Cultural Survival Skills

America: Home of The Too Free!

There can be no doubt that free market capitalism has many benefits.  http://listverse.com/2010/12/24/top-10-

Of course, one can find many criticisms of free market capitalism. https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-economic-criticisms-of-capitalism

Each system of social/economic organization has its strengths and weaknesses, but from all that I can read in history, the free market democracy (in America, a Constitutional Republic) most often comes a distant first in providing the greatest number of benefits for the greatest number of people.

One of the great weaknesses of America’s free market system and our form of democracy is normally touted as a strong advantage. This is our lack of censorship in the media. But our media is now substantially contributing to the destruction of many things that once made America great.

Rather than adopting reasonable standards for the quality of information broadcasted to our hundreds of millions of population through our media, we have now evolved to the point that there are virtually no standards at all.

Our children regularly see sexual innuendo and actual sexual behavior on T.V.. They see every form of sexual behavior conceivable on their cell phones and computers, and they do this with a simple finger poke. By one estimate the largest number of viewers of on-line pornography is among children ages 12 to 17 yrs. Check-out these statistics.  http://www.temptationseries.com/statistics.html

Increased damaging sexual behavior among our youth should surprise no one. We have immersed them in a pornofied society of our own design. Even our young children know that if a man experiences an “erection for more than four hours”…he should consult a physician; this according to a popular T.V. sexual aid ad.

Additionally, through every form of media (cinema, T.V., radio, music, cyberspace, etc.) our children are flooded with virtually all of the profane words ever uttered in our language, or others.

Furthermore, our children watch as the media presents almost every conceivable “life-style” in a attractive, even admiring light. Frequently, old fashioned nuclear families are portrayed as highly odd, stupid and dysfunctional.  Various media stars frequently portray irresponsible, selfish, licentious, and substance abusing (legal and illegal) life-styles. Increasingly, the media attractively showcases what is popularly called LGBT celebrities and their life-styles. Our family T.V. programing is now more often featuring “men-in-drag” (i.e., cross dressing), gays, and transgenders (Kaitlin is now “all the rage”) associated with comedy, “hep”, “with-it”, clever, witty, attractive and glamorous others and contexts.

“Gangsta”, profane, intimidating, aggressive and lawless behaviors and life-styles are also saturating all of our media. Children and adults of all races and ages can be seen imitating the antisocial language, dress and actions of  popular “rappers” from the “hood”.

Everyone knows that sex, violence, and the forbidden excites the masses and it sells like hotcakes. To understand this amazing transformation of American culture, just follow the money. Also, watch the diminishing influences of religion in our society, now under relentless attack by so-called progressives and radical liberals who are bent upon the destruction of our traditional American culture.

As a psychologist, I must tell you that one of the most important and amazingly powerful behavioral influences among humans is Modeling and Imitation. The following is only an abridged introduction to the vast scientific literature proving that our natural ability and strong tendency to imitate the actions of others can be a great force for good or self-destructive behavior. It is a sound generalization from this scientific literature that modeling and imitation are a tremendous force shaping the perceptions, emotions, and behavior of populations withing all societies for better or worse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imitation

Psychological science has identified certain factors that strongly increase the likelihood that particular behavioral displays will be imitated by others. These factors are also at powerful play at the level of population behavior patterns within societies.

The following is only a brief summary of a vast scientific research literature on the factors that increase the likelihood that the actions of others will be imitated by observers.

http://music9.net/f/factors-that-increase-imitation—ccri-faculty-web-w82162-book.html

So what does this mean?

From my perspective, it means we had better vote for true conservatives as our governmental representative.

It also means that citizens must insist upon some radical changes in the rules, and the enforcement of the rules, that govern the ways in which we are governed.

But, that last item is a subject for another another time.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 3/31/16

Tags: A Problems with Capitalism and Democracy, America's Destructive Media, America: Home of The Too Free! Modeling and Imitation, Kaitlyn Jenner, Pornification of America, Pornography and Children, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., VTM

This entry was posted on March 31, 2016 at 10:44 PM and is filed under Boiling the American Frog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.