moral rot
this is one of the main spots where america's moral decay began.
shareYou mean by giving Richard Nixon screen time and thereby helping him get elected?
If so, I agree wholeheartedly.
MovieChat Forums > Laugh-In (1967) Discussion > moral rot
Are you serious? How old are you? Do you still think America is supposed to look like Mayberry?
sharedo you think america is supposed to look act think and talk as if we are one giant whorehouse?
share"Do you think america is supposed to look act think and talk as if we are one giant whorehouse?"
1.) Yes. Every so often. That's been part of America's history-- part of HUMAN history-- for a long, long time before Laugh-In ever existed, and don't kid yourself. We're a randy bunch, and that's how there got to be so many billions of us. The human race has always found sex to be a prime source of humor, and it always will-- how could it NOT?
2.) Yes. That's where the advanced (?) stages of corporate capitalism will get you. We're all supposed to prostitute ourselves and our values for the long green. "If it makes money, that justifies it."
3.) BTW, can you give any specific examples of this "whorehouse" activity in Laugh-In that upset you so? Because you should, if you're gonna make a claim like that.
4.) You say "moral rot"? Here we are in 2012, seeing more and more obvious evidence of global warming-- the kinds of wild weather extremes that some writers were warning us about 25 years ago-- and we still choose to go on living pretty much the same car-centered, energy-wasting lifestyles we always have, telling ourselves it's too difficult to change... thus threatening the future of the planet that our children and grandchildren will have to try and live on. Now THAT'S moral rot!
None of those predictions about global warming have come true. The temperature has not risen, hurricanes are less frequent, tornadoes are less frequent, the ice caps are still there and in fact have grown, droughts are no more common, etc, etc. So with reference to the logic in your point 3, if you are going to make such a claim, you should have a full set of predictions that have come true. The predictions made 25 have proven to be absurd.
shareNone of those predictions about global warming have come true. The temperature has not risen, hurricanes are less frequent, tornadoes are less frequent, the ice caps are still there and in fact have grown, droughts are no more common, etc, etc. So with reference to the logic in your point 3, if you are going to make such a claim, you should have a full set of predictions that have come true. The predictions made 25 have proven to be absurd.
Dude (in a non-gender-specific introjection kind of way). I'm not going to engage in a long back-and-forth about climate change on a Laugh-In thread. We shouldn't inflict that on everyone else here... especially since you might be employed by a corporate PR firm that's paying you to deny these things forever and ever. So I'll leave it at this:
"The temperature has not risen, hurricanes are less frequent, tornadoes are less frequent": These are parameters that cannot be judged by what happens in one or two particular years, but by the LONG-TERM trends. As you've surely heard (unless you don't want to-- as if I even needed to add that).
"the ice caps are still there..." No one said they'd vanish INSTANTLY. You KNOW nobody ever said that! You KNOW! "...and in fact have grown": Uh, nope. Not unless you live in FoxWorld. Tour ships can now cruise through areas of the Arctic that always required icebreaker ships until the last few years.
"droughts are no more common": I bet a lot of deniers in Texas and California are starting to have second thoughts about that.
Even Republican politicians are increasingly admitting that this kind of stuff is going on. It's what I was predicting years ago: First they deny it's happening. Then they admit it's happening but claim that nobody knows whether human activity is the main cause. Their next step will be: "Well, yes, it IS happening, and human activity IS largely to blame... but by this point it's too late to stop it, so we might as well just try to ADJUST to it! Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk, right? We should've listened to the warnings, but... Sorry, my bad!" That's what we'll be hearing soon from Republicans in Congress, mark my words.
Meanwhile, no matter what you or I say, the stuff keeps happening, and it won't go away just because you don't like bigger government. It doesn't care about that.
Put it this way: What if the effects of global warming WERE primarily man-made, and their effects DID threaten the very survival of our future generations? Would you ever admit it? I submit that you would not. So, go ahead, keep pretending that NOTHING could EVER come along that would genuinely make more Federal regulations necessary... but it's more and more likely that future generations will suffer through wild, unpredictable climate conditions because WE wanted to go on blissfully ignoring the consequences of our present way of life. Do we have the right to inflict such harm on our descendants just so we can hide from feeling ambivalent now? share
I don't often miss the Like button IMDB, but this time I wish it existed. Never the less - well done for an articulated statement of reality.
And if anyone really wants to believe that the polar ice has grown or that the temperature of the planet isn't shifting dangerously, I suggest you look at these photos of Glacier Bay, from around 1900 to now. See just what those fields of ice from then, look like now.
http://www.weather.com/science/environment/news/glaciers-then-and-now
And also, for those who are apparently unaware how this works - the problem with climate change isn't more hurricanes or more tornadoes. The problem is more severe hurricanes and tornadoes.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/10/31/1117091/how-does-climate-change-make-hurricanes-like-sandy-more-destructive/
The less a man makes declarative statements the less apt he is to look foolish in retrospect.
this is one of the main spots where america's moral decay began.
