Madonna is a competent musician with a vile persona. Richard Wagner exemplified that, too.
Did you notice that the lead-in sounded much like music by Vivaldi only to morph into a techno-beat?
It is clear that Madonna exemplifies the Idealist type of extreme narcissism. In reality, blue-collar Boomers like the character that Madonna portrayed were always humbled quickly; she could get away with narcissistic rebellion because of her economic success telling people what they wanted to hear. "Papa, don't preach" -- but without the wedding ring, you are putting that baby up for adoption because you can't take care of it. That was the norm in blue-collar America: if necessary you learn the basic lessons the hard way if necessary. That's how the blue-collar working class operates. If a boy, get independence quickly (even if one is not economically ready for it) from Mommy and daddy, and if a daughter, get married early and have lots of children -- or at least that is how it used to be. That broke down because except for the skilled-labor part of the working class, whose sons typically get into a union apprenticeship and whose daughters expect a husband fitting that pattern, could only find work that does not bring a living, as in shopping malls, fast-food places, hotels and motels, and amusement parks (later casinos) as Big Business sent jobs overseas and the politicians endorsed that. The well-paying factory jobs disappeared.
I recall Howe and Strauss calling the Boom generation of trends -- but all of them negative. Boomers started out with few problems, but the tail end had much to be desired. Educational attainment weakened; drug use, alcoholism, and criminal offenses soared. Maybe some of the late-wave Boomers had the arrogance without the virtues to justify the arrogance. On the other side, some Boomers remained eternal teenagers, like Michael Jackson. Madonna seems to have taken care of herself better (well, she is 64), part of which is pacing herself. Michael Jackson burned himself out rather than recognizing that he can't operate 24/7, and died at age 50 because he could never leave the teenager pace. X got hit hard with rising rents and costs of college education while opportunities vanished. With so many people working longer, harder, and for low wages we could beat inflation back.
Children need genuine parents, and childhood must end before one can be competent at raising a child. Raising a child is not easy and never has been -- especially with the poverty that became the norm for so many people who had no cause to expect it.
Did you notice that the lead-in sounded much like music by Vivaldi only to morph into a techno-beat?
It is clear that Madonna exemplifies the Idealist type of extreme narcissism. In reality, blue-collar Boomers like the character that Madonna portrayed were always humbled quickly; she could get away with narcissistic rebellion because of her economic success telling people what they wanted to hear. "Papa, don't preach" -- but without the wedding ring, you are putting that baby up for adoption because you can't take care of it. That was the norm in blue-collar America: if necessary you learn the basic lessons the hard way if necessary. That's how the blue-collar working class operates. If a boy, get independence quickly (even if one is not economically ready for it) from Mommy and daddy, and if a daughter, get married early and have lots of children -- or at least that is how it used to be. That broke down because except for the skilled-labor part of the working class, whose sons typically get into a union apprenticeship and whose daughters expect a husband fitting that pattern, could only find work that does not bring a living, as in shopping malls, fast-food places, hotels and motels, and amusement parks (later casinos) as Big Business sent jobs overseas and the politicians endorsed that. The well-paying factory jobs disappeared.
I recall Howe and Strauss calling the Boom generation of trends -- but all of them negative. Boomers started out with few problems, but the tail end had much to be desired. Educational attainment weakened; drug use, alcoholism, and criminal offenses soared. Maybe some of the late-wave Boomers had the arrogance without the virtues to justify the arrogance. On the other side, some Boomers remained eternal teenagers, like Michael Jackson. Madonna seems to have taken care of herself better (well, she is 64), part of which is pacing herself. Michael Jackson burned himself out rather than recognizing that he can't operate 24/7, and died at age 50 because he could never leave the teenager pace. X got hit hard with rising rents and costs of college education while opportunities vanished. With so many people working longer, harder, and for low wages we could beat inflation back.
Children need genuine parents, and childhood must end before one can be competent at raising a child. Raising a child is not easy and never has been -- especially with the poverty that became the norm for so many people who had no cause to expect it.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.