Nietzsche’s rejection of traditional morality justify Bart Simpson's bad behavior?

[Principessa]

“Can Nietzsche’s rejection of traditional morality justify Bart Simpson's bad behavior?” Discuss.

I've seen the Simpson's numerous times but I've never been a true fan, ditto South Park. IMO these shows demonstrate bad behavior and it's only natural that children would emulate them in real life. Add to that the failure of parents to raise their children because they are too busy befriending them and you pretty much have a recipe for the chaotic disaster which you see in America today.

Do I think that The Simpson's and South Park have ruined America? Absolutely not! It takes politicians and bogus legislation to do that. :biggrin1: However, they do play a small contributing role.

 

[dong20]

If one accepts that Bart is fundamentally nihilistic then maybe - but then, as a 'child' wouldn't that be expected - at least to a degree?

If so, then Lisa counterpoints with more enlightenment, idealism - and [occasionally] refreshing cynicism. Homer and Marge represent their 'role' models, respectively. Maggie, perhaps more of a blank canvas, exhibits both - sometimes in unexpected ways.

If we believe the Simpsons is an allegory for contempory American society (and not just America and I'm not saying I do), and we're comfortable with that then Bart Simpson's behaviour is justified if only because contemporary America has deemed it so. If we don't then perhaps he's just a character in a satirical cartoon show. Personally I think it's somewhere in between.

It's amusing perhaps because it hits close to home. It forces us to laugh at some aspects of our own nature we may not otherwise be comfortable with, were they subject to more 'objective' scrutiny.

If [many] people didn't [even on a subconcious level] aspire to emulate some of Bart/Homer's disregard for convention then it would have no resonance. The same could be said of Lisa/Marge's aim to 'do the right thing'. Perhaps Mr. Burns represents some derivative of an Orwellian state ... and so on!

Homer's behaviour is excused because he's [portrayed as] an idiot, Bart because he's a nihilistic child who emulates his Father. Marge because she's [portrayed as] intelligent but frustrated with many aspects of her life, perhaps rueing some of the choices she made along the way. Lisa because she's an idealistic child who emulates her Mother.

It also occurs to me that blaming politicians and legislation (while certainly a factor) is a convenient vehicle to avoid individual responsibility for what we collectively dislike about contempory society. After all, it's much rarer to heap praise on official organs for the things we do like, isn't it we tend to reserve that accolade unto ourselves, so one might ask ... why is that?

I'm just playing here so please don't read the above as a serious attempt to answer your question, that would require more than a few sentences on the Interweb. :biggrin1:

I have yet to eat breakfast so my few functioning synapses may be playing tricks on me.

 

[JustAsking]

...Do I think that The Simpson's and South Park have ruined America? Absolutely not! It takes politicians and bogus legislation to do that. :biggrin1: However, they do play a small contributing role.

Bart also exhibits the rampant American anti-institutionalism that you demonstrated in the last part of your post. For a couple of hundred years, this is was a healthy American trait, but over the last 50 years or so it has been pushed to a level where it is destructive.

We have allowed that part of ourselves that is anti-intellectual and anti-institutional to be easily manipulated. It is such a strong American congnitive frame that all it takes is a simple Internet rumor to make large groups of people subscribe to crackpot ideas such as 9/11 conspiracies or deny global warming, or claim that vaccinations are dangerous medical procedures.

Where we once were respected for our dogma-free ability to adopt and optimize new ideas, we are now seen by the rest of the world as the Bart Simpson of modern societies.

The rest of the world watches in horror as we seem to think it is perfectly ok for a local school board made up of local merchants to decide on what will be taught as science in our public schools.

This is something that Bart would get a real kick out of, that a bunch of local yokels iin power can pretend that ignorance of established science is a virtue rather than a tragedy.

 

[dong20]

This is something that Bart would get a real kick out of, that a bunch of local yokels iin power can pretend that ignorance of established science is a virtue rather than a tragedy.

The use of a Pitchfork as a means of political expression ...

