Editorial: Is America Craving Low Brow Culture?

ok, so...something less emotive. i'm trying something new, some of my more topical editorial writing to live on the blog. hope the few ghosts out there reading this enjoy...


While trapped at an American airport reading the Economist, I am beginning to ponder :

Is America craving Low Brow Culture?

In the article “A Question of Character” from 11-17 Dec’s Economist magazine, the author reflects on sociologist Geoffrey Gorer’s assertions that parenting needs content, contact and “tough love”. As Britain has attempted to narrow the poverty and social mobility gap in recent decades, programs like “Sure Smart” for under-fives as an example, have not improved social mobility. Frank Field, a Labour MP noted that “We are the first generation in human history that has not compelled fathers to support their children, usually by living with the other.” In a way, I agree, but I think there is more at play here.

Not only are parents not supporting their children, these parents are spending more time seeking approval from their children in relation to car and gaming system purchases, social networking and ambiguous behaviors that break all “age-appropriate” bounds. Parents are empowering their children to choose, to indulge, to be amateurs in their own right, and are thus empowering themselves to follow suit. It seems that in the last decade, the so-called civilized world is craving and demanding low-brow lives.

American retail giant Wal-Mart opened a high-end concept store in Plano, TX in an attempt to break from their discount roots and capture a more up-market customer. While some wine and niche food items spiked sales, Wal-Mart’s attempts at higher-end clothing and other merchandise were, as WalmartWatch’s “Wal-Mart in Crisis” report puts it, “poorly executed” and were not embraced by existing or new consumers.

Expenditure habits seems to reflect a move beyond mere “casual” living. Within fashion we have seen the rise of the Juicy Couture sweatsuit, now memorialized at the V&A museum, and the evolution of comfort-conscious (socially oblivious) Crocs footwear from medical wear to shopping mall wear. The past 15 years have shown tailoring and business attire deteriorate beyond business casual to sloppy jeans and a free polo-neck shirt.More and more, Americans seems to be craving low-brow comfort.

As Americans and their counterparts in other “civilized” nations have lost some of their collective shame and embraced buying things cheaply, demanding cheap prices and not caring whether or not these purchases or experiences last more than a day, we have transferred much of this cocktail of consumption fervor and cultural apathy to other aspects of life. Living a life akin to animated oafs Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin is edging towards social success. Early retirement with no plan or pension, taking a year off from college to feel uninhibited by responsibility, raising children without guidance or restraints, seeking fame without personal enrichment; the list goes on in directions that point to our collective desire to be sub-par.

So where has this low-brow culture come from and where, if it can get off the couch, is it going? It seems that as life has become ever more “real”, our willful suspension of disbelief is deteriorating, no longer promising a happy life where hard work and good intentions can shield one from life’s ills. Life is real. War and debt and death and depression are real. Divorce, spousal-support payments, idiot bosses and gas prices are realities we can no longer escape by planning a better life we can never quite reach. In some ways, the desire for low brow life comes on the heels of this reality check. We have shifted from star-gazers to lawn-trimmers, controlling only what can be controlled in life, lowering our standards to ensure we never taste failure or defeat. Where is this lack of ambition, risk and self-respect headed? I fear, mainly downhill for a while. As the economic slow-down and a still lingering loss of consumer confidence loom, Americans may be embracing low brow life for a few years to come.

Binge drinking, football, Blue Collar comedy, plastic shoes that would flip your poor grandmother in her grave...these are all manifestations of a culture set on lowering its standards to guarantee contentment. The real question is: can this low brow culture be all bad if it truly does bring a new simplicity and sense of happiness to the masses? If ambition fails at the cost of contentment, what will our world, our lives, our friends and colleagues sound and look like in the future? Will we pull ourselves up by out bootstraps, or will we languidly scuff about in our Crocs and yoga-pants? Will cheddar cheese and BluRay become high brow amid the descent into comfort? Only time, and the wear and tear of our sweatsuits will tell...

images from lauren gregg, designworklife and 9gag all via ffffound