Who We Are--A Culture of Cruelty: I urge you if you read nothing else to read this article (link below) entitled

"America's Culture of Cruelty"

Monday 24 January 2011

by: Henry A. Giroux, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed



This is one of the best, most insightful articles about the current sad state of American culture, discourse, and incivility. It is, indeed, profound journalism and, in my opinion, eminently worthwhile and, ultimately, to my chagrin and what should be the chagrin of all of us, represents the declining loftiness of American life.

I had viewed last week a CNBC documentary on the pornography industry in America. I thought that it represented an anything goes philosophy which has gone unchecked in our culture and I tried, rather unsuccessfully at least to my standards, to link it and the anarchistic violence which never ceases but ceases to amaze many of us who see it constantly on their local or national news broadcasts where even our police who try to keep us safe are not safe themselves.

I was going to try to do a better job linking these two issues that I think are related but at least for now, this article expresses my feelings on the vulgarization, crudity, violence and mayhem that goes unchecked in nearly every institutional forum from the Congress, to the unrestrained nod the Supreme Court gave to big money in Citizens United, to our unbridled economic views to movies and their previews of coming attractions, to music and to the polluted airways of violent television and even to our ever increasing violent empire building foreign policy which has killed and subjugated hundreds of thousands relegating the powerless, unseen by us, to an abject life of totalitarian violence, misery and death.

This article says it better than I ever could. Perhaps in the days ahead I will get together my thoughts and add an anarchistic disgusting anything goes sexual behavior which hiding behind First Amendment cover abuses women and even children bringing in deadly consequences while 8 year olds are subjected at the dinner hour to ads for male impotence. No wonder we are a haywire people. Boundaries in every forum have ceased to exist.

For now, though, this article is a MUST read. In part it gives insight into who we sadly have become in America today!


http://www.truth-out.org/henry-a-giroux-americas-culture-cruelty67049