The news came in numbers and the numbers were fairly grim, all the grimmer for being unsurprising. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reported this week that more than half of Americans, 55%, think America is on the wrong track, with only 33% saying it is going in the right direction. A stunning 66% say they’re not confident that their children’s lives will be better than their own (27% are).
It is another in a long trail of polls that show a clear if occasionally broken decline in American optimism. The poll was discussed on TV the other day, and everyone said those things everyone says: “People are afraid they’ll lose their jobs or their houses.” “It’s health care. Every uninsured person feels they’re one illness away from bankruptcy.”
All too true. The economy has always had an impact on the general American mood, and the poll offered data to buttress the reader’s assumption that economic concerns are driving pessimism. Fifty-one percent of those interviewed said they disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy, versus 42% approving.
But something tells me this isn’t all about money. It’s possible, and I can’t help but think likely, that the poll is also about other things, and maybe even primarily about other things.
Sure, Americans are worried about long-term debt and endless deficits. We’re worried about taxes and the burden we’re bequeathing to our children, and their children.
But we are concerned about other things, too, and there are often signs in various polls that those things may dwarf economic concerns. Americans are worried about the core and character of the American nation, and about our culture.
It is one thing to grouse that dreadful people who don’t care about us control our economy, but another, and in a way more personal, thing to say that people who don’t care about us control our culture. In 2009 this was perhaps most vividly expressed in the Adam Lambert Problem. More on that in a moment.
America is good at making practical compromises, and one of the compromises we’ve made in the area of arts and entertainment is captured in the words “We don’t care what you do in New York.” That was said to me years ago by a social conservative who was explaining that he and his friends don’t wish to impose their cultural sensibilities on a city that is uninterested in them, and that the city, in turn, shouldn’t impose its cultural sensibilities on them. He was speaking metaphorically; “New York” meant “wherever the cultural left happily lives.”
For years now, without anyone declaring it or even noticing it, we’ve had a compromise on television. Do you want, or will you allow into your home, dramas and comedies that, however good or bad, are graphically violent, highly sexualized, or reflective of cultural messages that you believe may be destructive? Fine, get cable. Pay for it. Buy your premium package, it’s your money, spend it as you like.
But the big broadcast networks are for everyone. They are free, they are available on every television set in the nation, and we watch them with our children. The whole family’s watching. Higher, stricter standards must maintain.
This was behind the resentment at the Adam Lambert incident on ABC in November. The compromise was breached. It was a broadcast network, it was prime time, it was the American Music Awards featuring singers your 11-year-old wants to see, and your 8-year-old. And Mr. Lambert came on and—again, in front of your children, in the living room, in the middle of your peaceful evening—uncorked an act in which he, in the words of various news reports the next day, performed “faux oral sex” featuring “S&M play,” “bondage gear,” “same-sex makeouts” and “walking a man and woman around the stage on a leash.”
People were offended, and they complained. Mr. Lambert seemed surprised and puzzled. With an idiot’s logic that was nonetheless logic, he suggested he was the focus of bigotry: They let women act perverse on TV all the time, so why can’t a gay man do it? Fifteen hundred callers didn’t see it as he did and complained to ABC, which was negligent but in the end responsive: They changed the West Coast feed and apparently kept Mr. Lambert off “Good Morning America.”
Mr. Lambert’s act left viewers feeling not just offended but assaulted. Again, “we don’t care what you do in New York,” but don’t include us in it, don’t bring it into our homes. Our children are here.
I don’t mean to make too much of it. In the great scheme of things a creepy musical act doesn’t matter much. But increasingly people feel at the mercy of the Adam Lamberts, who of course view themselves, when criticized, as victims of prudery and closed-mindedness. America is not prudish or closed-minded, it is exhausted. It cannot be exaggerated, how much Americans feel besieged by the culture of their own country, and to what lengths they have to go to protect their children from it.
It’s things like this, every bit as much as taxes and spending, that leave people feeling jarred and dismayed, and worried about the future of their country.
Truly, 2009 was a bad year for public behavior.
There were this year the party-crashing Salahis and their amoral assumption that their needs—fame and fortune, which are the same as Adam Lambert’s—trump everyone else’s. You want public order and security? We want a reality show. And there was their honest and very modern shock that people were criticizing them. “It’s ruined our lives,” Michaele Salahi told the Today show in a bid for sympathy. She and her husband in turn were reminiscent of the single woman who likes to have babies, and this year had eight, through in vitro fertilization, and apparently expected to win public praise.
