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Title: Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio: Raising Standards of Popular Culture by Steve Allen ISBN: 1-57392-874-7 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: April, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: This book took courage
Comment: I think Steve Allen made an absolutely convincing case in "Vulgarians at the Gate" that American culture has been measurably coarsened in recent years -- and that TV is the most powerful medium in establishing the new, oh-so-low standards as the norm among children. All you have to do is watch a little TV to see how obviously right Steve Allen was. But one thing about this book is not so obvious: the COURAGE that Steve Allen showed in speaking his mind. He had to know that in the close-knit Hollywood community, which is so intolerant of criticism, his career would be hurt by the stand he took. How many other stars of Steve Allen's magnitude have uttered even one word of caution about the sweeping away of moral standards in the media that have made them fabulously wealthy? Steve Allen stood virtually alone. That took a lot of guts, and parents and grandparents owe him a debt of gratitude for the courage he displayed.
Rating: 5
Summary: Getting America out of the gutter and back up on sidewalk
Comment: Mr. Allen doesn't say that certain expletive words are bad, in and of themselves, but that used for simply shock value they lose their appeal and meaning. His book reminded me of a PBS special I saw a few years back with Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart from the old Show of Shows program when I was a toddler. It was Mel Brooks who made the astute observation as Steve Allen does so well in this book, that as television became more available to the masses, often an uneducated masses, television dumbed down. That when television first came out, only those with money and alas the education to have a great job could afford a television. And it was this same population that being well educated, didn't need things spelled out for them. They could hear an innuendo in a joke and "get it". But as more and more people could afford a television the more crude shows became.
Steve Allen was one of the biggest supporters of the late comic genius Lenny Bruce who in December 2003 month, was granted a posthumous pardon by the Governor of New York, George Pataki, for his (Lenny Bruces) 1964 conviction for using obscene language in a Greenwich Village nightclub act. Lenny Bruce appeared in nightclubs where his act included routines on controversial themes (religious, political and social) often done in very strong blunt language.
He isn't advocating censorship, but some way of getting dumbed down America out of the gutter and back up on the damn sidewalk. And he fully supports Lenny Bruce style "mature" humor which Bill Maher (whom I like) does. Mr. Allen wants to prick the readers consciousness and get them to think for a change and raise the level of intellect so that the Howard Sterns of the world are seen for the sophomoric people they are and the Lenny Bruces and Mort Sahl's are respected for being the social, religious and political genius provocateurs that they are, by using language often harsh or profane, for intellectual discourse and positive change.
Rating: 4
Summary: good synthesis of sleaze facts
Comment: Allen's book may not seem like anything new, because many have gone before him on this topic. Nevertheless, _Vulgarians_ is an excellent synthesis of current theories about the effect of media sleaze on young people.
Allen doesn't propose outright censorship, but he reminds us that that self-policing by the media congloms is never going to happen as long as sleaze remains profitable.
He also explores a point that is sometimes missed by media critics: The CEOs of the huge companies that sponsor the TV shows, as well as the CEOs of the huge media congloms, are "country club conservatives" who no doubt support Bush and conservative politics. Yet they mysteriously become amoral when it comes to propagating media garbage because they'e making so much money from it. FOX network comes to mind...
Allen observes, ironically, that few of these people would want their own six year-old daughters to be exposed to the junk they're selling, but they don't mind exposing the masses' children to it.
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Title: Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking With 101 Ways to Reason Better & Improve Your Mind by Steve Allen ISBN: 1573922374 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality by Steve Allen, Martin Gardner ISBN: 0879756381 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $33.00 |
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