SNL

I was raised during a period of American history when the morals of our society that had been established for many generations were, for the most part, still understood, accepted and followed. Was it a perfect time? No, absolutely not. There was crime and lawlessness as in every communal gathering of humans but there was a consensus that most of what had made the country great in previous times was still the way to conduct our cultural business. It just made sense.

I first noticed the smirking, sneering and bullying of all things American and moral by a perverse entertainment trade that pandered (and still does) to the more base of human characteristics. It was the main theme of a t.v. show of the time called Saturday Night Live. Truth be told I laughed, too, at a lot of the sewage that spewed out of those weekly…things. My fault, my bad. What was termed entertainment covered the television and movie screens, the most powerful communication venues since the Sermon on the Mount, to create a new world view of “if it feels good do it” and that messaged out: If you ignore my laziness and cowardice this time then I’ll ignore yours later when you do similar (or worse) things. We’ll put it all under the cover that we are righting some kind of previous societal hypocrisy. The worst part of that time, as now, was not only that the product was made available but that it was bought by the viewers.