Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

On "The Innocence of Muslims":

Morning Edition, National Public Radio:

Fawaz Gerges is a Muslim scholar and professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. He says the film…"gathers up all the historical falsities spread about Mohammad for centuries and includes them in one film" — or, actually, a 14 minute trailer.

Gail Collins, New York Times:

The trailer looks as though it was made by a 13-year-old boy with access to a large supply of fake beards.

 Audio soundbite from the trailer: 

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I have not seen such a murderous thug as Muhammad. He kills men, captures women and children, robs the caravans, breaches agreements and treaties. He sells the children as slaves after he and his men have used them.

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

 

Cat Marnell

In proportion as men can command the immediate and vulgar applause of others, they become indifferent to that which is remote and difficult of attainment.

William Hazlitt (1777-1830)

As noted in my post on blogging yesterday, in theory it's possible to strike a reasonable balance on the web between contributing something worthwhile and naked self promotion. I also noted that in the technological society striking a reasonable balance is not a priority. Case in point: the notoriety of the Internet's latest "It" girl, Cat Marnell.

The second of three articles on Marnell in New York magazine called her "the famously drug-addled beauty editor." She gained a substantial following, we're told, covering cosmetics for the web site xoJane.com, where she wrote as much about her addictions as she did about makeup. Her employers asked her to enter rehab. She did, briefly, got bored, resumed her habits, and left xoJane.com. Soon thereafter she landed an agent, a lucrative book deal, and a position as the "narcissism and pills" editor at another web site. Reality television producers are said to be in hot pursuit.

A few quotes convey the range and depth of Marnell's persona:

On the symbiosis between cosmetics and drugs: "I’m bad all of the time, and beauty products are fixing me. Without beauty products, I would have never gotten through my life. I owe everything to them. They’ve afforded me unlimited debauchery." (New York magazine, April 15, 2012)

On leaving xoJane.com: “I'm always on drugs. I couldn’t spend another summer meeting deadlines behind a computer at night when I could be on the rooftop of Le Bain looking for shooting stars and smoking angel dust with my friends and writing a book, which is what I’m doing next.” (New York Post, June 14, 2012)  

 

On why her blog posts became so popular: "I think what people really want to see right now is someone who’s being honest about being a complete mess. I’m really, deeply unhappy all of the time, but I just work it. But I’m also on speed all the time, like I'm on speed right now, so I never shut up. So like, people get to hear about it and I think they like that. It feels like a running narrative."  (New York magazine, June 18, 2012)

On why she was an hour and half late for an interview: “I’m using drugs very heavily this week, O.K.? And it’s screwed up my whole body.” (New York Times, August 8, 2012)

Marnell demonstrates the maxim that nothing succeeds like excess, the coarser the better. It's a formula that's become infinitely more relevant in an age of information overload. On the web, only the loud survive. As mentioned above, Marnell left xoJane.com, but a quick look at the site reveals that she's far from the only writer there who's learned that Outrageous = Attention = Success. A deputy editor named Mandy, for example, offers a piece headlined, "I Can't Stop Hate-Masturbating to Paul Ryan." Here's an excerpt:

I mean maybe the porn-loop in my brain goes like: "Hey Paul Ryan, my name is Mandy Stadtmiller, and I'm going to change you. You are no longer going to be a hate-swilling, personhood-advocating, steal-from-the-poor-give-to-the-rich-propagating, right-wing, complete and total messenger of Satan dickhead lying evil Republican asshole because we are about to have the most penultimate fuckfest in the history of fuckfests."

And maybe he's like, "------."

Because he doesn't say anything at all. Because THAT'S WHEN HE JUST FULL ON FUCKS ME. He lifts my skirt up, moves my panties aside, zips down his trou and fully just goes for it while we're on top of the Lincoln monument and stuff.

In the "news you can use" category there's a column headlined, "Every Month Is Anal Sex Month With These Simple Tips." Its author, Emily, is xoJane.com's managing editor. She's also an anal sex enthusiast. "I love everything about butt sex," she gushes. "I love having it, talking about it, fantasizing about it."