 

[pym]

SouthPark is hysterical. I LOVE how it singles out societies hypocrisies.
It is also not intended for kids to watch, hence the 9:00 pm or later televised programming.
As an aside, when i was a kid i remember my parents would'nt let me watch LAUGH-IN for the same kind of reasons.
Have'nt watched Simpsons in years.
I do not watch FOX at all.
Now-adays with MIND-Bending porn acts of EXTREME nature a couple of mouse clicks away........Kids are gonna see stuff far in excess of the simpsons on any given day. Not that it's right either. But that is the society we have built. Modeled on the Romans perhaps?

 

[B_Nick4444]

Fudging amazing!:no:

Listening in on libs never fails to amaze -- they are absolutely clueless!

I suppose they don't recognize how nihilism so thoroughly informs and enables their ideology, its anti-Americanism, and their positions on everything from abortion to globalism (and rearing their children on the values that globalism requires), the secularization of American society, the immigration of asians and Muslims, and accommodating their values in our public venues

I suppose they think it's just coincidence that these became issues following the 1960's?

Generations hence, historians will look back and marvel: How did these people manage to survive on a day to day basis? :tongue:

 

[pym]

Ohhhhh another LIB-TARD rant from Nick!
How delightfull.
NOT.

 

[dong20]

Ohhhhh another LIB-TARD rant from Nick!
How delightfull.
NOT.

He's getting as predictable as sunrise, and about as repetitive.

He'll say the same about 'them' too, naturally ... whoever he needs 'them' to be at that moment! Nick, just as Nihilism comes in many different flavours, so does 'liberal' ideology.

Of course you know this - but it seems you simply can't help yourself from generalising those you cannot understand. Besides, sometimes Hamlet was just being cynical.

 

[B_Nick4444]

Nick, just as Nihilism comes in many different flavours, so does 'liberal' ideology.

indeed

but as you well know, the liberal ideology currently subscribed to in the USA is so thoroughly predicated on the nihilism so in vogue in Europe, and imported during the sixties, and so thoroughly informs it, that liberal ideology would be unrecognizable without it

the problem is that "liberals" (lower case, the Obama electorate) are unaware of the formulation, unaware of the different strands that have been melded to form their incoherent, unexamined, and unchallenged outlooks

but, I'm sure you know that, as well

 

[pym]

Well at least i know whom to go to now for my questions regarding Liberal ideology.
Nick......the avaraciously Republican GAY guy!
Dude.....seriously, you are perhaps the most enigmatic poster on this site.
Yet SOOOoooooo predictable.

 

[deleted213967]

Marge because she's [portrayed as] intelligent but frustrated with many aspects of her life, perhaps rueing some of the choices she made along the way. Lisa because she's an idealistic child who emulates her Mother.

Marge an "intelligent" "role model"?

Something must have been lost in the translation!

She is a caricature of deprecated lower middle class suburban values, a slave to obsolete social conventions and a frequent target of the writing team:

"Look! A spice rack! 5 spices! Some must be repeat!".

It is precisely because Lisa, who at 8 knows that "Even he [Gore Vidal] has kissed more boys than I [Lisa] ever will", somehow manages to pull through despite the horrific gene pool she inherited from BOTH her parents that drives the comic effect!

 

[dong20]

but as you well know, the liberal ideology currently subscribed to in the USA is so thoroughly predicated on the nihilism so in vogue in Europe, and imported during the sixties, and so thoroughly informs it, that liberal ideology would be unrecognizable without it

the problem is that "liberals" (lower case, the Obama electorate) are unaware of the formulation, unaware of the different strands that have been melded to form their incoherent, unexamined, and unchallenged outlooks

I'm no expert on 'American Liberal Ideology', frankly I think very few are - evidenced in part by the observation that many who do use the term 'liberal' tend to do so in an attempt to score 'cheap' points. Much of the time, I include you in this.

From an outside perspective, much of the time it seems merely another insult used by those unable to formulate or express a coherent argument. I doubt many people using the term in such a manner have any real understanding of what they're doing - it's an almost pavlovian response.

But it makes me smile. :biggrin1:

 

[dong20]

Marge an "intelligent" "role model"?

Something must have been lost in the translation!

She is a caricature of deprecated lower middle class suburban values, a slave to obsolete social conventions and a frequent target of the writing team:

Of course. Intelligent compared to Homer - not literally.

A role model isn't inherently good or bad, it can be either and frequently both - Britney Spears is a role model!

I did say I wasn't being serious, sheesh!