Why is "Pop Culture" so important in the US?

[globetrotter]

It is sad but true that if you want to date in the USA you need to keep up with the trash in the magazines at the checkout line. As I get closer to 50 I find that I simply have no idea who these people are. They are referred to first name only because the women in the US read this crap and actually identify with their soap opera lives.

It is yet another sign of a sick society.

[jamesbond]

It is sad but true that if you want to date in the USA you need to keep up with the trash in the magazines at the checkout line. As I get closer to 50 I find that I simply have no idea who these people are. They are referred to first name only because the women in the US read this crap and actually identify with their soap opera lives.

It is yet another sign of a sick society.

Your right, this obsession with celebrities in the US is ridiculous! I personally don't give a rat's ass about what's going on in celebrities lives. Pop culture in the US has run amuck!

[Adama]

I do not think there is a conspiracy to dumb people down

There is one. I'd have to do about an hour of searching, but the school system in the US is almost set up for children to fail. It is more about brainwashing for their societal roles than educating them.

[Mr S]

There is one. I'd have to do about an hour of searching, but the school system in the US is almost set up for children to fail. It is more about brainwashing for their societal roles than educating them.

I agree. It takes a strong, independent minded personality nowadays to break free of the rigidity of the American school system and determine what is relevant to learn and what can be kicked to the curb. Most of what I learned in school was irrelevant to succeed in life. K-12 education and much of undergraduate studies just try to program you to fill a particular role in society, to be subservient to a hierarchical type business platform. There is no way to understand what actually creates success in an individual and how to understand your own strengths and weaknesses to succeed on your own at your own pace.

Since high school I've pieced together bits and pieces of life and have been able to overcome the odds and actually self-educate myself, using the US government to pay the initial costs for the actual 'paper' degrees. It's not an easy road but I had an inner drive to leave behind what society wants me to be and just figure out what 'I' want to be and do with myself. I come to realize everyone has the power to create their own reality and life. Unfortunately society doesn't want the average person to be aware of this so they attempt the social conditioning and brainwashing from birth onwards, just using different forms as a person matures.

Only a minute fraction of the population will ever understand or escape from this systematic social conditioning. But once they do, their life can never be the same again.

BTW I went through an education masters program with an American university and most of the required classes were BS and had undercurrent political and social agendas. I just jumped through the hoops to get the piece of paper, but realistically most of it was just a bunch of political correct rubbish. Why would the government want to properly educate the masses? They would lose their power in government cause then the average person would be able to see all their lies and fallacies. They realize a small percentage will break out of their matrix and they will either be ostracized from main society or they will be brought into the circle of power as one of their own.

To be able to break away from either of those labels takes a strong sense of purpose and some kind of divine intervention that was agreed upon before birth and intertwined into ones life. There are always people like this that break the mold, but society generally doesn't realize their greatness until they have departed the Earth plane. Individuals that are well ahead of whatever is going on in society are the ones that keep society moving forward, but are often ridiculed in the process of trying to make others see the light. Most people do not have the capability to visualize what the future will bring, or they do it wrong cause they interpret the future using their current preconceived notions of reality.

A true visionary sets themselves apart from the mainstream and isn't offended by brash comments upon their person.

[Nate]

I do not think there is a conspiracy to dumb people down

There is one. I'd have to do about an hour of searching, but the school system in the US is almost set up for children to fail. It is more about brainwashing for their societal roles than educating them.

To deny that the there has been deliberate intent to dumb people down displays...well, dumbness.
This is documented from the beginning of the 20th century. President Wilson and many others clearly stated
the "Public" education had a purpose quite distinct from what the elites might receive. Its purpose was to
"properly educate the common people" so that they would serve the purposes of society (the elites) and
to properly prepare them to be productive within the "great collective".

The movie Idiocracy is no joke. It is about the future of the USA. The society as it now is will be doomed.
Sadly, the average American man or woman I might run into is just a few points short of an idiot badge.
Try engaging them in conversation about the world or even their own beliefs and you quickly find that
half the population are ignorant chuckle-heads, whose beliefs consist of clipped slogans from rock and roll lyrics
and bumper stickers. They are incapable of contemplating any idea in a logical fashion...they are the perfect material
for despots to manipulate. They even lack what I call "primal intelligence". Suggest to a group of college girls that
women are no substitute for men as fathers, and about half will strongly object. To even pose this question to
a group of "ignorant" girls in some remote Philippines village would be considered total idiocy.
Now, in American culture, there is nothing too stupid to be dressed up and dignified with manipulative language.
"Inter-species relational therapy" would no doubt be the term for sex with farm animals.
A society cannot exist long that does not especially excel at family formation and does not have women worth fighting for.

Create a new world for yourself and live in it.

Merry Christmas to all.


Nate

[momopi]

I used to teach 5th grade and had some experience with the education system.

Because of the way that schools are funded in the US, the difference between better-off and worse-off neighborhoods are pretty big. School districts are also measured by meritocracy results, those that are better result in highe property prices, versus lower = cheaper property prices in the neighborhood.

As a former teacher, I'd like to say that individual teachers make a huge difference and impact on the students. But parents find it difficult to measure each teacher as a person, so they look at the test results only.

I went to a so-so school district but had a few very good teachers. The first was Mr. Hardenbrook, who taught English and Frech. I think a former student best described him in this sentence: "I attended his French class for couple of years and didn't learn any French, but then I moved to Paris and married a French guy." Mr. Hardenrbook was actually NOT a very good language teacher, but his lessons were filled with arts, history, culture, films, poetry, philisophy, and all kinds of goodies. He took us to Art Galleries and Operas. He drove a big van and hauled a whole bunch of us to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera when it starred Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman in LA. He even paid for the program guide book for all of us.

To this day I still have books by Gaston Leroux, Claude Monet posters, and watch The Adventure of Asterix cartoons. If anyone is interested, you can buy or download from BT to check them out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix

Mr. Hardenbrook passed away about a decade ago. He was more of a Quaker and disliked funerals, so we had a "Friends Meeting" pot luck at his house. Afterwards we buried him under a liquid amber tree. No grave stones, no ceremony. He always had a Bible on his desk, but the only religious lesson he ever gave us was a story about when he was younger attending Church. He said, the Pastor brought 2 metal buckets, one filled with a water. The Pastor then said to the congregation, that their soul were like the water in the first bucket. Sometimes you feel like you want to stay home and not go to Church, so this happens -- the Pastor took a pick and slammed a hole in the side of the bucket, and another, and another. Then the Pastor said, this is what happens, your soul goes down to hell. Mr. Hardenbook thought the guy was "full of sh*t" and left, never to return.

I didn't fully comprehend the lesson at the time, it wasn't until much later, in college, when another mentor taught me to "vote with my feet", then I had a sudden realization. God gave you legs so you can walk, USE THEM.