All these things—plus Wall Street and Washington and the general sense that most of our great institutions have forgotten their essential mission—add up and produce a fear that the biggest deterioration in America isn’t economic but something else, something more characterological.
I’d like to see a poll on this. Yes or no: Have we become a more vulgar country? Are we coarser than, say, 50 years ago? Do we talk more about sensitivity and treat others less sensitively? Do you think standards of public behavior are rising or falling? Is there something called the American Character, and do you think it has, the past half-century, improved or degenerated? If the latter, what are the implications of this? Do you sense, as you look around you, that each year we have less or more of the glue that holds a great nation together? Is there less courtesy in America now than when you were a child, or more? Bonus question: Is “Excuse me” a request or a command?
So much always roils us in America, and so much always will. But maybe as 2010 begins and the ’00s recede, we should think more about the noneconomic issues that leave us uneasy, and that need our attention. Not everything in America comes down to money. Not everything ever did.
Possibly Related Posts:
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- Adam Lambert: Listen Up Jackass!
- Adam Lambert’s Antics Ruined The AMAs For Other Artists
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I agree with Silvia! America has loads of sex appeal and LOADS of nudity! I mean look at TV there are cuss words we can now say on TV… And Cartoon Network is sowing censered nudity. next thing you know we’re staring at a guys junk or girls body parts. Plus we are probably most likely the most sexual country out there! I’m not blaming Adam for tha sexual things America does. I mean Chritina Agularia (one of my idols) had a heart lit up around her no no square! I choose to blame the generation we’re in today.
Oh please. Really? Have any of you guys turned to MTV lately? Have any of you seen RAP videos? They’ve been around for over a decade. They are much, much worse than anything Adam did, at 11pm or otherwise. Daytime TV is full of half naked people going at it. Give me a break. America is NOT prude. We are letting a very SMALL percentage of Americans call the shots and be prude. As usual. I bet most of the calls were from nowhere republican america, who do not care if a child is born disabled and the insurance won’t cover the supplies to keep him alive or otherwise. BLAH.
Your Adam Lambert resentment is delicious. And hilarious.
No, really, keep it up.
I would have to agree with you, Eva, that holding Adam responsible for the ruination of the country is a little over the top. I would be more inclined to classify his actions as more of a symptom of what is wrong with society rather than the cause.
I would have to disagree with you about Adam’s claims of discrimination. In reality, other artists have paid the price similar to Adam for attempting shocking actions. Some have learned just how far they can go and get away with it. Adam didn’t push the envelope. He crossed the line and ran way over. And then compounded it by pointing his finger at everyone else other than himself and working really hard to position himself as a victim. I think a lot of people were just as offended at his subsequent attempts to label them as homophobes, prudes and poor parents as they were by his performance.
I also don’t think someone who prides himself as being a professional in the entertainment business can relinquish personal accountability for his performance decisions with being “carried away” and that he is “just learning”.
Kristen, I agree with you. It is unfortunate that those type of performances have to elicit certain amounts of sexuality and violence. I was not a fan of Adam’s performance, it was awful. And he deservedly fell flat on his face for it and was (rightfully so) brow beaten during the next couple of weeks for his bad judgment.
Due to the nature of his seven televised performances since then, I’ve moved past the horrific embarrassment of the AMAs. (Though I completely understand those who haven’t, especially if they never cared for him to begin with.)
What I don’t agree with is Adam being singled out among everyone else by this journalist to be held accountable for the ruining of our country’s character and to label the alleged contributing factor of discrimination as “idiotic” logic when there is clear evidence to suggest such a claim as valid.
It is unfortunate also that when a gay man gets “carried away” during a sexual performance the result produces actions that are labeled as obscene, vulgar, and unnatural to the majority of our culture. Should Justin Timberlake have groped and fondled with his female dancers and simulated fellatio with one of them, while I’m sure there would be protests of obscenity, the aftermath would not be this extreme. Adam should have kept that in mind.
MJ, while we clearly disagree on certain issues (I am sure you disagree that Adam’s actions were the result of being “carried away” by overstimulated adrenaline, and that perhaps his actions were lewd enough to deserve this condemnation) I do have to commend you for standing by what you believe. Glamberts are vicious, and I’m sure you take a lot of heat for your stance against him and his fanbase. But you are an excellent debater. And while these blogs do get heated up, I think it’s important that certain conversations are had and it’s brave of you to be the one to instigate them.
