Home
In this issue
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Nov. 24, 2006 / 3 Kislev 5767

Not my world

By Greg Crosby


Printer Friendly Version
Email this article

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I don't get it, folks. I mean I don't get ANYTHING. I am so out of touch I sometimes feel as though I am living on another planet. And it is much more than just not having anything in common with modern culture, it's way beyond that. I don't understand any of today's culture and I don't understand how anyone COULD understand or participate in any of it.


What I'm talking about is different and much more complicated than simply blaming it on some sort of "generation gap." This is not a case of "I don't like the crumby music that the kids are listening to" complaint. Yeah, it just so happens that I don't like Hip-hop and I can't understand the appeal of Gangsta-rap, but it goes deeper than that. There now exists an entire sea change in pop culture, morality, civility, intelligence, and American society in general that I feel totally alienated from. In short, this ain't the place I grew up in anymore.


Where to begin? You might pick almost any aspect of modern society to start the list. Take the big news today, for example — thousands and thousands of people lining up in front of stores, (many camping out for days) to buy the new Playstation 3. I don't even know from Playstation 1 or Playstation 2. I do know it's some kind of entertainment/video game thing, but that's the extent of my knowledge on the subject.


Okay, so grown people camping out for days to buy a new video entertainment system is one thing but that isn't the end of the story. According to the news reports today, these people started getting a bit rambunctious. How rambunctious? Fights broke out, people were robbed and at least one person so far has been shot.


In Connecticut two armed men attempted to rob a line of people who were waiting for the new game to go on sale and shot a man who refused to give them his money. At another location in the same state, a shopper was beaten and robbed of his new Playstation 3 just after he purchased it. Two people were arrested in Fresno, California after a crowd trampled people in the parking lot. In Allentown, Pennsylvania a teenager was robbed by a man who tapped on his car window brandishing a handgun.


All over the country people were shoved, pushed to the ground and trampled in stores trying to buy these things. This is a video game system, folks — basically it's a toy. We're not talking starving people in bread lines, here. Do I understand this level of need for a toy? I don't have a clue. Do you? And I really like toys. When I was a kid Hula Hoops were the really hot toy. I grant you they weren't electronic gizmos, (they were about as low-tech as you can get) but I don't recall people shooting each other over them.


Even though, thanks to what must have been a tremendous public outcry, Fox pulled the plug on the O.J. Simpson two-part interview, the bad taste of it all still remains. What kind of society are we living in where a major book company (HarperCollins) and television network would unashamedly promote a psychopathic murderer like O.J. Simpson with a book and TV show entitled "If I Did It" for the sole purpose of boosting ratings and making money? The vulgarity and repulsiveness of this seems to be totally lost on the executives who originally green-lighted this project. This level of tastelessness would never even have been considered a generation ago.


I don't get the clothes that most people are wearing today. Why would a woman want to wear garments that accentuate her fat stomach? Why would a mature man want to look like a five-year old boy? I never got the baseball hat thing and now it has been a staple in wearing apparel with adults for more than twenty-five years. You look at old photos in books and magazines, you watch classic movies, and people are dressed so well. Why don't people want to look nice anymore? They purposely dress down and I suppose the idea is to look as dirty and unkempt as they can. Why do middle class upwardly mobile folks want to look like prison convicts, gang members, and the homeless? I just don't get it.


My wife and almost every woman she knows complain that there is nowhere to buy real clothes anymore. Sweaters and other tops are cut for teenagers, narrow and short with gorilla sleeve lengths. Normal skirts and dresses can't be found. You walk through any large shopping mall and you see store after store and floor after floor of female clothing and it's all the same. All geared to one type of young girl. And jeans, jeans, jeans, jeans …. When will the jeans craze be over? I want femininity to come back. Will it ever, I wonder?


And when will men finally decide to pick up their pants? Is there anybody else on earth besides me who is sick and tired of seeing all these fat bellies hanging over the pants? Even the way men's dress suits are cut today it allows for the low, hip-hugging, below-the-stomach look. Sorry guys, but when you wear a suit and your fat stomach hangs over your belt you just might as well be wearing jeans or cargo shorts.


There is so much else in society I don't get, but it will have to wait for another time. The one good thing in being a critic of modern day cultural decline — you never ever run out of material.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here.

Greg Crosby Archives

© 2006, Greg Crosby

Insight (Our Columnists)

 Arnold Ahlert
 Mitch Albom
 Michael Barone
  Dave Barry
 Tony Blankley
 Andy Borowitz
 David Broder
 Stratfor Briefing
 Mona Charen
 Linda Chavez
 Ann Coulter
 Greg Crosby
 Larry Elder
 Suzanne Fields
 John Fund
 Frank J. Gaffney
 Lloyd Garver
 Jonah Goldberg
 Julia Gorin
 Jonathan Gurwitz
 Paul Greenberg
 Lewis Grossberger
 Victor Davis Hanson
 Betsy Hart
 Nat Hentoff
 David Horowitz
 Laura Ingraham
 Cheri Jacobus
Jeff Jacoby
 Paul Johnson
 Jack Kelly
 Ed Koch
 Ch. Krauthammer
 Michael Ledeen
 John Leo
 David Limbaugh
 Kathryn Lopez
 Rich Lowry
 Michelle Malkin
 Jackie Mason
 Dick Morris
 Bill O'Reilly
 Jim Mullen
 Clarence Page
 Kathleen Parker
 Dennis Prager
 Wesley Pruden
 Tom Purcell
 Jonathan Rauch
 Celia Rivenbark
 Robert Robb
 Cokie & Steve Roberts
 Pat Sajak
 Debra J. Saunders
 Culture Shlock
 Roger Simon
 Michael Smerconish
 Thomas Sowell
 Mark Steyn
 John Stossel
 Cal Thomas
 Bob Tyrrell
 Diana West
 Dave Weinbaum
 George Will
 Walter Williams
 Byron York
 Mort Zuckerman

'Toons
 Robert Arial
 Chuck Asay
 Baloo
 Chip Bok
 Dry Bones
  Lisa Benson
 John Branch
 Gary Brookins
 John Cole
 J. D. Crowe
 John Deering
 Brian Duffy
 Everything's Relative
 Mallard Fillmore
 Jake Fuller
 Bob Gorrel
 Joe Heller
 David Hitch
 Jerry Holber
 Steve Kelley
 Jeff Koterba
 Dick Locher
 Chan Lowe
 Ranan R. Lurie
 Jimmy Margulies
 Rick McKee
 Michael Ramirez
 Kevin Siers
 Jeff Stahler
 Ed Stein
 Danna Summers
 John Trever
 Gary Varvel
 Kirk Walters

Lifestyles
 How 2
 Lori Borgman
 The Savvy Consumer
 Elder matters
 Fixit
 Dr. Peter Gott
 GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
 Richard Lederer
 Tech Maven
 Every Monday Matters
 Nutrition Myths
 Bookmark These
 Bruce Williams
 How Stuff Works