Those Shocking Bourgeois Values

 

 M2RB:  Queen

 

 

 A young fighter screaming, with no time for doubt
With the pain and anger can't see a way out,
It ain't much I'm asking, I heard him say,
Gotta find me a future move out of my way,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.

 

 

By Glenn Harlan Reynolds

In one traditional form of pornography, from the Victorian “A Man With a Maid” to the more recent “Fifty Shades of Grey,” a young woman is initiated — sometimes uncomfortably — into the mysteries of adult sexuality. In the end she is, at some level at least, grateful for the new horizons that’ve opened up to her.

Well, we still have that. But let’s face it — porn has gotten pretty boring.

The sex lives of many average Americans today would shock Grandma. And the depiction of sex in popular media has reached the numbing-point. A 2012 issue of Cosmo would’ve seemed obscene in most places 50 years ago. To most moderns, it’s just dull.

Nowadays, you can’t really shock with sex. Even gay sex has gone from edgy to ho-hum. No, if you want to make an impression, it takes something really exotic, like . . . traditional middle-class values.

A spin across the cable dial will reveal some examples — the Duggars are exciting because they have lots of children and raise them themselves; Dave Ramsey says to live within your salary.

But for me the strongest case in point is CNBC’s “Princess,” with Jamaican-born financial adviser Gail Vaz-Oxlade.

Each episode revolves around an overindulged young woman in her 20s or early 30s who’s spent herself — and usually her parents, boyfriend and sometimes even siblings — into near-bankruptcy. With friends and family, Vaz-Oxlade stages an intervention, making plain the costs of this behavior, both personal and financial.

Then the profligate subject is put on a strict budget, and forced to cook, clean, take public transit and show respect for the parents, boyfriend, et al. who’ve been supporting her. If she passes all the tests, she gets a check toward paying off her debt.

It’s like bourgeois boot camp; you can tell that many viewers enjoy seeing the pampered “princesses” learning to cook, clean and perform other traditional tasks for themselves.

But this is only news because so many modern young people lack those skills, once taken for granted.

In today’s culture of immediate reward, a work ethic centering on self-discipline and the ability to defer gratification is almost, to use a favorite term of the avant-garde, transgressive. Hmm: With so much of our economy and politics now based on the absence of those characteristics, maybe it really is a bit transgressive.

But those mores just may be making a comeback in these tough times. The fact is, self-discipline and the ability to defer gratification really do help you get ahead, avoid debt and feel more in control of your life.

In boom times, even slackers can do well enough (or borrow enough to seem to) to make those rules seem old-fashioned and unnecessary. But when the bust comes, reality reasserts itself and those trite sayings (“waste not, want not,” “neither a borrower nor a lender be,” etc. — Kipling’s “Gods of the Copybook Headings”) turn out to be not so much trite, as true.

At any rate, we can hope that saving money, avoiding debt and treating friends and family with consideration are now edgy enough to become trendy.

And there’s some signs that they are. On Facebook the other day, I posted a Wall Street Journal story about how much harder the economic situation is for today’s college grads as compared to their parents’ generation. I got this response from a 20-something friend, a female former model but no princess:

“So the economy/government sucks and everyone is miserable, etc., etc. I am sorry. However, I am happier and making/saving more money than ever before. I have a few young friends who are down on their luck and are looking for work. I suggest to them that they get their CDL and drive trucks like me. . .

“My friends say ‘No, that’s too much work.’ I feel like my parents and their parents wouldn’t say that. They would have said, ‘Anything I can do, thanks for the tip.’ . . .

“Sometimes I feel like the young people I meet are lazy, entitled or just give up easily. . . but I have met a few adults like that too, so who knows. When things got bad, I didn’t sit around waiting for things to get better, I made it better for myself.”

Self-reliance — the new edgy lifestyle for the trendsetters among America’s youth? 

We can hope. Now if we can just do something about the politicians . . .

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a law professor at the University of Tennessee; his new book is “The Higher Education Bubble.”



 I Want It All - Queen

Adventure seeker on an empty street,
Just an alley creeper, light on his feet
A young fighter screaming, with no time for doubt
With the pain and anger can't see a way out,
It ain't much I'm asking, I heard him say,
Gotta find me a future move out of my way,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,

Listen all you people, come gather round
I gotta get me a game plan, gotta shake you to the ground
Just give me what I know is mine,
People do you hear me, just give me the sign,
It ain't much I'm asking, if you want the truth
Here's to the future for the dreams of youth,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,

I'm a man with a one track mind,
So much to do in one life time (people do you hear me)
Not a man for compromise and where's and why's and living lies
So I'm living it all, yes I'm living it all,
And I'm giving it all, and I'm giving it all,
It ain't much I'm asking, if you want the truth,
Here's to the future, hear the cry of youth,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,
[etc.]