Lying *always* fucks things up, and being scared of everything is the key to survival.

[LoZoccolo]

A friend of mine said that this was the lesson taught by the sitcom Three's Company, which was instrumental in forming the ethos of my generation (Generation X). Do you agree?

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Lying has certainly caused the speedy and total destruction of the Bush Empire.

[Redstone]

2. I don't lie, but not because of any moral superiority. I'm just too damn lazy; when you lie

to people, you have to keep track of what lies you told to which people, and that's just too much work for me.

But at the same time, I'm not afraid of anything, which a psychiatrist once told me was (his exact word) pathological.

Think this is because I never watched that TV show?

Redstone

[LoZoccolo]

3. I would have to know the context of the conversation with the psychiatrist.

If it was just an offhand "I'm not afraid of anything" I would actually doubt that you really weren't afraid of anything at all in the whole world. If it was an "I am not afraid of what circumstances I might find myself in that I can't do anything about" then it might actually be healthy.

[Redstone]

No, it's an actual "pathological lack of fear" in the shrink's words. NOT a healthy thing to have,

not at all. Believe me and the many broken parts of my body on this; it's just as dangerous as not being able to feel pain, as some people are.

I would pay big money to be able to go back and have a healthy case of the willies when I did something dangerous when I was younger. (I'm married now, so I have a wife who keeps me out of trouble.)

Redstone

[Gormy Cuss]

8. No fear is pathological.

Sounds like you were born without the "flight" part of the "fight or flight" instinct. But then, it's probably saved you more than a few times in life.

[Redstone]

14. You got that exactly right, as you do so many times. Good thing I'm married now, so my wife

can tell me things like "no, you are NOT going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane; you'll stay in it until it lands."

And she's right; I'm WAY too old and beat up to do things like that. So if there's a road up to the top of the mountain, I'll use it instead of climbing the cliffs to get there.

Redstone

[Writer]

4. I don't agree that Three's Company formed the ethos of Generation X.

I see it, however, as an ethos that Generation X rejects: that being the dingy sit-com that sanitizes the topic of homosexuality. A man moving in (privately) with a couple of women, with no sexual tension, hiding from the landlord alludes to homosexuality but refuses to discuss it seriously.

The ethos of Generation X formed not from entertainment, but from history: AIDS, increased crime, disaffected parenting, Reaganism and layoffs, the S&L scandals, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and everything following that. We do not believe in our parents, or the economic system, and hence forged our own during the dot com days and intend on raising our children with the care that our parents did not afford us.

[Shine]

12. Well said, writer.

:applause:

[Writer]

15. Thank you. n/t

[raccoon]

19. Everyone speaks from their experience.

"disaffected parenting"

" intend on raising our children with the care that our parents did not afford us."

As a boomer, it seems to me that Gen X kids got far more nurturing and loving parenting than my generation did. It's true that more boomers had SAHM's; that doesn't mean that they spend oodles of quality time with us though. Our parents were stricter and much less inclined to have meaningful conversations about how we felt or something similar, and spanking and slapping kids were pretty much accepted. As far as child abuse--the phrase basically didn't exist.

YMMV, of course, but that was my experience and observation.

[Writer]

21. Many X'ers had parents who were simply absent.

And if they were there, they were emotionally distant.

But I don't believe I was attempting to compare Generation X to Baby Boomers. However, I think any X'er will tell you that our generation did suffer from parents more consumed by "making it" than by taking care of them.

Edit to add: And a bevy of single-parent households.

[raccoon]

22. Yep. I know about single-parent households. Grew up in one.

I always felt weird because in the time and place I grew up in, everybody else I knew had both parents.

[groovedaddy]

5. A well timed lie can make all the difference

It's not a good habit to get into BUT there are times when it can save your ass (or someone you love).

[AllegroRondo]

18. such as when asked "does this make my butt look big?"

[groovedaddy]

24. Exactly! ;-> n/t

[Heidi]

6. Being scared of everything is the key to survival?

I've known more than one person who committed suicide because their lives, due to untreated illness, were ruled by irrational fear. I wouldn't think that "being scared of everything" would necessarily be the best survival technique.

I watched Three's Company when I was growing up, too, but it didn't shape my worldview. Was your friend, by any chance, extremely high when he/she made this observation? :shrug:

[LoZoccolo]

11. No, my friend was not high.

We were discussing the fact that the Jackass generation was coming of age and exhibiting reckless behavior. One friend of mine said that her philosophy was shaped by Star Trek: The Next Generation, and another gave this as the reason that Three's Company shaped his.

[Heidi]

17. That information adds another dimension to the OP.

Nonetheless, I wouldn't allow my worldview or day-to-day decisions to be shaped entirely by popular culture, which seems to prey on irrational fear and neuroses for its own survival.

[Shine]

7. I agree about the lying. I disagree about fear being the key to survival.

I don't buy into that negative mind frame and I'm sure many Gen X'ers aren't motivated purely by fear.

[AlCzervik]

9. the problem with lies and that usually there involves another one to cover up the first

one and so on.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. Sounds like the Bush administration mantra...n/t

[cemaphonic]

13. um, score one for Oasis?

[LoZoccolo]

16. The first Oasis song that comes to my mind regarding approaching life is this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YD2cP2pGUw

Is it any wonder why princes and kings
Are clowns that caper in their sawdust rings
Cos ordinary people who are like you and me
We're the keepers of their destiny?

http://www.oasisinet.com/site.php?site=songlyricsdvd&idx=3&songidx=88&country=172&atype=0&from=dvd&boxidx=

[underpants]

20. a "Jack Ritter moment"

that is what my brother and I call really embarassing moments that you watch on TV.

Yes Three's Company was the prime conveyor of social mores and norms at the end of the 70's. A religion should be founded on it with a pilgrimmage to the "Regal Beagle" a pillar of the belief.

[Orsino]

23. Just the other day I was thinking that that show couldn't be made today.

Unless you set it in a convent, or something. A man who has to pretend he's gay, just to live cheaply with two female roommates.

Well, I guess if you make the Ropers some insane fundamentalists, that could work.

[kwassa]

25. I agree. That is some profound fucking shit, that is.

[porphyrian]

26. I agree that your friend said that, and maybe that it is the lesson "taught" by Three's Company...

...however, I'm not convinced that it gave our generation any ethical foundation or anything at all except a few chuckles and a bunch of reruns.