There was a lot of discussion generated by Miley Cyrus' recent performance on MTV. I have to wonder: Why? We've been hedonistically headed towards Miley for the last 60 years or so. We may not like it (or say we don't), but if Miley couldn't draw an audience, she'd be over in ten minutes. Cyrus just gave us what we want. We're just so used to sexual imagery we're beginning to not recognize it for what it is: Pornography. Now it's socially acceptable you see.
So how did we get here? Elvis Presley's performances in the '50's (yeah, I was there) were quite--in their day--provocative, to the point his performances were partially obscured on television. They didn't call him "Elvis the Pelvis" for nothin'. I've heard people talk about how 'tame' his performances were compared to today, genuinely puzzled why anyone could be so upset by them. The key to understanding the anger generated by Elvis is in the phrase "compared to today." True, Elvis was nowhere near as graphic as today's Miley, but compared to those who came before him he was a big leap forward. You couldn't have sold a Madonna or a Miley to a 1956 audience, but thanks to Elvis (and countless others) we are now where we are.
I believe this is what we as a society want. We want to be entertained by Miley Cyrus et al, while denying the negatives that come from those behaviors. We want all the fun of immorality and the ability to act and live immorally (at least vicariously), but we also want to pretend that living those lifestyles will have no consequences. If I'm right, along with the behavior we have to also be willing to abide with the unintended consequences and disasters that ineveitably follow in the wake of said behaviors, like lives that are badly damaged or destroyed by the unintended consequences: Unwanted pregnancies, disease, abortion, deadbeat mothers and fathers, so-called 'love triangles', and videos showing up on youtube, sexting, to name a few.
Today it's Miley Cyrus, and today's morality is the result of the aforementioned step-by-step progression. So, what's next? Where will this progression take us? Let me predict...
Since we seem to have a great and insatiable appetite for this progression, I predict the next twenty years will see us become more accepting of things we today would never put our stamp of approval on: Pedophilia, a lowering of the age of consent for some (emancipated?) children to 12 years of age, and widespread acceptance of multiple-partner relationships--even in marriage.
So tighten your seatbelts, there's a lot more to come, because without a common morality, there is no morality. We need a standard that is the guiding light of the human race, that stands above us, which shows us what is truly right and truly wrong. Without that authority, there is no moral authority, all bets are off. Fifty years hence we may well look back upon the early 21st Century and marvel at the moral stability of that now-distant age.
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