Those of us under the age of 25 (like me) have a very strange sort of pop culture with which to deal. Our parents or older friends who came of age in the 60s and 70s had music that at least was melodic and made some sort of sense, despite the nefarious messages often present. What we have today, however…what even is it? What messages are being sent to impressionable teenagers, and what effects is this having on our culture?
I enjoy watching Matt Walsh’s show on YouTube, and I find myself adopting his cynicism when viewing modern culture. It’s hard to be sympathetic when mentally ill people use media to project their diseases on everybody else and demand validation. Of course, every human being has dignity, and we attack a person’s ideas without attacking the person him or herself, but how much longer can we as a society continue with the mass insanity so prevalent? I do not have any social media, so my exposure is what I see through YouTube compilations. I can tell you that the TikTok servers must be in an insane asylum worse than Arkham. Many of these people need help, not a mass communication platform.
It is a certain sign of progress that people have the unique ability to have instant mass communication. These modes of communication are morally neutral; morality depends on how they are used. For example, an apologist can use TikTok or Instagram (Facebook/Meta is old technology, apparently) to create a video defending the truth of the Eucharist. That is a moral use of technology. On the other hand, a mentally ill man can make a TikTok explaining how he really is a woman, and verbally attack those who do not validate his insanity. That is an immoral use of technology. On a side note, if that man is a school teacher or has some other influence on children, and uses that position to push his insanity on them, not only is he mentally ill but he’s also a groomer, a predator, a child abuser, and a host of other jailable things.
Pop music has gone from the melodic vocals of Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson (if only they had 100% moral messages in their songs) to whatever it is we have now. I’m not sure they are using any real instruments these days, only what they can program on a computer. That’s not music, okay folks? That is laziness being presented as cool and hip and a way to make a lot of money. No one seems to want to learn a real instrument and become a better and more cultured person through the experience. Also, I’m not a tech expert, but there seems to be a huge difference between the “official” or album versions of songs and the acoustic sessions some artists attempt. I’ve heard of auto-tune, but no self-respecting artist would stoop to those levels, right?
The human person is under attack not only in terms of ideology but also in the sexualization of the body. Oddly, or not so oddly, women always suffer the worst from any trend of sexualization. It is mostly the female form that is objectified way more than the male, to the detriment and undermining of female dignity. Female pop stars do not need to be half-naked in their music videos or at concerts. What happens is they feel need the need to degrade themselves because men have developed, for many reasons, a very sexualized and objectified view of women. This creates an environment where women feel that they need to follow along with men’s perverted desires to be famous or feel wanted. The opposite is actually true. As I wrote in my article entitled What Your Beloved Ought to Have, the modest woman will attract the kind of man who loves her for who she is, not how much of her she shows. Men need to stop the demand for such depictions of women and restore feminine dignity…and their own.
There is also a lack of serious thought in today’s culture. Except in the fields of medicine, technology, automotive, and other easily recognizable areas, there is no depth to many of the schools of thought. For example, New Atheism is more of a pop culture movement than a serious threat to classic Christian theism, and it is mostly perpetrated by non-philosophers! Christopher Hitchens was a journalist, and Richard Dawkins’ academic background is in biology, not generally considered qualifications to try to debunk Aristotle, Aquinas, William Paley, and William Lane Craig, just to name a few. The few actual philosophers that are part of this new movement have to depart from their own academic training to hold their positions. Similarly, abortion advocates, with few exceptions, rely on the same tired arguments and faulty analogies that were debunked as soon as they appeared.
News broadcasters will abandon everything, even observable, demonstrable facts, to stick to their agenda. They do not seek to pursue the truth and present it. Rather, they construct a worldview or alternate reality and attempt to find fake “facts” to fit it. This is a problem on both sides, and while it is more easily discernible on the left (e.g., Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables”), the right has its own share of alienating “journalists” (e.g., the rhetoric of Church Militant). For example, on 13 May, Church Militant published an article by Archbishop Vigano on the Supreme Court draft leak. Rather than just talking about abortion from a Catholic persepctive, he wanders off into confusing commentary on the “pseudo-pandemic”, “Russiagate”, Hunter Biden, inflation, and the Russia-Ukraine war. The archbishop is not a political commentator, but rather a member of the hierarchy of the church. He should remember that. Why he has a platform ready to publish anything he says is disturbing. I have watched Taylor Marshall’s livestreams before, and people in the chat seem very fanatical about Vigano, to the point where many are calling him the true pope. I do not know if these people are serious, jesting, or some combination thereof. But the sheer volume of these comments is disturbing.
This is only a small critique of modern society and pop culture. Hoping for a perfect world is pointless, as man is fallen and cannot achieve perfection on earth. What is needed is the truth, spoken with clarity and gentleness but without sugarcoating. Here I’m thinking of Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson in politics, Trent Horn and William Lane Craig in apologetics, and Matt Fradd and Cameron Bertuzzi in podcasting/theological discussions. Logic and reason, if used rightly, will point to the truth. Combined with faith, it leads to Catholicism. That is the mission of every Catholic: to witness the truth. Remember that and live it!
God love you!