Discretionary income is what is left over after what is necessary has been purchased. What seems relevant is what portion of your income and the rarest of things, time, goes into this diversion. So little time in this country is invested in understanding our place in the world. To me, to be alive is to be aware. In fact, that is often the criteria for determining Quality of Life or if you technically Dead! There is such liberation and fulfillment that comes from understanding and exploring the world around us. From that simple, yet, profound lense: The investment in dollars in Movies is to me, not as, much a problem for the dulling of America as the amount of time occupied with escape to the manufactured, unreal (often not even remotely believable)worlds of Hollywood. Diversion is not a problem but it is when that becomes the greatest limitation to understanding the difference between diversion and what is real. So much about America leds to fat bodies and dull minds: An example, Go to work in a climate controlled driving space of a gas guzzling SUV, then go into the sheltered parking garage, enter into the climate controlled office building for work, leave for home after work in the SUV, hit the garage door opener so you don't have to make your legs work for 20 feet, go into the climate controlled house, get a cold one, enter into the home theatre room with multi-controlled lighting systems, turn on an escape movie, listen to some bombs from the left rear channels panning to the right front channels, then before going to bed listen to the news presented by Corporations interested in keeping the American Public dull and unquestioning of norms (by the way, check out www.fair.org "Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting" to see what I am talking about).
I think a better summary as delivered by another Audiogon'er who responded to the exact same question I posed in another section thread. Here is his response:.
"The sad reality is that, for a substantial portion of the American public, crap is now the acceptable norm. One of my favorite entertainers was Steve Allen, a true Renaissance guy, who some years ago wrote a book about the "dumbing down" of America. What is happening in the American movie industry is but the unfortunate reflection of a poorly educated (in the full sense of the term) and relatively uncultured American population. The barbarians are no longer at the gate -- they now represent a significant influence in the U.S. population. Is it any wonder that the Islamic countries worry about cultural decay due to American influences?"
Something is incredibly wrong when enrichment in a variety of things is seen as out-of-step with society and becoming fat in the body and mind is in step.