I offer these examples not because I find them shocking but because I find them stupid. Apparently they're intended to convey an attitude of freedom and empowerment. The profile for xoJane.com's namesake, celebrity editor Jane Pratt, says that her motto is "Live and let live." Her "Anti-motto" is "Judge." Her site's mission statement reads as follows:

xoJane.com is where women go when they are being selfish, and where their selfishness is applauded.

Now that's a formula for success.

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."


Photo Credit: New York magazine/Mint&Serf at the Broadway Chapter/Courtesy of Cat Marnell

©Doug Hill, 2012

Annals of Childish Behavior™

The New York Times reports today that gamblers in casinos across the country are taking their frustrations out on slot machines that fail to pay off by punching them, causing serious damage both to the machines and to themselves.

“I lost $300 without a bonus, so yes, I broke the machine,” one gambler told security guards. “And I’d do it again.” He was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Another gambler was arrested for urinating on a machine, the Times said. 

Forty-one people have been arrested for damaging machines at the new Resorts World Casino in Queens, New York, since it opened last October. That's more than twice the number of arrests for assaults on human beings.

According to Marcus Prater, executive director of the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers, most assaults are directed toward non-functional parts of the offending machine, apparently with the intention of hurting but not killing it. 

"The angry gambler wants to express frustration, but they don’t necessarily want to disable the machine that’s going to pay them back for their losses," Prater said. "They still hold out hope that they can win the day."  

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

Annals of Childish Behavior™

A new analysis of floor debates in the U.S. Congress found that the level of discourse in both houses has deteriorated significantly in recent years, thanks in part to the influx of Tea Party Republicans and in part to the influence of media. 

"Congress is changing as an institution, and what you see is more and more members gearing their speeches as sound bites or YouTube clips," said Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, the nonpartisan group that compiled the study. 

"You can [hark] back to a golden age of Congress when members quoted Shakespeare on the floor and really engaged in debate and talked to each other and tried to reason back and forth," Drutman said.

The study found that today members of the House and Senate speak on average with a degree of sophistication equivalent to that of a high school sophomore.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the level of rhetoric practiced by political moderates of both parties was generally at a higher grade level than that of more partisan liberals or conservatives. Tea Party Republicans spoke at the lowest grade level. 

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

Annals of Childish Behavior™

The sophisticated atmosphere of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra turned less civil Thursday night when two men got into an argument about a reserved box seat at Orchestra Hall, officials said.

About 9 p.m., during a performance of Brahms Symphony No. 2, the argument escalated into a fistfight after a man, described as being in his 30s, became enraged and started beating a 67-year-old patron on his head, said Police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez.

                                                   Chicago Tribune, March 10

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

"At the root of the reality distortion field was Jobs's belief that the rules didn't apply to him. He had some evidence for this; in his childhood, he had often been able to bend reality to his desires. Rebelliousness and willfulness were ingrained in his character. He had the sense that he was special, a chosen one, an enlightened one….Even in small everyday practices, such as not putting a license plate on his car and parking it in handicapped spaces, he acted as if he were not subject to the strictures around him."

                                                             Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

In many ways, television is the medium of irresponsibility, which is why the idea of adulthood within television is a contradiction in terms…."Grow up!" as an imperative means "behave and control yourself": understand your limitations and be reasonable and civil accordingly. One does not grow up on television. It is not in television's commercial interests to have one do so, because a free-floating mind is more apt to buy large quantities of La Choy Chinese food. But we are complicit in this as well, having found and tacitly urged on television a strange answer to our wildest dream. The question, how free can you be?, which bestrides the democracy as does no other, is in television rhetorical.

                                             Roger Rosenblatt, "Growing Up on Television," 

                                             Daedalus, Vol. 105, No. 4 (Fall, 1976) 

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

Photo credit: MTV

Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

 

Today the advice column of the web magazine Salon featured a letter from an employee whose boss is "crazy." Here's part of the letter:

She throws herself on the floor when she is unhappy about something — actually on the floor — and whines dramatically. She lashes out at the staff, then cries (tears) and apologizes. She berates people in the office or over the phone while prancing around the workplace like it is performance art. (Oh. I forgot to mention she is a failed dancer/actress.) She glares at the staff and makes backhanded comments about their outfits or their style, even their lunch selections.

