How Did America Become a Nation of Slobs?

[HenryChinaski]

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/how-did-america-become-nation-slobs

Go to any public arena—a sports event, a shopping mall, Wal-Mart, you name it—and you realize the standard of dress for men and women, adults and children, has reached a low point in American history. Blue jeans are de rigueur; t-shirts with slogans, some of them billboards of obscenity, assault the eyes; pajama bottoms are worn to the grocery store; restaurant patrons appear at lunch looking as if they had just rolled out of the sack; grown men wear baseball caps while eating steaks at Outback.

What does our own sloppy dress tell us about ourselves? Are we too pressed for time to dress a little up rather than way down? Are we rebelling against the idea of beauty and culture? Or are we just too lazy to pull on a pair of slacks instead of wearing the sweats we slept in?

Oscar Wilde once said, “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” No one would ever consider me overdressed—or overeducated, for that matter—but if I am now regarded as well-dressed, a man representing haute couture, then I can draw only one conclusion.

We are a nation of slobs.

This is dead on correct, we are a nation of slobs and we should strive to be better. How can we be taken seriously by the world and be any sort of positive image when we look like we just spent a night in a dumpster.

 

[ecofarm]

"Good ole days" fantasies are for washed-up has-beens.

 

[HenryChinaski]

"Good ole days" fantasies are for washed-up has-beens.

yeah, and so are oversized NASCAR T-shirts and fat people stuffed in yoga pants. I wasn’t aware that caring about ones appearance was for washed up losers.

 

[haymarket]

We need a clip of Clint telling kids to stay the hell off his lawn.

 

[Grokmaster]

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/how-did-america-become-nation-slobs View attachment 67247355 This is dead on correct, we are a nation of slobs and we should strive to be better. How can we be taken seriously by the world and be any sort of positive image when we look like we just spent a night in a dumpster.

We've become more "mulitcultural".

 

[ecofarm]

yeah, and so are oversized NASCAR T-shirts and fat people stuffed in yoga pants.

The Walmarts of yesterday were trash gutters. Know how people dressed for those? One cannot go to the slop houses of commoners and expect fashion. You're just trying to make yourself feel better.

 

[haymarket]

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/how-did-america-become-nation-slobs View attachment 67247355 This is dead on correct, we are a nation of slobs and we should strive to be better. How can we be taken seriously by the world and be any sort of positive image when we look like we just spent a night in a dumpster.

You can probably start this with change in fashion threads during the rock & roll era of the Fifties and then the Sixties Revolution and continuations in style changes right up to today. People of Wal Mart is an excellent indictment of what you are talking about.

But what can really be done about this? Nothing I would think. I am always taken aback of 1930's soup line pictures of men in suits and fedoras. My how times have changed.

 

[HenryChinaski]

The Walmarts of yesterday were trash gutters. Know how people dressed for those? One cannot go to the slop houses of commoners and expect fashion. You're just trying to make yourself feel better.

I feel fine, I don’t look like I spent a week in a trashcan.

 

[Rexedgar]

We have been slovenly for a long time. Many years ago, I had the pleasure of attending the 4 July celebration in DC. The morning after looks like a trash bomb went off. Overflowing waste cans and trash not even close to the containers. Now with the government shutdown and the reports of overflowing toilet in the public parks.


Why do you hate Wal-Mart. If you ever feel bad about yourself, all you need do is walk your local store..........


https://www.google.com/search?q=wal...XSx1kKHcy7CpUQ_AUoAXoECAwQAQ&biw=1366&bih=922

 

[sangha]

yeah, and so are oversized NASCAR T-shirts and fat people stuffed in yoga pants. I wasn’t aware that caring about ones appearance was for washed up losers.

I would argue that judging people based on their appearance, though not something limited to losers, is not something I would advocate for.

 

[HenryChinaski]

You can probably start this with change in fashion threads during the rock & roll era of the Fifties and then the Sixties Revolution and continuations in style changes right up to today. People of Wal Mart is an excellent indictment of what you are talking about.

But what can really be done about this? Nothing I would think. I am always taken aback of 1930's soup line pictures of men in suits and fedoras. My how times have changed.

Exactly. A nation of men down on their luck, facing the worst of conditions still having the dignity and pride to dress as well as they could.

 

[ecofarm]

I feel fine, I don’t look like I spent a week in a trashcan.

