Quite recently, a rather strange series of events happened, probably held together by a general sense of melancholy that may befall you due to being part of a civilization in decline. This is not my general state of mind. In fact, I tend to fluctuate between detached indifference and hope, and the latter is certainly happening more and more often, considering that the collective left is taking one L after another these days. That being said, I readily acknowledge that popular culture has probably peaked somewhere in the 1980s or 1990s, and I am not saying this because my childhood happened somewhere in this interval. There are a lot of movies, books, or games from that period which I only discovered much later in life and consider to be far superior to basically anything that came out in the last ten to fifteen years or so.
When I do not listen to classical music, I listen to electronic music, which is often heavily inspired by heavy 1980s synthesizers. There is a track I stumbled up again a while ago, the iconic “Crockett’s Theme” from Miami Vice by Jan Hammer:
Miami Vice itself is of course a TV series with an iconic look. It still looks great but the same we will probably not be able to say of a lot of TV shows from the 2010s or 2020s in forty years. Crockett’s Theme is chilling and melancholic. To me, it expresses momentous glory, which your are encouraged to revel in because it will be gone before you realize it.
Imagine Crockett’s Theme playing in your head as you overhear an old couple getting agitated. The woman made some remarks about immigration and the decaying infrastructure around her, talking about how much better everything used to be when she was young. She was probably in her 70s, so she is looking back perhaps 40 to 50 years, contrasting this with the present, where we have millions of foreign-born cultural enrichers, a crumbling society, and an openly hostile elite to deal with. She then said to her presumed husband, “I am glad that all of this will soon be behind me.” It surely is not pleasant to be in your twilight years, only to realize that society is completely disintegrating. Of course, the irony is that those boomers actively supported policies that led to this outcome, but that is another story. However, it is tragic if you are in your 20s, 30s, or 40s and think that life is only getting worse. In many regards, this is absolutely the case. Again, let’s thank those myopic boomers for all the bullshit they saddled us with.
Just today, a friend of mine who is in his 40s sent me a few pictures of a house party he went to back in high school, with a note in which he was reminiscing about the past. This is of course a trap you may want to avoid falling into. However, it is objectively the case that people used to be more laid back, and, of course, women used to be much more attractive. In the pictures he sent me, every single woman was slender. Obviously, they did not all look like supermodels, but if you put any of those women into the present, she would stand out merely by virtue of not being fat.
Related is that people use to be a lot more relaxed. Fifteen, twenty years ago, you could just grab a woman’s ass in order to start your interaction with her. Obviously, this did not apply if you were a total autist and thought that grabbing the ass of random women was fine. However, being sexually aggressive was not at all an issue. Oh, and you obviously could bang women in bathroom stalls, too, if you so desired. In the present day, all of this is a thing of the past. If you are a bit too touchy-feely for anyone in the venue, you may just get kicked out, and as a consequence of raping cultural enrichers, the era of some casual hanky-panky in secluded corners and bathrooms is also over. Furthermore, women nowadays look the worst they have in decades and put up an unbelievably bad attitude. Thus, the average guy is going to struggle a lot harder and will nonetheless only get a fraction of the success millennials, let alone boomers, used to enjoy in the past.
I also thought about entertainment in general. When was the last time you saw a genuinely funny movie? Yeah, thought so. I do not think that the problem is that I am some kind of curmudgeon who has been struck with anhedonia. Far from it. However, how funny can today’s entertainers be if it is impossible to make fun of anything, with the exception of white men? Obviously, we can thank the grievance industry for killing humor. I really hope you enjoy the comedy of Amy Schumer and Sarah Silverman. Jewish women making fun of the goyim is basically the entire spectrum of comedy in the current year. Black guys are also allowed but the low-brow act of people like Chris Rock does not really appeal to me. The most amusing movie I recently watched, by the way, was Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022). It is probably not a coincidence that this is an animated movie as many of the gags would not really be possible in a live-action movie.
If you think that entertainment in the present day sucks, the problem is not you. It really does suck. However, change is coming as the Overton window is slowly shifting. Normally, I need to frequent places like 4chan, KiwiFarms or, to a lesser extent, the Daily Stormer, for entertainment. Let’s see if we will have another great white hope. We certainly do not lack the potential. Until then, there is a lot of great art and entertainment to go through. Don’t worry about the cultural drought we are currently going through, but instead cherish what we have, and look forward to what we may produce in the future.
Aaron,
“Just today, a friend of mine who is in his 40s sent me a few pictures of a house party he went to back in high school, with a note in which he was reminiscing about the past. This is of course a trap you may want to avoid falling into.
1. What do you mean by not falling into the trap? Nostalgia?
“Fifteen, twenty years ago, you could just grab a woman’s ass in order to start your interaction with her.”
2. This gave me a good laugh! I remember grabbing a couple of girls ass back in my high school days this was in the 90s on campus. A lot of guys weren’t bold enough grab a woman’s ass. I never had any complaints from the girls other than spanking them hard.
“Miami Vice itself is of course a TV series …”
3. Not only that but it was also an attraction show at Universal Studios in Hollywood.
1) This could probably have been expressed better. I meant that getting stuck in reminiscing about the past is a trap. Bruce Springsteen wrote a good song about this, Glory Days. My friend is not affected by this, but I have met a few people who seemed stuck in the past. In my case, I make an active effort to keep an eye on popular culture, even though most is crap.
2) According to Boomers, in the 1970s or 1980s, you could just pinch a woman’s ass in public, or slap women’s asses in the office, and it was seen as perfectly appropriate. You should not overdo it, but it was understood that if a woman showed off her ass, she was looking for male attention, in whatever way. Also, back then finding a spouse in the office was not only tolerated but actively encouraged. There were entire job families that only seemed to exist to put young women in front of a lot of well-established men, e.g. receptionists and secretaries. Those were not seen to be actual careers.
3) I was not aware of this. It was fun to watch this clip, but I am not sure it was worth paying a few hundred dollars or however much it was. This was just a cash it. There is also a recording of the Terminator 2 show floating around, which I also wonder who the audience of his is.
Miami Vice eventually got replaced by World World at Universal Studios in Hollywood in 1995.
Absolutely. I will often go “oggh what a hottie”, and then 5 seconds later realize “wait she only stands out because everyone else is fat now. 15 years ago I wouldn’t have even noticed her”