She seems perpetually displeased with everything and complains incessantly to everyone about anyone not in the room. It is really exhausting. Sometimes she talks to her cat about us in a silly playful voice, but with an evil, maniacal face. It’s really creepy.

And her friends just placate her. They come into the office regularly to baby her and coddle her in soothing voices, as if her behavior is even remotely appropriate.

Salon's columnist, Cary Tennis, offered a few suggestions but admitted that quitting seemed the best, albeit unsatisfactory, option. Seemingly out of frustration, he mused a bit about the problem of inappropriate behavior in general; note in particular his reference to "effective democratic action": 

It’s really weird how there’ll be this one crazy person and no one person is powerful enough to stop the crazy person from being crazy. You’d think that “sanity” would prevail. But the crazy person has been granted magical powers. No one can touch her. Everyone is afraid of losing their jobs. Everyone is “being pragmatic,” when really, they are being damaged. And a pattern is being set. The group is failing to take effective democratic action. What if you were in a lifeboat? What if she were a terrorist? What if she were abusing children? Where is the dividing line? What is this terrible passivity that settles over people in the presence of the deranged?

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

From a New Yorker magazine profile of Newt Gingrich's wife, Callista, by Ariel Levy:

On the press bus, [Gingrich] told me that Callista is "the grownup" in their relationship. "The woman is always the grownup," he said. "I think no matter what."

I asked Callista, who was sitting next to him, if she agreed. "Most days," she said, and laughed.

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

Over the past decade TV chef Paula Deen has become the Queen of Comfort Cuisine, building an empire on mountains of fried chicken, cream cheese, mayonnaise, and butter cake.

On January 17 she appeared on NBC's Today show to make two announcements: she was diagnosed with diabetes three years ago and she has now signed a contract with a pharmaceutical company to promote its diabetes medication.

On Today she denied that her recipes contributed to her diabetes or that she had any responsibility for the health of her viewers. "I don’t blame myself,” she said.

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

You Can Do Anything! (Annals of Childish Behavior™ continued)

Saturday Night Live addresses technology as an enabler of one of our more annoying cultural manifestations of childish thinking: The idea that you can do anything!

(Warning: This link exposes you to a commercial before playing the sketch.)

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

I can see this Annals of Childish Behavior feature getting quickly out of control. Here's another entry, from today's Daily Mail:

A grandmother was punched in the face and dragged around by her hair - after she asked fellow restaurant goers to stop swearing during her grandson's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. 

The 50-year-old had been attending the child's seventh birthday at the party venue in Dearborn, Michigan when she was attacked yesterday afternoon…

[Witnesses] told Fox 2 that when she asked people sitting nearby not to swear, 'They told her to ''shut the f*** up and turn around'''.

Witnesses then said that a man jumped over the table and began throwing punches and grabbed the woman by the head.

Annals of Childish Behavior™

In a post a few days ago, I quoted José Ortega y Gasset's observation that modern culture had been possessed by "childishness," a condition in which individuals and nations behave like spoiled children who believe they are entitled to everything and obligated to no one. I noted then that this sort of behavior also extended to corporate executives who "skirt safety standards for the sake of profit."

The following is from a January 17 report in the New York Times on the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy:

Cruise passengers are supposed to attend a safety briefing within 24 hours of boarding.

“We have never had any drills,” [passenger Emily] Lau said. “We were asked to go for a safety meeting, and it was nothing but a sales pitch for excursions.”

 A later report from the Times added that the accident had been caused when the Costa Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, tried to show off the $450 million vessel to residents of the island of Giglio, where he struck a reef. The captain then abandoned ship before all its passengers had been evacuated, apparently unaware that fatalities had occurred.

Captain Schettino subsequently explained that his early exit from the foundering liner was due to an accident: he'd slipped on deck and fallen into the water. Transcripts from a telephone conversation between Schettino, floating in a lifeboat, and a coast guard commander revealed that the captain refused to return to the Costa Concordia as the evacuation continued because, he said, it was too dark to see anything. To that the irate coast guard commander replied, “Do you want to go home, Schettino? It’s dark and you want to go home?" An Italian newspaper columnist characterized the captain's explanation as "the cry of a child." 

Photo credit: The Daily Mirror