Perhaps you shouldn't spend your time among the poorest uneducated uncultured slobs in our nation. Go to a nice place. It's not the country that's broke, it's your sense of ambiance.

You're going to a chili cook-off and complaining about overalls.

 

[sangha]

You can probably start this with change in fashion threads during the rock & roll era of the Fifties and then the Sixties Revolution and continuations in style changes right up to today. People of Wal Mart is an excellent indictment of what you are talking about.

But what can really be done about this? Nothing I would think. I am always taken aback of 1930's soup line pictures of men in suits and fedoras. My how times have changed.

That was probably because it was the only clothes they owned.

 

[HenryChinaski]

Perhaps you shouldn't spend your time among the poorest uneducated uncultured slobs in our nation. Go to a nice place. It's not the country that's broke, it's your sense of ambiance.

You're going to a chili cook-off and complaining about overalls.

I enter two chili cook off’s every year and my shirts are tucked in and shoes are shined. No excuse ever. And over the years I’ve donated dozens of gently used three-piece wool suits ( three were Armani) to my local Salvation Army/homeless shelters. I’m doing my part to Help repair our image as a nation of slobs

 

[ecofarm]

I enter two chili cook off’s every year and my shirts are tucked in and shoes are shined. No excuse ever. And over the years I’ve donated dozens of gently used three-piece wool suits ( three were Armani) to my local Salvation Army/homeless shelters. I’m doing my part to Help repair our image as a nation of slobs

I don't think the problem is the nation getting worse. I think it's you getting poorer. What you take as a decline in nation is actually a decline in your standard of living. Easier to say it's everyone. Just a guess.

 

[sangha]

I enter two chili cook off’s every year and my shirts are tucked in and shoes are shined. No excuse ever. And over the years I’ve donated dozens of gently used three-piece wool suits ( three were Armani) to my local Salvation Army/homeless shelters. I’m doing my part to Help repair our image as a nation of slobs

Vanity is a desire of personal glory, the wish to be appreciated, honoured, and run after, not because of one's personal qualities, merits, and achievements, but because of one's individual existence. At best, therefore, it is a frivolous beauty whim it befits.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe

 

[HenryChinaski]

I don't think the problem is the nation getting worse. I think it's you getting poorer. What you take as a decline in nation is actually a decline in your standard of living. Easier to say it's everyone. Just a guess.

Not at all, I’m fortunate that I make enough to live comfortably. But I’m also fortunate enough that at a very young age I realized the value of having pride in one’s appearance. And dressing well has nothing to do with income or Social status.

 

[Harshaw]

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/how-did-america-become-nation-slobs View attachment 67247355 This is dead on correct, we are a nation of slobs and we should strive to be better. How can we be taken seriously by the world and be any sort of positive image when we look like we just spent a night in a dumpster.

Are you lamenting the deterioration of social standards? That's downright conservative.

 

[ecofarm]

not at all I’m fortunate that I make enough money to live comfortably. But I’m also fortunate enough that at a very young age I realized the value of having pride in one’s appearance.

What can I tell you? Go to nicer places.

And dressing well has nothing to do with income or Social status.

What color is the sky in your world?

 

[<alt>doxygen]

We've become more "mulitcultural".

What different cultures do you see in that pic, grok?

 

[HenryChinaski]

Vanity is a desire of personal glory, the wish to be appreciated, honoured, and run after, not because of one's personal qualities, merits, and achievements, but because of one's individual existence. At best, therefore, it is a frivolous beauty whim it befits.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe

You’re saying that choosing not to wear sweatpants that show your ass crack in public is a sign of “vanity and personal glory” I’m fine with that.

 

[holbritter]

We've become more "mulitcultural".

In what 'culture' do people go to grocery stores in their pajamas?

 

[holbritter]

What can I tell you? Go to nicer places.



What color is the sky in your world?

Dressing well does not have to mean 'new' or latest fashion. It means neat and clean.

 

[HenryChinaski]

Dressing well does not have to mean 'new' or latest fashion. It means neat and clean.

bingo.

 

[TheParser]

I assume that many younger people laugh like mad when they watch a movie made in the 1940s and 1950s: men in suits, men wearing hats, women wearing dresses (gasp!).

And they must really howl with laughter when they see how nicely people back then dressed on --- airplanes.