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Now Mom, I've told you to stay off these message boards!
Right, then, old chap. Large brandies all around, what?
Moral Decay? Rowan and Martin just took what was already out there, put it together and made fun of it. It didn't do anything that wasn't already in existence. I grew up in the 60's and didn't see anything new unless it was John Wayne in a bunny suit or a sailor suit for a little boy holding a flower and reciting a poem.
share"unless it was John Wayne in a bunny suit"
That's the exact moment the moral rot begin!! :-) I knew American was going to hell when I saw John Wayne in a bunny suit.
Oh yeah, Laugh-In definitely marked the beginning of moral decay in God's chosen country of the United States. Before Laugh-In, there was no such thing as premarital sex, out of wedlock children, divorce, adultery, spousal and child abuse, rape, alcoholism or drug addiction, pedophilia, suicide or murder. I mean, has anyone ever heard of any supposed moral impropriety that occurred before 1965? Of course not! The entire planet was just like Leave It to Beaver!
I'd like to take this opportunity to tell all those "Good old days" and "When people had morals" people that no, there was never a time in the history of the planet when the days were good for everyone and every person lived up to your personal moral code. The only difference between now and then is that everything considered socially unacceptable was swept under the rug. It still existed and in the same numbers. Trust.
If your idea of righteous morality and good old days means phony facades and generally accepted discrimination then yeah, the good old days are pretty much gone. You'd be better off just building a Unabomber style dwelling instead of crying about it because society ain't about to go backwards because you still long for segregation or just can't stand the fact that the women folk can vote now.
Lily Tomlin, is that you? :)
Well stated. Next they'll tell themselves there were no interracial couples before Soap or The Jeffersons.
This show is so steeped in moral righteousness it's hilarious for anyone to try and demean it. This show screamed freedom of expression, inclusivity, a lack of political posturing and the view toward a world of laughs not guns. It managed to be full of sexual innuendo and even some nearly sexist behavior from the male co-stars, but most of the time the women got the last laugh in such situations. Even the ditsier characters on the show, demonstrated expansive wit, knowledge and intelligence - most especially Goldie Hawn, Johanna Lumley, and Dick Martin himself. And then it ended with knock knock jokes and bad puns, to make sure no one ever took themselves too seriously.
They also successfully predicted the presidency of Ronald Reagan and the fall of the Berlin Wall - they even got the year right on the latter. This show had its finger on the pulse of the world.
What a boon it would be to our society, if someone could capture the genie in that bottle again.
Hmm... based on the types of movies the OP has discussed in these boards, I 'spect their posts in this thread were meant only as provocations. Eh, whatever.
shareYou mean the movies about psychotic killers - both real and fictional? Not really a what you'd expect from your garden-variety troll.
shareNot sure what you meant by that. But someone who likes to watch movies about psychopathic killers is unlikely to be terribly upset by any kind of "moral rot" that could be detected in 'Laugh-In'. (Unless they share the mindset of the killers in teen slasher movies, in the sense of abhorring sex but loving violence.)
shareOh I disagree entirely. Many of the most "popular" serial killers had grandiose ideas about evil, sin, and what part the media played in what they became. Bundy in particular claimed that his access to pornography caused an addiction which made him into the monster he was. That's likely part of how the whole "slasher kills sinful teenagers" milieu began. Especially since that film trope mostly began in the 80's, which was the height of the Western world's obsession with violent video games and too much sex on TV or in films, supposedly corrupting our youth.
In fact, psychopathic killers obsessed with sin likely explains why so many women who develop Hybristophilia - a sexual attraction to dangerous killers - are also highly religious. They believe that if he understands sin and what he's done, that they can "save" him. Those women haven't bothered to study how psychopathy and narcissism go hand in hand, and don't see that even when he's decrying his sin, he's just creating a his own brand of martyr complex. They don't get that claiming to understand right from wrong is not the same thing as actually understanding it - the mask of sanity is one of the prime social advantages psychopaths have.
"The motives of serial killers generally fall into four categories: 1) visionary (someone who feels compelled by entities such as God or the Devil to murder); 2) mission-oriented (to rid the world of homosexuals or prostitutes or to cure a societal ill); 3) hedonistic (someone who derives pleasure from killing); and 4) power- or control-hungry. The categories overlap considerably." - Stone, Michael H., M.D. 2009. The Anatomy of Evil
And I'd wager more than a few people who are overly fascinated by serial killers, have at least some of their fascination with ridding the world of sin, or blaming the actions of psychotic killers on social acceptance of sinful behavior - when in reality it's primarily a neurological condition, based on the prevalence of head trauma and altered brain wave patterns in psychopaths.
This country started falling apart in the '60s to the point where it's swirling the toilet bowl now, thanks to the left wing extremists.
share