A Tremendous Disappointment

Song of the Day: I Feel Better by Gotye

There is no better representation of my current mood.

Here I go, stepping on my soap box. Perhaps I've been building to this post for a while, but today set me off.

So today the Oxford English Dictionary released the official "word of the year" for 2013. That word is "selfie." Selfie, folks. It's usage went up 17,000% over the course of the year. Seventeen. Thousand. That is an increase of 170 times. This word came from the Oxford English Dictionary - an official, professional organization from Britain! When I heard this on the news I was mystified - I even thought "is selfie a word?" Then I thought "should this be considered newsworthy?"

My answer was, and is, a resounding yes.

If nothing else is a statement of the infantile, shallow, narcissistic, self-involved state our society is currently in, then this should serve as a very sad wake-up call. I would have preferred the word "twerk" to be the word of the year - that is how much I hate the current choice. I would much rather a real word be a word of the year, but one can only hope so much.

How have we become so important to ourselves that we have to waste our time snapping duck-lipped pictures and labeling them "#selfie?" Why is it necessary to broadcast to the world "look, I snapped a picture of myself," when you can just take the darn picture and move on? I don't even like taking pictures of myself, unless a friend, family member, or my girlfriend is in it. I feel weird doing it. I heard that word on the radio today and I thought about how much we, as a society, need to wake up and look beyond the superficial to what's going on around us. We need to see that there are more important things going on in this world than ourselves. We need to come out of the fog.

Unfortunately, it's not just the "word of the year" that is showing us how off the path we are. It is exemplified every day in the movies and tv shows that we watch. It is in the music (admittedly, I'm a little bit of a music snob) that we listen to day in and day out. When the only messages that our "music" is trying to send us are "get drunk, do horrible drugs, abuse and mistreat one another, have sex with total strangers, get those strangers drunk in order to get them to want sex with you (which, by the way, amounts to rape in a court of law), rape people (listen closely to Blurred Lines, I mean really pay attention to the lyrics), yolo (I cannot emphasize how much I think that acronym has corroded society)" and other such things, it becomes clear to me that there is something deeply, and horribly wrong.

Listen to the band Chicago's first album, Transit Authority. None of the music was about the above. Some of it was about nothing at all (Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?) and that was okay, because it was still musically interesting and was a display of the band's musical talent. Most of the songs on that album were about a cause. Things in the world mattered to musicians - even our most famous celebrated musicians - and those things mattered enough to make statements about. Mind you, it was also '68 and Vietnam was going on. However, if people think for a second that there are no causes to discuss in music, poetry or art in general right now, then I challenge people to look - and I mean really look - at the state of the world and all of the messes that have unfolded. Messes that we have gotten tangled in, for better or for worse. There are plenty of things to talk about. Sex, drugs, and mindless partying are not causes. They are distractions from our obligations as humans in a global society.

And it is time for us to stop distracting ourselves.

In the music front, I see hope though. I listen to 102.7, WEQX. It is, for want of a better phrase, an indie station. On WEQX they play all of the music that has not become "mainstream," and most of this music is not only intricate and interesting to listen to, it is also about causes and it's about making a point about things in society. A lot of the artists on 102.7 have made a lot of the observations that I have. What I am seeing happen more and more often, though, is that this music is gaining exposure on the more mainstream stations. Each day, it seems, there are more indie, message-filled songs on mainstream radio. Sadly, once those songs go mainstream they disappear from WEQX and, also sadly, there's still plenty of the other stuff mixed in, but I see it as a sign. Maybe, just maybe, we as a society are slowly moving away from "yolo, etc" and starting to see that there's more important stuff to attend to.

I have been watching the show Sabrina, the Teenage Witch when not at work, writing, or spending time with Amanda. And I realized how truly great of a show it was. It was not only genuinely entertaining. It represented the fantastic and fabular with aplomb. It was remarkably self-aware, sometimes even poking fun at its own fantasy-based origin. It melded the magical and real world expertly. It had some witty humor that, as a kid, I missed, but as an adult I'm like "WOW, I can't believe they said that!" Of course Sabrina also had Salem, and everyone loves a talking cat.

But hey, yolo right? -_-

But what Sabrina also had, that is deplorably lacking in current television, was a message. Each episode had a lesson to teach, and it taught its lesson well. It taught us, at its core, about the importance of friendship. It also taught about discipline, and how important discipline is to building character and being a decent human being. Episodes taught lessons about how important it is not to take the easy way out, and through that the importance of hard work and receiving what you receive because you deserve it and worked for it. We even learned that there is a huge disparity between what we think we want and what we actually want. Sabrina taught about honor and keeping promises - at the heart of honor is the ability to keep promises.

There are so many episodes about being a good person, and having a sense of generosity. About the importance of selflessness.

I even watched an episode today that dealt specifically with the superficial. Sabrina's hideous but sweet-as-sugar cousin comes to town. Sabrina can't get past how ugly the cousin is - she won't even look at her. The cousin finally confronts her and says that she has a lot to learn and pretty much leaves it with a warning that Sabrina needs to learn her lesson. Sabrina panics, thinking she's going to be turned into a beast, only to find out it wasn't her but her boyfriend Harvey Kinkle who was transformed. As the episode progresses, Harvey gets worse and worse until he's little more than a talking ape. The spell only breaks when Sabrina is able to look past how hideous Harvey is and genuinely love her time with him, as well as reject a hot guy who is really the cousin in disguise (talk about your awkward dates).

The thing is, now people might read this and might think "yeah, yeah, importance of friends, selfless giving, whatever. Heard it a billion times." But it needs to be said a billion more times. And a billion more times after that. Philanthropy - simpler than that, basic human compassion and kindness - is slipping through society's fingers because we are no longer being reminded of it's importance. I dread the day when no one even knows what the Golden Rule is.

Me me me me me me me me me me me

What is instead being inculcated into the minds of my generation and younger is a mindset of "every man/woman for him/herself" or "it's only what's on the surface that matters" which leads to a complete disregard for feelings; an inability to consider how your actions affect your life, or others' lives. It's a social disconnect. It's the "reality television" mindstate. It's the superficially cool looking flashy tv and movies that lack all substance or meaning. I enjoy a good superhero film - don't get me wrong about that. I even sometimes like mindless television. I don't need to constantly be preached at. But at some point, I'm done with the meaningless. Show me a fantasy story that has message to send about being good. Show me a sci-fi that discusses human nature (a la Stranger in a Strange Land). And for crying out loud, STOP doing reboots of reboots of reboots. Stop making sequels. Stop adapting books for the screen. Someone, please, do something original. Burlt that's besides the point.

I beg of everyone to please, look at yourselves. Look at the way you treat yourself and your fellow people. Is making the superficial all-important going to bring you true happiness? Only you can know the answer. For me, that answer is no. Any happiness I might get from the superficial - from the meaningless - is nothing more than a sham. It is a hollow imitation of happiness. I have said this before, and I will continue saying it until the day I die: it is philanthropy that can save us. It is decency and generosity. It is depth and thoughtfulness. These things can bring true happiness and light into our lives.

It's time to stop the narcissism. It's time to abandon the Cult of the Self.

Just because I love Picard.