Ask A Genius 503 – An Arena of Art: Decay of Culture, Pretty Killy, and Kinda Corrupt (5)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/01/13
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Rick Rosner: Right now, what has happened in the last couple of years, since the rise of Trump, is the corruption of American Evangelicals, 10 years ago, 70% of Evangelicals said that politicians’ personal morality mattered.
Now, it is down to 20% of American Evangelicals. 80% saying that somebody as corrupt as Trump is okay as a leader because he is scoring wins for the Evangelical side. To me, this indicates a complete moral surrender and corruption of the Evangelicals, and an erosion of American political standards.
I think we’re at a moment of national political peril. You can circle back to the question of whether the increased decadence and filthiness of entertainment is related or not. The increased scope of American entertainment that has given us Mad Men and Breaking Bad and The Sopranos are considered by many, including me, great art. It rises to that level.
There is a lot of television and entertainment that is great. Is the greatness that includes presenting really jaded views helping undermine our culture and leading to our downfall?
Let me give one more example, a Netflix show called Ozark, where every single character is corrupt and evil to some extent. It is a lazier, lousier, more derivative telling of Breaking Bad, where what looks like a typical American family becomes entirely corrupt.
With money laundering for drug cartels, murder, nobody is good. Even the youngest boy in the family at 14, he becomes a money launderer. It is not art. It is a kind of a default thing; it is one more show where everybody is terrible.
The end. That’s enough.
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