laca

http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/

SPRINGFIELDS OF THE MIND: THE SIMPSONS' SYNDROME

'White men are foolish because they claim to think with their heads and only fools think like that. We think with our hearts'.
Ochwian Banco, Pueblo people chief (Quoted by Carl Gustav Jung).

When Gandhi came to London in the 1930's, he was asked by a journalist what he thought of Western civilization. He replied that he thought it,
"A very good idea".

According to a recent survey the family that young people in this country know most about is the Simpsons, the fictitious family of the American cartoon series. Satirical in its take on contemporary American life, this series also reflects and echoes much in contemporary life on Great Britain.
The characters in the Simpsons appear to be divided into two sorts: the stupid and the brainy.
The first type, the stupid character, is characterized by Homer Simpson himself. Fundamentally of very limited intelligence, he is lazy, obese and selfish. His main interests appear to be working as little as possible; lying on a sofa, watching futile television program mes; eating, especially very fattening foods like doughnuts, cream and chocolate; drinking beer; saving money, often in somewhat illegal and unethical ways. He pursues these activities either at work, at home, or else in his favorite bar where he drinks himself stupid with his companions who resemble him. However, he has one great redeeming trait - a soft-heartedness which can on occasion prompt his heart to acts of generosity and kindness.
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<edit>The rest of the article can be found here http://www.orthodoxengland.btinterne...k/simpsons.htm </edit>

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Ovazor

Using paragraph breaks might make your text easier to read.

braces_for_impact

Someone add Argumentum ad Simpson to the list please.

laca

Doctors diagnoses:

"Chronic arrogance".

Mr. Neutron

Neutron's diagnosis: copyright violation.

link

laca

Doctors diagnoses:
"Another chronic yuppie arrogance"

Mr. Neutron

Neutron's follow-up diagnosis:

Patient displays marked lack of integrity and reasoning capabilities. Recommend electroshock therapy.

"Hi, everybody!"
"Hi, Dr. Nick!":wave:

laca

Your chronic arrogance made you blind that you could not see what is in this article. This article is also about people like you.

Doctors prescription:
"Please use brain and eyes three times a day"

Definition of an intellectual:
"Someone who more believes his ayes than his ears"
(“Cancer department�? – Solzenicin)
But to do this you first have to have eyes, some people dont.

Mr. Neutron

Your chronic dishonesty made you attempt to pass off somone else's writing as your own.

You should utilize those powers of clairvoyance for more worthy endeavors.

Now my desktop is covered with Irony Meter shrapnel.

Stella

Sure, it is true that only Anglos suffer from social maladies. We only need TV to prove it!



No, it isn't. The vast majority believes in some form God/s.

I don't know what this means.

Only if you forget about everyone who isn't anglo.


First off, who uses Anglo? I'm white as hell and there is no way in hell I feel inclined toward identifying myself as anglo-saxon. WTF is an anglo saxon anyway? German and english? I'm Irish and Swiss. Does that even count? Hell I'm barely white with all that Irish.

Second, what do you mean by redeeeming trait? You mean the fact that our civilisation has improved by leaps and bounds since the dark ages?

It's not that it doesn't deserve criticism, or even that the criticisms you mentioned are unwarranted, but c'mon. We've had "hearts" since the middle ages and that hasn't prevented poverty, starvation and disease. And non "anglo" cultures suffer from the same maladies.

Third, this Simpson's analogy is a bad parody of a good parody.

Have you ever noticed that nearly every single character on the Simpsons is a strereotype? Not just of the stupid and the smart, but of every aspect of our culture we wish to poke fun at. The nerd, the stupid oaf, the bully, the pot-smoking high-school drop out, the work-a-holic immigrant, the ADD kid, the anal vegetarian lefty, the drunk clown, the uberevil capitalist, the possibly retarded and definitely weird kid, the homosexual, the sleazy politician, the millworker, the bitchy single woman, the mousy housewife, the used-car salesman/laywer/washed up actor/realtor ...

They are characatures of aspects of our culture, but they certainly don't encompass the entire culture. They aren't meant to either.

To assume that they do is to not only fall prey to the very point that the show makes about the indulgance of stupid stereotypes but, much like Lisa, you have also managed to sap the very essense of fun out of it!