GM, 8/28

GM, August 28

ENG 335A—Critical Approaches to Postmodern Culture just may be the answer to what I’ve been looking for; a new way in which to S’PLAIN what’s happening in our world today, or, at least in my world—more particularly—how and why we/I look at and accept the way things are today.
As a culture, or, a micro culture, take where I live for example, very close to the Magic Kingdom, how does one critically explain a culture where you walk down a newly constructed, beautifully landscaped and very expensive sidewalk which has been built along side a newly widened six-lane and extremely expensive boulevard which leads to the entrance of the Magic Kingdom, and, as you walk along this sidewalk you discover that all of the newly installed benches, alongside the newly constructed sidewalk, alongside the newly widened six-lane boulevard, leading you to the entrance of the Magic Kingdom, are all occupied by sleeping or passed out crack heads, panhandlers, prostitutes, vagrants, and bums.
Then, as you continue your walk, now leaving the sidewalk, you walk past motels and hotels, most of which are boarded up, but the few which remain open now rent cheaply by the week and, as you walk farther past the seedy and worn out strip smalls, you take note that all the shops are either tattoo parlors, pawn shops, check cashing shops, bail bondsmen, day labor places, or the infamous Amscots. But, and this is where ENG 335A—Critical Approaches to Postmodern Culture hopefully will come into play for the observer in this micro culture—all seems normal somehow.
Then, as you continue your walk, just a very short distance off the newly constructed sidewalk, alongside the newly widened six-lane boulevard, but still in view of the passed out crack heads, panhandlers, prostitutes, vagrants, and bums you pass palatial vacation homes, all with meticulously well kept lawns and screened and heated swimming pools. Continuing your walk, back up on the newly constructed sidewalk, you stop for dinner in a small, “mom and pop” café located at the end of one of those seedy and worn out strip malls. All is normal though, as you make your way through the parking lot to the café entrance, navigating all the while through a sea of crack heads, panhandlers, prostitutes, vagrants, and bums before dinner.
I want to discuss what I see: that, how as a culture, we’ve somehow developed as such to the point where, at least to me, these scenes are acceptable to us.