If I am not mistaken, the focus of this blog is primarily with people who were contestants on American Idol. Those other people were not.
Personally, I don’t think those type of performances belong on a show like that in the first place. Adam just compounded his offense with a poor performance on top of it. There were no redeeming features to compensate for the lewdness. Bottom line, the whole affair did him no favors.
MJ: “Vulgar images are bad no matter who does them.”
Okay, then why aren’t their names included here? Why aren’t they being accused of destroying the children?
MJ: “The fact that other ABC shows do not discriminate gay kissing invalidates your point.”
Tell that to GLAAD: “We appreciate ABC’s commitment to gay and transgender inclusion in other programming. However, let us be clear that GLAAD remains steadfast in our assertion that Adam Lambert is being subjected to a double standard by ABC as an openly gay performer. We do not support ABC cancelling Adam Lambert’s past and future performances. We urge the community to reach out to ABC and express their concerns that Adam Lambert is being subjected to a double standard.”
MJ: “I don’t remember seeing a naked woman strapped to a table being cut open on the AMAs.”
So you only focus on the things Adam did and conveniently forget what others do? It was the vid they displayed to introduce her performance.
MJ: “The kiss wasn’t censored on either coast and the fact that other ABC shows do not discriminate about gay kissing invalidates your point. It isn’t the gayness about Adam’s act that offended, it was the lewdness. Again. He went too far.”
On The Early Show they showed Britney and Madonna sticking their tongues into each other’s mouths in slow motion. This was followed by a blurred image of Adam’s kiss. On the Barbara Walters Special, Lady Gaga was likewise shown sticking her tongue down another girl’s throat, which was followed by yet anothe blurred image of Adam’s kiss. Just saying, if you’re going to make this argument that there has been no discrimination whatsoever in this whole controversy then you should keep such things in mind. Unless of course, you didn’t see them or don’t think they’re important. Then they never happned right?
“Momma always said two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Yep, just means one wrong is normal and expected (all the other sexuality and violence shown on the show) and the other wrong is this journalist’s scapegoat for the ruining of our country’s character.
I used to watch Desperate Housewives on ABC years ago. Didn’t they used to show gay men kissing? I could be wrong, but I could’ve sworn they did at least once.
I’m not buying the whole homophobia argument. I hate when Glamberts throw that word around when anyone dares to not kiss the ass of their Glittery Rock God. I don’t give a rat’s ass if someone insults some karaoke singer that I happen to like, but I take it personally when someone accuses me of being homophobic, especially when I always vote against propositions that ban gay marriage and have never treated a homosexual as a second class citizen.
Eva – I agree with you that those other performers were completely out of line in their acts too. The thing with them though is the fact that THAT is what people of expect of them because they’ve always been that way. It’s not right, but it’s the truth. (Plus, most of them don’t have any talent besides their vile acts.)
I still believe that much of what caused the uproar about Adam was the fact that during rehearsal he did one thing and then took it to a completely different level when it was live.
As it was mentioned long ago, ABC knew what all the performers were planning on doing because they were seen during rehearsals. If the acts were approved, then that is one thing (and not necessarily something I agree with) but then when live, Adam did some things that weren’t seen in rehearsal and the powers that be at the network had every right to be pissed off.
They knew he was a gay man when he was in rehearsal and had no problem with some portions of his act, so the homophobia doesn’t work there. If he had stuck to what he rehearsed, maybe it wouldn’t have been such a big thing. Maybe then the topic would have been focused on the vocals because they were horrible. But Adam did not do what he rehearsed and then said it was ’spur of the moment’. I don’t think that anyone believed that, including the network.
Much of the problem with Adam since then has been his cavalier and arrogant attitude about the whole thing. He has blamed everyone else for what HE did. Adam being a gay man, has nothing to do with any of this. If it did, the network could have not had him on to begin with.
Momma always said two wrongs don’t make a right.
I couldn’t hear what Eminem sang because they bleeped out almost his entire song, I didn’t see Rihanna.
What I did see was AL fingering a girl in her vajayjay. That was disgusting and didn’t have a thing to do with him being homosexual.
Oh no! The gays are going mainstream in our entertainment industry! They’re being as sexual and as MJ puts it “aggressive” as all the other straight performers have been for the past few decades!
Once again MJ, is rape not aggressive? Is strapping a naked woman onto a table and cutting into her stomach not aggressive? I guess while you think fellatio and kissing is an assault, ABC thinks beating up a woman is far from it.
