From: drarwingnuttephd@gmail.com   
      
   When did white trash become normal? White Trash Normal has invaded every nook   
   and cranny of life.   
      
      
   *****   
      
      
   When did white trash become normal?   
   By Charlotte HaysNovember 2, 2013 | 2:25pm   
   Modal Trigger   
   When did white trash become normal?   
   Mike Thompson (L) and June Shannon from the hit show "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo"   
   Photo: Noel Vasquez/Getty Images   
      
   Society crumbles when it takes cues from the underclass   
      
      
      
   When Snooki, whose talents include getting sloppy drunk and throwing up on   
   camera, made Barbara Walters' "Ten Most Fascinating People" list a few years   
   back, one could only ask: Was Octomom not available?   
      
   Last year, "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," which features a cornucopia of social   
   ills, was TLC's highest-rated show, attracting more cable viewers than the   
   Republican National Convention, which had the misfortune to share the time   
   slot with the charmers from    
   Georgia. The show's matriarch, June Shannon, has four daughters by four men,   
   one of whose names she can't recall.   
      
   White Trash is the new normal -- and you don't have to tune in to reality TV   
   to rub elbows with pathologies that once stayed put in Skunk Hollow. White   
   Trash Normal has invaded every nook and cranny of life, from table manners, to   
   dress, to money    
   management.   
      
   Remember when bouncing a check was shameful? Now apparently it's shameful for   
   banks to charge overdraft fees.   
      
   Students of Arnold Toynbee, the English historian, will recognize what is   
   going on here. In a chapter of his "A Study of History" entitled "Schism in   
   the Soul," Toynbee argued that it is a sign that a society is disintegrating   
   when it takes its cues for    
   manners and customs from the underclass. He describes such societies as being   
   "truant" to their own values.   
      
   Toynbee is the guide to what we see all around us today.   
      
   We modern philistines tell ourselves that rejecting the customs and   
   conventions of a stuffy, old elite will release creativity and bring about a   
   renaissance. Nothing could be further from the truth. According to Toynbee,   
   self-expression replaces    
   creativity when disintegrating societies look downward.   
      
   Aspiration is replaced by complacency. Shame vanishes. Any criticism becomes   
   "haters gonna hate," or the White Trash motto: "It don't make no difference."   
   White Trash signifiers have changed of course -- the foreclosed McMansion with   
   the mosquito-infested swimming pool has replaced the rusting tractor   
   permanently bivouacked on cement blocks in the front yard. But it's the same   
   general idea.   
   Obesity, the product of a lack of discipline, sloppy dressing, loud and   
   intimate cellphone chats broadcast to a captive audience and foul language   
   nonchalantly uttered in the ATM line are all forms of this "self-expression."   
      
   Pre-White Trash, physical intimacy was reserved to private places. Now it's   
   reserved for the subway. You no longer have to live in a one-room shack to   
   learn the facts of life early. Just walk down the toy aisle at Toys "R" Us for   
   a sexpot Bratz Doll.   
      
   Children who see daytime television, broadcast in public areas, are inevitably   
   treated to Jerry Springer reruns. How do you explain "Honey, I'm a Ho," or   
   "Transsexuals Attack" to a tot? Oh, wait, the tot explains it to you.   
   Tattoos are form of self-expression that have moved from gangs and prisons to   
   the mainstream.   
      
   A 30-something scholar with a respected organization in Washington, DC,   
   recently showed up at a fancy dinner in a little black cocktail dress, her   
   shoulders extensively inked. Further sign of the impending apocalypse: She is   
   a tattooed Chi Omega, once    
   the Southern snob-appeal sorority. My young friend wore a "bespoke" tattoo,   
   which means it was designed in consultation with an "artist." In my mind, it   
   bespoke volumes.   
      
   People in all walks of life used to put forth effort not to be taken for White   
   Trash -- in contrast to people today, who risk hepatitis to ape the decorative   
   styles of prison gangs.   
      
   Not being White Trash wasn't a matter of money. It was purely behavioral.   
   When did we decide that elastic waist bands, convict-inspired fashion and   
   swearing on a cellphone were authentic ways to express individuality?   
      
   If we read our Toynbee, things may be even worse than we think. In Toynbee's   
   view, it's up to the elites to save a civilization. They must become once   
   again vigorously creative (think: great art, not twerking on TV) and worthy of   
   imitation.   
      
   But how to get there from here? We could try saving our admiration for what's   
   really admirable. So let's quit pretending that there's anything charming   
   about stripper-themed fashion and financial irresponsibility. All we have to   
   lose is our inner Honey    
   Boo Boo.   
      
   Bring back manners, bring back aspiration, bring back responsibility, heck,   
   bring back the man in the gray flannel suit. We miss you.   
      
   Charlotte Hays is the author of "When Did White Trash Become the New Normal? A   
   Southern Lady Asks the Impertinent Question" (Regnery Publishing), out this   
   week   
      
      
      
   http://nypost.com/2013/11/02/when-did-white-trash-become-normal/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)