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You really do seem to like to look for disagreements where there are none, don't you?
I'm not sure if people consciously or unconsciously actually model their behavior based upon "peers" they see on television, rather than people they know in real life. I tend to think people in media theory often assume we are stupider than we really are, and other, unrelated but correlated, influences often win out. Nonetheless, the typical family as depicted in the media did have a particular cast during this era, and it seems quite silly to dispute it.
1. No. Nor do I think people cannot think for themselves to figure out what's best, as you do. You have an elitist idea that we're all too dumb for that, and we need some educated urban planner to tell us what we really want.
2. The way suburban families was portrayed on TV in the 50s was a fantasy. The shows, you see, were fiction. They were not documentaries of suburban life, with all problems solved within 20 minutes, plus commercials of laughing mopping pails with Mr. Clean in them. Perhaps you thought they were reality shows, like we have so many of today.
I don't think that Mary Tyler Moore ever cleaned her apartment in Minneapolis--she had numerous dinner parties, though, which seemed to clean themselves...
Wrong TV show; I'm talking about the Dick Van Dyke Show, co-starring Mary Tyler Moore as Laura Petrie. She did indeed clean her house, and had a rambunctious and cheeky six-year-old to chase after to boot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton
You really do seem to like to look for disagreements where there are none, don't you?
Oh, relax. Some of us old farts just wanna have fun.
But ... Anyone who equates a 1950s TV show with reality -- or who thinks there is a "suburban norm" at all -- is going to be corrected. Just sayin'.
Wrong TV show; I'm talking about the Dick Van Dyke Show, co-starring Mary Tyler Moore as Laura Petrie. She did indeed clean her house, and had a rambunctious and cheeky six-year-old to chase after to boot.
Oh, relax. Some of us old farts just wanna have fun.
But ... Anyone who equates a 1950s TV show with reality -- or who thinks there is a "suburban norm" at all -- is going to be corrected. Just sayin'.
I remember the Dick Van Dyke show, especially with Laura sobbing "ROB!" every five minutes, and Dick falling over the couch rest with every opening credit role ( eventually he learned to sidestep it)...just postwar New Rochelle, NY at its finest..
They would have been as unbearable as any other place. If Americans were able to survive in frontier cabins for a century i'm sure they would be able to survive the suburbs.
There are decided benefits to rural areas that urban areas lack, such as nearly unlimited access to outdoor activities. Suburbs share traits of both rural and urban areas, yet they usually lack the benefits of either. This of course is nowhere near a black-and-white issue, but the worst suburbs tend to be very dense subdivisions with extremely limited public transit/pedestrian access/walk-able shopping nearby.
Don't think so. Used to be Bucks County, PA had a lot of that particular subculture. It's like one about the hot teacher who makes teenaged boys very happy -- there's ALWAYS rumors, but sometimes they are indeed true.
Anyone with half a brain would figure that most people don't think living in the suburbs is all that horrific.
That's sort of the point of this discussion. Sprawl, of course, is horrific - on that we can agree. What allows people year after year to continue existing in it is an interesting question. Does TV help to dull the pain as the OP posits?
Maybe of course, in part. But I suspect its more than just TV. It's the whole thing from the granite countertops to the Neo-eclectic mishmash of faux architectural features (why who wouldn't want a modern two story Tuscan cape cod with a mansard roof and Palladian windows) that feed into a kind of delusion that shields people from terror just outside their Cul de sac
That's sort of the point of this discussion. Sprawl, of course, is horrific - on that we can agree. What allows people year after year to continue existing in it is an interesting question. Does TV help to dull the pain as the OP posits?
Maybe of course, in part. But I suspect its more than just TV. It's the whole thing from the granite countertops to the Neo-eclectic mishmash of faux architectural features (why who wouldn't want a modern two story Tuscan cape cod with a mansard roof and Palladian windows) that feed into a kind of delusion that shields people from terror just outside their Cul de sac
Urbanism is healthy norm. Pathological is a good word to describe the diseased morbidity of sprawl.
Ugly? Sure. Not my cup of tea? Certainly. Long-term unsustainable? Most definitely. But you're completely out of touch with reality if you actually think most Americans living that lifestyle are desperately unhappy, much less immoral and maladjusted. People have to make choices in life, and families living on a "relative budget" who want a house bigger than a shoebox in a safe, clean area with good schools simply cannot afford the cost premium that goes along with desirable inner city and charming inner ring suburban neighborhoods.
But you're completely out of touch with reality if you actually think most Americans living that lifestyle are desperately unhappy, much less immoral and maladjusted. People have to make choices in life, and families living on a "relative budget" who want a house bigger than a shoebox in a safe, clean area with good schools simply cannot afford the cost premium that goes along with desirable inner city and charming inner ring suburban neighborhoods.
Agreed. And I will add that they (the "suburbanites") may not want to pay the cost premium that goes along with desirable inner city and charming inner ring suburban neighborhoods.
[choice - what a simple concept]
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