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Oh pop culture...

The last article we read with the discussion of "culture" and the "masses" was very interesting although I felt at times that it was more like an extended dictionary entry then anything. I did, however, like seeing where and how the words originated and thinking about their implications. It was especially interesting to consider how "mass" became associated with negativity initially and how in modern times it can be used to describe both a positive and negative grouping.

With the other articles, I was really surprised about how the entertainment industry was developing... Supposedly there was a lot of emphasis on maintaining a certain "moral standard" even as people moved away from their rugged, self-sufficient lifestyles but it's hard to understand this when there was so much prejudice mixed in too. There were so many ideas that were considered to be acceptable that are, by today's standards, quite racist and sexist. I think it's good to see the evolution of ideas, though, especially when looking at an issue like this. Also, despite some of the issues, it was nice to see that there was a push (even if it was misguided in some ways) to maintain an "American" lifestyle and attitude even at the typical American citizen was moving out of the rural part of the country and into the very different city setting.

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