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Thread: Fake Morality

  1. #1
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    Fake Morality

    I believe we have been inundated, yeah, cool word, with false morality our entire lives. And it's a pseudo thing that many people steer their decisions with, if I'm not mistaken. Those ideals are annoying. They get applied to teachers. I'm one of them. I know.

    I have watched the show "Criminal Minds" -- most of the episodes several times. This is just an example. There's some serial killer on the loose and he's hacking up people and so on. But they cannot swear on the show, nor say nothing worse than 'damn' or maybe 'bee-itch'. There's no drinking alcohol, because that obviously means one is a mess. No smoking. But hacked up bodies is fine. And the display of the deepest depravity is more acceptable than a pair of lovely adult woman breasts. Man, are we ever confused. Of course, the Hustler magazine guy pointed this out long ago. Larry Flynt. Yeah, give him a read if ya have the time. He kills George Bush too, and so he should. He shoots straight. But he was right.

    So, when did all this all become the norm? We've brought confusion upon ourselves. A headless body in a ditch is normal, but having a drink and a smoke is wrong, or saying the f word (I know we cannot curse here) is wrong, as is sex, almost always the intimate display of lovely feeling a man and woman have?

    I give up. People are insane.
    Last edited by jajdude; 06-03-2012 at 10:16 AM. Reason: censored for bee-itch, proving my point

  2. #2
    Registered User Calidore's Avatar
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    I don't think the issue is normality or morality, but identification. Millions and millions of people smoke, even more drink, and even more have sex. All three of those can (drinking, sex) or do (smoking) cause harm to oneself and possibly others, and all three are easily picked up or foisted on young people whose desire to be "adult" or "cool" can easily override good judgment. Psychopathic serial killers, on the other hand, are few and far between. That level of violence is and will forever be outside most people's experience, so there's a level of detachment when seeing or reading about it that isn't there for those other things.
    You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

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    That's a good point, I suppose, as I get what you said, but there's more to this than I said. The fake morality of which I speak runs deep in this world, and has no sense of boundaries. What I mean by that is the hypocrisy which flows as sure as blood through way too many people. Now maybe you are older than me, or maybe not. That is trivial. Age means nothing when it comes to noticing things. Though perceptions change, for sure. What I have noticed, and what has become hard as stone perception over years, is that people are deeply hypocritical. Sometimes we have to be for our own sake and sanity. You'll see it if you look for it, sure, but there's more than that too. It's a casual, easygoing crime that interrupts your sleep.

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    Gives ya a tingly feelin', dunnit?

    But it's not so hard to understand intellectually. In fact, let's do it right quick. Let's talk about the machine. Clearly the machine is functioning well enough to keep most people from hacking other people apart in a ditch. The machine doesn't need to do more work in tgat department, it's doing great! For most people, a murder or a mutilated corpse doesn't really exist. It's ok to show something that only exists in fantasy land. But the no-no words and the sexiness, these things that are so immediately humanthat they keep turning up in life, are things the machine needs to work pretty hard to make us feel bad about. At a certain point, these things (sexuality) are a part of what we are. So the machine knows it has gotta drop the hammer extra hard on those things.

    But none of that is interesting. What is interesting is your annotance, maybe even your tiredness with it. How is it hurting you, dude? What is it stopping you from doing? What's the bigger picture here?







    J

  5. #5
    somewhere else Helga's Avatar
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    I do think t is strange and has changed in recent years. I have noticed in both 'Criminal Minds' and many other shows and movies that if somebody drinks or smokes, it's usually the bad guy. I remember on a CM show where a couple on a killing spree were drunk all the time.

    When I was a kid I watched movies and read books by Astrid Lindgren, the kids curse and curse and curse in them, at the time that was the surprising behavior. My son watches a lot of different tv shows and for some reason nobody curses but everyone is fighting, oh and most villains have a phd for some reason.


    I know I do this cause I let my six year old watch superhero movies that are PG 13. As long as they are beating up the bad guy he thinks it's fine (Magneto was hard to explain).
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    Wandering Child Annamariah's Avatar
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    I think this is at least partly a cultural thing. I've noticed the same thing in American tv-shows (which form the largest part of what is shown on the tv here), but not so much in Finnish films and tv series.

    Let's take nudity for one example. In American television you only see naked people in R-rated programmes, whereas here you can see naked people in children's tv-shows. Somehow it seems that in America nudity is always sexual and therefore not suitable for children, whereas in the Nordic countries nudity is considered more natural. (This doesn't mean it's okay to walk down the street without clothes, but it's quite natural to go to sauna or swimming naked.)

    The Swedish Astrid Lindgren films Helga mentioned are a good example. In Ronja Rövardotter there is swearing, naked children swimming, naked men running around in the snow (washing themselves) plus some scary mythological creatures and some violence, too. The film is rated K-7, which means it's suitable for children aged 7 or older.

