I'm Growing Crochety in My Old Age

Lately, I've been noticing that I've become crochety. I find myself disturbed by things that the rest of society appears to think are totally ok. And I start to worry -- isn't it too early for me to be this grouchy? I'm only 32, for heaven's sake!

Case in point: I was watching the Daily Show the other day, and Seth Rogan was on, promoting his new movie, a stoner flick. This guy's 26 years old, and not only does he still apparently smoke a lot of pot, but he talks about it gleefully on television. And Jon Stewart was right there with him, reminiscing about his own pothead days.

Now, I don't have all that much against smoking pot. Frankly, I think it should probably be legal. But still the fact remains, pot is currently an illegal drug. I find myself thinking that it's just plan wrong for two grown men to be sitting there, on national TV, happily discussing their frequent law breaking. And then I find myself thinking that next thing you know, I'll be shaking my fist at those "darn kids" on my TV screen.

Case in point number two: I have always had an inappropriate affection for tv shows aimed at teenagers -- I've been known to Tivo an occasional episode of DeGrassi, and it was while doing so that I stumbled across Queen Bees, a truly reprehensible "reality" show about mean girls. They've been nominated by their friends and families who think they're spoiled brats, and they have to learn to pretend to be nice, in the hopes of winning $25k.

In the very first episode of the show, one of the girls smugly recounts the story of how she was feeling neglected by her boyfriend, so she told him she was pregnant so he'd pamper her. Apparently, it worked like a charm, but after a few months, she tired of the charade and pretended she'd had a miscarriage. To this day, she bragged, her boyfriend has no idea what she did to him. The story resurfaced again in a later episode, with the girl bragging this time to the other girls in the house about what she'd done. As far as I could see, she's never expressed any remorse for her heinousness, nor has she confessed to her boyfriend (then again, I have only seen two episodes (plus the end of another), so maybe there was comeuppance in there somewhere). And worse, she's currently on track to win the show. Without apologizing. Without getting her ass kicked. Without any visible consequences for her actions. Apparently, on this show, redemption really is skin deep.

Ok, I know it's TV. And I know it's not meant to be real. But holy moly, what are kids learning from this? That they can do whatever horrible things they want to do, and as long as they later profess to have changed, then everything's ok? That true love means being able to rip your boyfriend's heart out with lies and never having to say you're sorry? That they need not be ashamed of anything they do, no matter how despicable? Yikes. If the kids on this show are even the tiniest bit representative of what real kids are like now, then we as a society are doomed.