Ch5_The Decline of Neatness_summary&reflection

Summary:

The Decline of Neatness is written by Norman Cousins who claims that the sloppiness virus has dramatically influenced our dress, speech, emotions and even human relationships.

This generation’s symbol is blue frayed, torn, discolored blue jeans. This kind of clothing is so fashion that many people slavishly conform it. Every one looks like stamped out by cookie cutters.

People chop a complete sentence to short phrases and slovenly speech comes off. People are like linguistic paupers who cannot use English effectively. Violent and foul speech also becomes casual for the screenwriters resisting turning in scripts to avoid being classified G (general) rating for R (restricted) rating can bring forbidden fruit.

Mindless violence is characteristic of the age. The casual attitude causes we seem to lose the ability to react instinctively to suffering. However, children cannot outgrow casual attitudes toward violence and brutality. One day, if the society broken, it means our feelings are so dulled that we cannot aware we have a problem.

Untidy dress, speech, emotions come to human relationships. Casual sex in the films deadens our feelings and destroys our privacy. People like eunuch disable to feel anything. Nevertheless, the writer doesn’t mean he wants we go back to Victorian decorum. He hopes our calculated sloppiness will totally disappear and people can use more “genuine creativity” in real life.






Reflection:

Norman Cousins says sloppiness virus spread in the time and affect our society, including dress, speech, emotion, and relationship.

In my opinion, if we see sloppy dress as kind of fashion which do not have so much power to corrupt our society. The main problem is our society is sick and no one aware of it. Take the violent TV programs or movies for example, why the government does not seriously take charge of supervising them. The government should cautiously control the quality of the TV programs or movies, but they do not. The real things that distort our society are the bad TV programs and movies not sloppy dress, which is just fashion in the time, because the cause is people changing their thinking and feeling toward matters not their dress. The public media can affect one’s value and discrimination, if the government does not control, the effect will be out of imagination.

The media─TV programs, movies, and newspapers, have important influence toward the society. The government should take their responsibility to supervise the products and the people working at those fields should consider the content with their conscience.