    When it comes to adults' films and tv shows, at least to me it seems most Finnish films are more realistic than American ones. By "realistic" I mean that the way people talk seems more natural (there is swearing), actors aren't as thin and beautiful as in American films and everything is a little bit less glamorous.
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    Registered User PoeticPassions's Avatar
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    This is definitely a cultural thing and more prevalent in America, than say Western Europe. I think it stems from America's puritan roots and generally the over-sexualization of materialism and women in media, but at the same time its righteous attitude toward this sexuality... it is okay to show half naked girls in videos and on magazine covers, but it is not okay to really talk about sex or go topless on beaches.

    Who is this harming? It is harming society, in my opinion. The US has some of the highest teen pregnancy and STD rates in the developed world, and I think (as studies have shown) that this is in large part related to these double-morals or hypocrisy as you note.

    In addition, it seems fine that kids play super violent video games (in newer versions of that grand theft auto game, the character can rape women!- this is what I heard), which also causes violent behavior (or at least it has shown that kids that play these games often tend to be more aggressive), but it isn't okay to to show nudity on TV or sexual behavior...
    So I am with you on this jajdude, in that it not only bothers me, but in that it is actually harmful for the society as a whole and its social progress...
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  8. #8
    somewhere else Helga's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Annamariah View Post

    The Swedish Astrid Lindgren films Helga mentioned are a good example. In Ronja Rövardotter there is swearing, naked children swimming, naked men running around in the snow (washing themselves) plus some scary mythological creatures and some violence, too. The film is rated K-7, which means it's suitable for children aged 7 or older.
    here on the ice it was not rated like that, every kid could see it and I saw the play when I was 5. Also when I watched Ronja with my son it was the language that shocked him and that the girl didn't listen to her parents. Violence was not that big of a deal...

    It's like that with most movies here, younger kids can see it than in America and UK at least.

    Video games are extremely violent I think, I was so surprised when my six year old son told me his friend got a game that I found out is for 12 years and older. I think there is a difference between movies and games cause in the game you are doing the deed but in the movies you watch and think it's bad (or good).

    maybe that makes no sense.
    I hope death is joyful, and I hope I'll never return -Frida Khalo

    If I seem insensitive to what you are going through, understand it's the way I am- Mr. Spock

    Personally, I think that the unique and supreme delight lies in the certainty of doing 'evil'–and men and women know from birth that all pleasure lies in evil. - Baudelaire

  9. #9
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    Fake Media

    Quote Originally Posted by jajdude View Post
    I believe we have been inundated, yeah, cool word, with false morality our entire lives. And it's a pseudo thing that many people steer their decisions with, if I'm not mistaken. Those ideals are annoying. They get applied to teachers. I'm one of them. I know.

    I have watched the show "Criminal Minds" -- most of the episodes several times. This is just an example. There's some serial killer on the loose and he's hacking up people and so on. But they cannot swear on the show, nor say nothing worse than 'damn' or maybe 'bee-itch'. There's no drinking alcohol, because that obviously means one is a mess. No smoking. But hacked up bodies is fine. And the display of the deepest depravity is more acceptable than a pair of lovely adult woman breasts. Man, are we ever confused. Of course, the Hustler magazine guy pointed this out long ago. Larry Flynt. Yeah, give him a read if ya have the time. He kills George Bush too, and so he should. He shoots straight. But he was right.

    So, when did all this all become the norm? We've brought confusion upon ourselves. A headless body in a ditch is normal, but having a drink and a smoke is wrong, or saying the f word (I know we cannot curse here) is wrong, as is sex, almost always the intimate display of lovely feeling a man and woman have?

    I give up. People are insane.
    I do believe there are cultural inconsistencies and a pretense of morality. And culture is really relative, so in Africa what may be ok, isn't in the US.

    But I do think this has always been the case. TV shows in the 60s or films in the 40s didn't portray the world around them. Like the Brady Bunch, the first to show a couple in bed together. That's fake.

    I think the perspective of Hollywood and mass media have way more sway than people let on. It's like Scrooged, who screwed up his memories with TV shows. I think that type of persuasion shows how warped, even to a global level, mass media is now.

    And so yeah. Watch some reality show. Who the F are those people? Where do they come from, where are they grown?

  10. #10
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    I didn't want to get to back to this thread. I think I was embarrassed by my drunken rambling, and a bit paranoid. That happens as silly as it sounds.

    Well I'm from Canada, the east coast. Not much different than most of the USA I guess, we are infused with the culture just from TV, movies and music anyway, but there may be a bit of Europe there too. Anyway, I think Americans are really uptight about sexuality. Canadians too. A big fear of it, an idealization too. I think that may be one reason violence is easier to accept on the screen.

    These are just examples. They don't run to the heart of the matter at all. I'm not sure what that is. The fake morality has to exist to some extent. The teacher gets angry at the student for cheating, knowing full well he did the same thing years ago, or is even hungover today. There's hardly a chance for any of us not to be hypocrites sometimes.

    Anyway, it is trivial in some ways. Maybe meaningful in others. I can't really make sense of it. The idea is over my head right now.
    Last edited by jajdude; 06-16-2012 at 03:37 AM.

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