@My Opinion, Adam isn’t your babysitter, neither is rihanna, lady gaga, eminem, or shakira. They are entertainers and they were performing on a TV-14 awards show where the glamorization of sex and violence was at its biggest peak and evident during the various performing acts throughout.
It was vulgar, lewd, and inappropriate for children. But so were some of the other performances.
He is right about another thing, it IS discrimination. When you blur out the pictures of two guys kissing, followed by the uncensored image of two girls kissing, that isn’t right. Isn’t that clearly stating that lesbian sexuality is okay while gay sexuality is indecent and evil? Shouldn’t this writer be concerned about other things then, like the frequent display of homosexuality on Grey’s Anatomy, House, and other shows that air at 7 and 8 o’clock? Does she really have to pin all the sleaze and filth of TV on Adam’s shoulders?
Chris Brown didn’t beat her up on TV in front of the kiddies. Eminem’s rap was bleeped and I don’t remember seeing a naked woman strapped to a table being cut open on the AMAs.
Vulgar images are bad no matter who does them.
The kiss wasn’t censored on either coast and the fact that other ABC shows do not discriminate about gay kissing invalidates your point. It isn’t the gayness about Adam’s act that offended, it was the lewdness. Again. He went too far.
Babs,
You are aware that MJ didn’t write this article, aren’t you? This was written by someone at the New York Times and they used the headline.
It wasn’t made up by this blog owner. MJ also provided the link in the article so you can see the original.
Thanks MJ, so does that mean millions of people saw Eminem singing about rape at 6:55 and Rihanna’s nude body strapped down to a table at 7:55, followed by her breasts being covered by nothing but a bandage across her nipples with guns being posed behind her at 7:57?
Maybe this writer should be concerned about other things as well, like for the morality of those still worshipping a guy who was convicted for beating up a 21 year old girl? The glamorizing of violence?
But I guess she’s right. The glamorizing of sex has not at all threatened the character of this country or the media until a homosexual did it last month.
You don’t get it do you? He went too far. His attitude was aggressive instead of being sexy it was a series of assaults. Not to mention that it was an awful performance vocally topped off by giving the stunned audience the finger. No amount of excuses you make for him will change that.
Babs- that old “what are kids doing up at that time anyway” is getting old. Very old.
I remember as a child that if there was something special on television that I wanted to watch, my parents allowed my brother and me to do that. It wasn’t often, but we were allowed.
One of the big things that I think Adam’s fans (and Adam too since he started the “I’m not a babysitter” crap) seem to overlook is that he came from a television show that families could sit and enjoy together. When some saw Adam on AI, there were probably some kids (and their parents) that voted for him.
So if they saw an advertisement for the AMA’s and they saw that Adam was appearing, they may have asked if they could stay up and watch him. Maybe some of those parents that watched him on AI, and enjoyed him, thought it would be ok for their children (and them) to see him.
Little did they know that the Adam that they saw on AI was absolutely NOTHING like what they saw on the AMA’s. He wasn’t just the guy that came out to sing with the big voice. On the AMA’s, Adam was a SLEAZE and was offending to many. He gave the finger to everyone watching. PLEASE don’t say he was giving the finger to a particular person or group because people watching had no idea of that. They only saw the finger.
Those that may not have been offended by his circus act, possibly became offended when immediately afterwards, he never even tried to apologize for going way too far (under the excuse of being lost in the moment). Instead he played the “discrimination” game, pointed fingers at everyone else but himself for not understanding and then the “I hope people still buy my music” game.
THAT is why some parents may have been offended. There were artists before him that could be considered offending as well, so it’s not all just Adam, BUT, Adam was seen on AI and parents may have allowed their children to watch him. Little did they know that he was going to be even more sleazy and vulgar than the performers before him.
The babysitter stuff is getting old and it seems like it’s just another excuse in a long line of excuses for Adam’s behavior. The guy screwed up big time and it’s nobody’s fault but his.
The Glambert fantards must be luvin’ this!
This “Adam Lambert Problem” is a complete fabrication to get more clicks on your website. Americans have plenty to complain about: unemployment, wall street hogs pulling in millions again, no health care, 10,000 people killed in this country annually by guns, etc. etc. Articles like this just distract readers from their real problems and attempt to scapegoat a marvelous entertainer, and wonderful human being. What are kids doing up watching TV at eleven PM anyway? Stop it already! but I guess you get paid by the # of clicks on your site…
You conveniently forget that millions of people in the Central time zone saw it at 9:55.
Very well said.