Newstalgia.

The 1954 film White Christmas isn't going to be running on a full-day marathon this year on AMC, but it's definitely on the schedule. I've wondered how this VistaVision classic had become so popular with viewers nowadays, when it had barely been seen on TV for decades. It's not a bad movie and it has some great songs, but why now?

The more I think of it, the less I think it has to do with the film's virtues, and more to do with the reasons for the current adulation of PBS painter Bob Ross (died 26 years ago) and PBS child friend Mr. Rogers (died 18 years ago). And that is: Because our culture today sucks eggs. 

It's no surprise that people my age and older find that the culture sucks. Ever since all the arts got targeted at people under thirty, everyone over thirty is obliged to find that these kids today blah blah blah. But I think that the kids themselves feel that they have terrible culture, and prefer to seek out things from a better one. Things like kindness without irony. Romance without the expectation of instant gratification--or the beartrap of sexist accusation. Calm without a horrific storm. Entertainment, in other words, without a sucker punch.

I've heard people my age say the reason kids are so unhappy is because their music sucks. Well, a lot of the music from my generation sucked too, but most of the singers weren't swearing like Bowery bums or threatening everybody or, worst of all, using AutoTune.

Why do we have such a horrible culture? A few reasons. One is the long-held belief dating at least to Freud that the more awful something is, the more true it must be, since everything we do is meant to conceal the awful truth. Or something like that. Also, there are rewards for shocking the jaded, but that ratchet effect has been going on for a long time. There's not much room left on the jack. And finally, we live with a culture that has the idea that everything--that's the total in totalitarianism--has to support THE MISSION. So every book, movie, TV show, etc. has to have some propaganda in it. At the very least, even for people who are 100% behind THE MISSION, that means all entertainment is injected with a dose of homework. Who wants that after an exhausting day? 

My feeling is that this stuff is going to continue until some bright publisher or producer realizes that there's a strong market for new stuff that satisfies the way these cultural items of the past do. I think the infamous Hallmark movies are doing that now, which is why the fans of those aren't all the people that the intelligentsia expect--trailer-park yahooettes. It's much more widespread than that. 

We need some kind of culture that is fit for common consumption, that is not soaked in propaganda. The products of our current culture are in effect designed to put decent people at one another's throats all the time. How long are we going to support garbage like that?