The good ol' days...

...when people were intelligent.








I didn't exaggerate. IQ is not a good way to measure intelligence, so before you start shouting the Flynn effect at me, I shall elaborate.




Contemporary vs Antiquitous




Music has taken a huge step backwards in the past couple decades. Where our songs used to be about religion, philosophy, love, hate, fear, joy...they're still about those. Just less connected. The lyrics are dumbed down like you wouldn't believe. But do people notice? Not much. Our brains are just paying attention to whether or not the words and music sound good together.
For example, here's the alleged number 1 song of 2014 - Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off":




I stay up too late
Got nothing in my brain
That's what people say
That's what people say
I go on too many dates
But I can't make them stay
At least that's what people say
That's what people say
But I keep cruising
Can't stop, won't stop moving
It's like I got this music
In my mind, saying it's gonna be alright
Cause the players gonna play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate
Baby I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off
Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break
And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake
Baby I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off, Shake it off

I never miss a beat
I'm lighting up my feet
And that's what they don't see
That's what they don't see
I'm dancing on my own
I make the moves as I go
And that's what they don't know
That's what they don't know
But I keep cruising
Can't stop, won't stop grooving
It's like I got this music
In my mind, saying it's gonna be alright
Cause the players gonna play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate
Baby I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off
Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break
And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake
Baby I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off, Shake it off



Hey, hey, hey
Just think while you been getting down and out about the liars
And the dirty dirty cheats of the world
You could have been getting down to this sick beat




Yeah, Taylor. That was a pretty sick beat, and I mean sick as it means in Standard English - that is, terrible, diseased, and awful.
You know what was second on the top list? Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda". I took a hit for you guys and actually glanced at the lyrics.
DO NOT EVER LOOK UP THAT SONG. IF YOU VALUE YOUR PURITY.








Movies. Stupid.
It's not even funny, guys. The amount of films coming out that have the same formula, the same disregard for quality, is unbelievable. I'm not saying there aren't any good ones. I'm saying the bad is far out-counting the good. The movies don't care if you have an IQ of over 20. They're presupposing most of the people watching are just there to escape reality and get a thrill - and you know what? Good for them. They're doing just fine. Because it's working.








Books. Cue the three-tone fail track.
Most of the plots we have on paper aren't half bad. In fact, a lot of them are pretty good. I find most of my solace in the pages of well-written books.
Unfortunately, the material is plummeting in quality. I walk through the Young Adult section at a library, and you know what I see? Sex. Horror. Sex. Godlessness. Sex. I could name a ton of popular books that fail dramatically in these areas.








News.
Do I need to go into this one? The latest shooting. The newest disaster. Death, destruction, disease, corruption, lies, yaaaaaaay. Oh yeah, and Miss America changed her hairstyle. This is world-changing news, peeps.








But in the end, there's one factor that causes all of this, and that's people. I rant at what trash media is producing, but really, it's the people behind the media who are the problems. People lie, cheat, steal, are immoral, profane, shallow. Am I better? But for the grace of God, I would be all of those things too. And I still fight all of it.




Guys, we need a new disease. We need some actual zombie outbreak. I mean, people are almost already practically zombies, but there's laws against killing them. What is this world coming to?