My 87-year-old mom suffers from organic dementia. She has lost the tolerance filter one cultivates over decades of assimilating ever-changing cultural trends. Expose her to overtly sexual and violent television programming and she will speak in tongues about the world. It’s been a few years since her remote required a battery change.
American culture, at least, places more value on power than justice, possessions than humanity, instant gratification than achievement, and reality tv stars than really admirable persons. The meaning of life has been reduced to generating a buzz in a 24/7 media cycle.
Those who lack the tools to place this recent phenomenon in historical context react in different ways to the wall of noise. Some speak in tongues. Others blow out brains.