Hat Tip: Jonah Goldberg of NRO
Jonah Goldberg references a great blog post by Will Wilkinson on his reasons for watching "Mad Men", and it got me thinking about my regard for the show.
Firstly, I think the show is incredibly stylish--the men's suits, the furniture, the careful attention paid to period references (the flight to Baltimore's reference to "Friendship" airport--classic). all add up to a very visually pleasing hour.
Secondly, while Will Wilkinson's interlocutor tries hard to convince him of the sadness and miserable state of the guys on the show, he or she (is Mischa a man's name?) doesn't seem to get the concept of "relative" misery. Yes, Draper and Sterling and the little weenie guy all are portrayed with a great deal of angst and some lingering sadness---but then again, they are smoking whenever and wherever they want, they are drinking in their offices, their lunches are bacchanalian orgies, and they are stacking up secretaries like cord-wood. The home is the province of their wives, they have little or no expectation to provide "parenting" (except to be stern when required), and male friendships seem to have a place of honor.
Now cut to today's poor schlub, who works just as hard as these guys did (nay, harder), does not have booze in his office, does not have three-martini lunches, has voice-mail rather than a pliant 22 year old hottie, smokes "al fresco" if he chooses that habit, wears Dockers and vile company oriented polo shirts to work, and spends a good part of his Saturday morning standing around at the park with the other fathers so that there might be a 1:1 ratio of glum, ridiculous looking fellows to children actively playing.
I'm not saying there aren't tremendous upsides to being a man in today's world, but Garrison Keillor got it best a few years ago in a book he wrote called "The Book of Men". In it, he compared a monogamous man to a bear riding a bicycle in the circus. It was something you could train him to do, but on the whole, he'd rather be out in the woods doing things bears do. That's what is being portrayed in Mad Men--bears doing what bears do (did). It can be trained and civilized out of us (and thankfully, it mostly is), but there is a rawness, a uber-maleness portrayed there that today's more civilized bear at some very elemental level--longs for.
On the other hand....
ReplyDelete"At the moment, I’m thinking of talking about the chief way our society is messed up. That is to say, it is structured to distract people from the decisions that have a huge impact on happiness in order to focus attention on the decisions that have a marginal impact on happiness.
The most important decision any of us make is who we marry. Yet there are no courses on how to choose a spouse. There’s no graduate department in spouse selection studies. Institutions of higher learning devote more resources to semiotics than love.
The most important talent any person can possess is the ability to make and keep friends. And yet here too there is no curriculum for this.
The most important skill a person can possess is the ability to control one’s impulses. Here too, we’re pretty much on our own.
What young people really need is a lesson in how to choose a spouse and how to make and keep friends.
These are all things with a provable relationship to human happiness. Instead, society is busy preparing us for all the decisions that have a marginal effect on human happiness. There are guidance offices to help people in the monumental task of selecting a college. There are business schools offering lavish career placement services. There is a vast media apparatus offering minute advice on how to furnish your home or expand your deck.
To get information on private affairs, you have to go down-market to Oprah or Dr. Phil. Why are they the ones who have access to information on meeting life’s vital needs? I think I know why this situation came about. Men. Because of our habitual flight from intimacy, we men have spent thousands of years structuring elite public discourse so more attention is paid to the World Trade Organization than the parts of life that really matter.
People like me are the problem. I should not be allowed to talk to young people on any momentous occasion. Therefore, I throw myself at your feet seeking wisdom I can share."
David Brooks writing about his attempt to come up with remarks to graduating seniors from his former high school.
I'm so depressed. I though I was doing ok. You mean to tell me in the early sixties I could have been drinking Cutty Sark at work, getting jiggy with a 22 year old secretary, eating like a pig, smoking cigars where ever the hell I wanted, ignoring the kids and everybody is cool with it? No wonder they called it Camelot.
ReplyDeleteToday's "bears" apparently do other things...http://tinyurl.com/kw2vv7
ReplyDelete