Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id AAA03633 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 2 Jun 2001 00:43:40 +0100 X-Originating-IP: [209.240.220.143] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: The Culture War Against Kids Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2001 19:39:36 -0400 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F174VbYq5IyQSAkyAp100009602@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 01 Jun 2001 23:39:37.0246 (UTC) FILETIME=[1E964BE0:01C0EAF4] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: Chris Taylor <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: The Culture War Against Kids
>Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2001 15:35:26 +0100
>
> > If i read it right it says that smoking goes up in teen-age groups if
> > advertisement goes down. Why would that be? Would be a good
> > memetic issue to study,
>
>If fitness were inversely proportional to representation in ads, it
>could be because the most important aspect of anything for most kids is
>whether it can be said to be conforming to a norm (bad).
>
>If drugs were the norm, straight kids would be the rebels...
>
>
What if rebellion were a norm? It is the paradox of non-conformity that
non-conformists are conforming to a different set of norms. I recall seeing
lots of "Question Authority" bumper stickers back in the early 90's. There
were also those types who wore Doc Marten boots and listened to industrial
music because they ain't like everyone else, except that everyone else was
also wearing said boots and listening to said music and possibly dying their
hair the same color(s).
Non-conformity to the norm of meat-eating and animal exploitation results in
a new norm of bunny hugging, replete with PETA activist mores and vegan
diets.
I don't know if watching "Grease" in my youth has biased my view of the
50's. Maybe "Happy Days" did its fair share too, but I think of the leather
jackets of Fonzie and all them being "cool". Yet in bucking the norm of the
"squares" these "rebels without a clue" fell onto the stereotypical leather
jacket, slick hair and denim I tend to associate with the 50's.
I don't remember where I was going with this tangent. Oh well.
Maybe seeing smoking ads legitimizes smoking and the cool thing to do would
be buck the trend and not smoke when inundated with smoking ads. Maybe all
the flack about smoking in the recent past (the whole Joe Camel hating media
sterilization movement) could result in the unintended increase in smoking
because its bucking the "politically correct" establishment. Maybe a simple
association between smoking and advertisement (eaither positive or negative)
cannot be fathomed from the complex abyss of reality.
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