Reflection on the Brit Pack

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16961761/site/newsweek/

That is the link, have a look.

And now, the article...

I would say it is a generation’s worry, passed down through the ages. Every generation seems to have the same grudge against new age popular culture of the young.
I wouldn’t dare suggest that the worries were unpleasant and incessant, quite the contrary. I am very glad and comforted that members of the older generation feel inclined to dedicate time from their live to talk about us.
But, after all, bad girls ‘tainting’ young, innocent girls is certainly no new worry, perhaps, even one which stretches way back to the start of the century.
For the record, bad girls like Betty Page, Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe and Madonna were hardly turn of the millennium phenomena.
But again, the challenges of keeping young women from ‘oversexed and underdressed celebrities’ grow harder with the progressing technology. The media increases the exposure children have to these sexy images and videos. Even music contains lewd messages to youths. In the earlier days, it was just magazines and the occasional movie, like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct.
Now, there is television, youtube, music, movies and cable. And of course, half-time shows at college football games.
And again, it is now fashionable to have idols again. Young children grow to know and love characters who star in kiddy shows, like teenage star Lindsay Lohan, who starred in the Parent Trap, Teenage Drama Queen and Herbie Fully Loaded.
They are said to be bad for girls to have such a questionable idol to look up to. At least, not one who drink drives on a regular basis, go on rehabilitation ever so often and parties late into the night to be late for work the next morning.
It would not be too plausible, as the article says, to place the responsibilities of setting a example for every girl who watches Disney on the young shoulders of 21 year-old Lindsay Lohan. What can you do? Ban Lindsay from doing Disney movies because it would make her an idol to the kids? Surely not.
I would admit this is a cause for some concern.
However, it is a major misconception that the ‘Brit Pack’, as the article named them, is a very popular part of popular culture. I cannot say for girls (for whom the article unfortunately was) but from my correspondence with my male clique of friends, Paris Hilton is not taken very seriously, and certainly is not considered a popular music artiste (despite her first album being released recently). One friend recently summed it up quite effectively: “ Paris Hilton is dumb.”
As part of the progress of society, I feel it is inevitable that a general liberalization would occur. One would not expect a puritan standard of morality to persist in modern day society.
I am not advocating sex in the media, I am just saying it is an inevitable thing in the fast maturity of the nation.
Just, hopefully the maturity of the individual person can match that rapid pace.

This is my fourth article.

An American Tragedy

President George Bush addressed the nation at Virginia Memorial, 17th April 2007, one day after the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech. In his 9 minute speech, he described the sorrow of the nation as a whole for the Virginia Tech shootings. He spoke of sources of strength the affected should draw on to live on and called for God to bless all those who suffer and grieve.
He did not speak of the possibility of the prevention of the tragedy.
The worst peacetime shooting in modern history serves as a painful reminder to a fundamental issue which has been a disturbance to American politics for the drafting of the second amendment into the Constitution. It reminds us painfully of the lack of gun control in the United States.
Gun control is and has always been a sensitive issue in American politics. In 1994, when then-president Bill Clinton passed a bill banning assault weapons, the Democrats lost the House of Representatives in 1994 and the White House in 2000. Many Democrats believe they lost the elections because of the bill.
Due to this, there is a general reluctance in Parliament to pass even some common sense gun regulations.
One very vocal crusader against gun control is the NRA, America’s leading gun association. It constantly lobbies using hard ball tactics whenever Parliament is holding a debate regarding a gun control issue, treats any step towards gun control as a step to total disarmament and subsequently tyranny and publishes books with highly exaggerated attempts of self defense with guns.
Its chairman is also notorious for his conspiracy theory that the UN is trying to disarm the American people.
They have also argued that guns can help in self-defense. If you have a gun, criminals wouldn’t dare to hit on you, they argue. But, a constantly raised and very valid issue is whether guns would encourage more people to wards violence, rather than dissuade them.
It is a worrying trend. Gun homicide and suicide has reached another peak, following its slight decrease in 2005.
Streets are unsafe again.
The Virginia Tech massacre is a painful reminder of the fact. The false security that the Americans lived under cannot be sustained, at least not with guns easily available to anyone. Who would guarantee you that you would not be shot without reason?
Indeed, to the victims at Virginia Tech, no one.
The slant taken by the administration against gun control is probably taken as a result of the majority of rural voters supporting guns, although most urban voters are against guns, accounting for the . The government find it necessary to pull rural votes by taking a pro-gun stand.
The death of many America’s at gunpoint was caused indirectly by the nation’s overly-liberal position towards guns, fuelled by the American government and many American people, in support of guns. The deadly concoction of politics, Constitution and reluctance forms a extremely bitter aftertaste in one’s mouth, it is truly an American tragedy.

OK, here's my third article for grading, please have a look.

I really hate the word limit, I had to cut it by so much.

The article is from the Economist.

a

Posting Again