McDonald’s fast food restaurants are known for a lot of things. What they are recognized and rewarded for above all others is the perfection of churning out predictable products that do not vary in any manner from one location to another. Their fries in Chicago taste exactly like their fries in Bangkok. They also contribute to obesity and high blood pressure at the same rate in either place.
You know who in the slammer.
People are, sadly, becoming more and more like products to be replicated and reliably sold to a public that just wants a fix and has zero concern for the effect of consuming too much of one thing. Celebs have always been a certain way, and Hollywood culture – of course – relies on our love of beautiful train wrecks to keep the money-maker shakin’. It does seem, however, that the chalk outlines of these wrecks are starting to look more and more like each other. Our national diet of celebrity obsession is unlikely to change radically, but we are slouching towards an entirely undiversified diet of cookie-cutter yuck that seems especially unhealthy.
If you’re female, it’s most helpful if you would please be under 25 years old, strung out on alcohol and drugs, and have a revolving bedroom door. Plastic surgery or its rumor is also required, and public fights are helpful. The male version of our pablum diet has only one necessary component. Masquerade for a period of time as a nice person, and then rip off the disguise and laugh in our faces as you reveal the extensive list of women you have managed to juggle behind your family’s back for an uncomfortably long time. If juggling isn’t a skill, just assault a woman you meet in a bar or hotel and call it a date.
This is a fairly homogeneous diet of garbage. It is also, like the french fries, apparently all but irresistible and the more we consume the more we want. You want it, you got it say the handlers. I need a Riviera vacation anyway.
Let’s be clear, shall we? None of this is an accident any more. None of it. As a culture we are a driving force on the demand side for an undiversified personality pathology crisis. We really need to start eating something else, or we may all be the next — significantly less beautiful — train wrecks.
I’m suddenly craving a raw vegetable.
Esse Diem 
I think a lot of what is going on now has been going on for a long time. The difference is that the world is vastly more Connected and operating in Real Time, so bad acts seem more common and grotesque because we learn so much so quickly. That said, I believe connectedness does lead to more homogeneous bad behavior because people copy other people and a lot of people are idiots.
I basically agree with what you say. I need to think about what it means more deeply re. society, though, and also about related sub-topics that are worth considering.
Uh, oh. King of the Hill just came on. Gotta go. Hank Hill would be the opposite of your male cad.
Trying to think of a comparison, I came up with of all things PORK RINDS. There has always been left over waste product from pigs. Someone figured out hey, we can SELL the pig skin.
I am with you, it’s not the behavior that is new. But for me it’s the marketing and selling of the behavior. Plus the trend in the “what sells” category is disturbing. OK, now, back to Hank. Yes, a true propane gentleman. Can’t imagine he would ever let Peg down.
I would kill for a bag of pork rinds right now.
The commidification of bad behavior does not reflect well on society. But it seems to me that societies naturally devolve this way. Maybe the price we pay for acceptance of things that I feel should be cool is that such worthless bs gets lumped in and slides by; if that’s the case, I’m willing to pay the price. And watch The Hills…but not Jersey Shore.
I’ve never seen The Hills, saw J Shore once. Heard about the young woman being filmed getting punched in the face and decided on the spot not even the funny parts would make it worth eyeball time. Would you feel differently if The Hills were a reality show and Jersey Shore were fiction….any chance one is more undesirable because it sells “real” dysfunctional lives v. imaginary ones? (Stop hogging the rinds….)