can be attained through physical exertion - yes we have sports, but for 99% of the population, they are spectator sports; we have exercise, but its usually rushed through in the sterile environment of an indoor gym; rather than, say, a hike in the mountains.

Again, postmodernism and, I believe, New Age are a reflection of people rejecting the sterility of life today and searching for a life with more meaning.