RR: “Killer Culture”

Brian Laufer

Stacy Knapp

English 1A

14 April 2013

RR: “Killer Culture”

This piece starts by critically analyzing at what point a culture is programed into an individual. It is the young child that is most the susceptible to outside influence. Todays seemingly ever changing, often chaotic, highly commercial culture is having much more of a say in who children strive to be, how they choose to live, and what they live for then their parents have influence. Children are so much like parrots: copying everything they perceive. More accurately, they imitate their peers often unconsciously.

       Much of the culture youth are adopting today was bred in the ghetto, or lower class urban areas of America. Gangster styles, music, images, and language have become “cool” or “in”. Often violent, rivetingly disobedient to the laws, gangster culture is seemingly everywhere. I personally enjoy conscious, mainly underground hip-hop, imbued with wisdom and life lessons and do not believe it all will have a negative effect on children. Most middle class parents are in disagreement with their young child’s adoption of this culture, unless they are part of it or do not want to be any part of it.

  Corporations pay close attention to their customers, “literally sending spies to infiltrate young peoples social settings to gather intelligence”. -“Merchants of Cool” Via media children are major targets following trends, and creating them. Infomercials of all kinds have gotten ruthless, vulgar, profane, not sparing a child’s innocence. Younger and younger age groups are being exposed to the culture built by these companies. What they are serving is initially stimulating but ultimately unsatisfying. After all why would they tell you how to be happy by your own means, when they could sell it to you.

     Media is encouraging sexuality at increasingly younger ages. Now there is almost an expectation for teenagers to be sexual. There is now an image for both sexes that basically blows traditional modesty out the door. There is a general narcissistic, arrogant attitude portrayed typically called the “mook”. “The mook is a marketing caricature of the wild, uninhibited, outrageous, and amoral sex manic”. – (Kupelian pg.652) For males having had sex in the teenage years is a big status symbol. There is also an unnatural image for girls, sometimes called the midriff, this figure is terribly self conscious, really just wants to be loved but has forgotten or never learned how to recognize it. “She is consumed by appearances…”. She thoroughly believes: “I am a sexual object, but I am proud of it”. – (Kupelian pg.652) And again, if these girls were insured that they were all beautiful by the companies, who would buy “beauty products”.

    There are then those who are in love with death or so it seems that way. This kind of person is not recognizing the life in the world but especially within themselves. They may have a love of destruction and or self-destruction. “The self mutilator is someone who has found that physical pain can be a cure for emotional pain”. –(Kupelian pg.658) I myself have practiced what I would call self mutilation: Basically I antagonized my cat to a point which she would attack and tear up my wrists to the point of blood shed. I see this now as a form of cutting.