Post #574646 by woofmutt on Fri, Feb 4, 2011 8:01 AM

"It's all part of the Starbuckification of the nation. If you go to Starbucks you are part of the problem."

What if I only go to one of Starbuck's original locations? Then is it OK?

I don't go to Starbuck's, I don't like their coffee. I don't go to the Olive Garden or Applebee's or Marie Callender's because in general chain restaurants don't appeal to me. I also don't shop at JCPEnney's, watch prime time TV, or listen to Taylor Swift. But all the stuff I find boring clearly appeals to the majority of America and it won't be changing unless there's a complete societal collapse.

As all of that is the modern American landscape I can't say that it's a "problem" (from a cultural aspect) and that those who go to those places are responsible. I can say that I have a problem with most of America's mass culture, I think it's boring and uninteresting. But I don't think those who like shopping at the GAP or eating at the Cheesecake Factory are definitely boring or uninteresting merely because they like those places.

I've recently concluded that it's pretty much a waste of brain cells to critique or hate the American mass culture. Yes, our food is junky. Yes, our mainstream entertainment sucks. Yes, our mass commercial and residential architecture is boring and bland. But it's been like that for a long time and it more or less won't be changing.*****

It's easier to just ignore the sprawling beige background of America****** in the same way I ignore the repeated background on a driving scene in the Flinstones and instead focus on the unusual and interesting exceptions.

***** Most new retail establishments and restaurants are far more interesting looking now than what was typical 20 years ago. And the mass produced boxes of condos are now usually painted interesting colors. When taken as a whole it's still pretty boring, but at least it's something other than beige walls and cavernous bright white spaces.

****** The faceless masses who behave ridiculously I'll still dismiss as the Marching Morons. The people that won't get Tiki or anything that isn't part of the mainstream culture I still call the Ordinarys which is tongue and cheek and meant to imply that the people who make up Tiki Central are beyond ordinary.