I had a good conversation with a friend before he left recently for a summer internship in Africa. The theme of our discussion was the need for some fundamental changes in our culture.

I’ve also had this dream twice in the last few days. I am on a charter bus coming from northern Vermont heading to Boston. The landscape begins with a drive down a typcial New England town’s Main Street, with shops and apartments on either side of the bus. As we exit the town the terrain becomes more hilly, and soon the bus is climbing a large hill. As busses are wont to do, it slows and the engine is working hard. Though the hill is steep, there is never a feeling of danger, like we aren’t going to make it. The first time the bus was at this hill it was daytime, the second time, it was night as a full moon hovered in the primal and mountainous distance. On the right side of the road, the hill sloped down revealing a college campus. On the upward incline one could see the academic buildings, a recreation center and a chapel. Before the bus reached the apex, it had to make a sharp left turn. Then as we began to glide down, the buildings clearly became dorms, each with a small balcony and double rocker swing. During this whole trip, there is a feeling of great calm and wonder among those of us on the bus. The college is a magical place to which we would all like to return.

Until my membership expired a few days ago, I’d been a regular at the Reily student recreation center here at Tulane. Though certainly not a facility to rave about (as is the case with pretty much everything at Tulane,) it had a fairly nice weight room in which I had become a regular. The music in the weight room, which I presume came from a cable music channel, was usually of the pop culture variety and was the same feed that was piped throughout the building. Though I was there to work out, I enjoyed the fact that there was music; indeed, the right music can really enhance a workout.

However, the music started getting a little stupid. The first song that raised my hackles was 3oh!3’s “Don’t Trust Me”. In this song, the protagonist talks about his feelings for women. The song’s most notable refrain reads:

shush girl,
shut your lips,
do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips.

The next annoying song was “Take Me On The Floor” by The Veronicas. The female vocalist, who appears to be in a heat of passion, sings:

I want to kiss a girl
I want to kiss a girl
I want to kiss a boy
I wanna…
…
Take me on the floor
I can’t take it any more
I want you I want you I want you to show me love
Just take me on the floor

The third, and most annoying is a more recent entry to the vapid lineup, Asher Roth’s “I Love College”. In a celebratory style, he recounts a great party he attended the previous night and his plans to repeat the debauchery again the next day. First the refrain:

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I danced my ass off and had this one girl completely naked
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The stanzas are not much better. Among my “favorites”:

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Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!
Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!
Freshmen! Freshmen!
Freshmen! Freshmen!

Do something’ crazy! Do somethin’ crazy!
Do something’ crazy! Do somethin’ crazy!
Keg stand! Keg stand!
Keg stand! Keg stand!

I mentioned my college on a Vermont hill dream because I think it has something to do with my frustration over the idiotic nature of American pop-culture, as demonstrated by the above popular songs. What’s really irked me was the fact that as these moronic lyrics were blaring away in the weight room, nobody really seemed to mind or be paying attention anyway. This, I think, is our problem. What now passes for popular entertainment is crude, base, and ignorant (none of these songs even remotely classify as satire). These songs glorify quick cheap sex, gimmicky sexuality, misogyny and seriously misplaced priorities.

As we look around and see our once giant corporations declaring bankruptcy, a woefully poorly educated student body, and the ongoing degradation of our infrastructure and environment, perhaps we should, as our former chief executive was so fond of saying, attempt to connect the dots. Maybe kids growing up listening to the “I Love College” song will get the wrong idea about what it means to go to college. Maybe kids listening to “Don’t Trust Me” will feel somewhat less inclined to behave respectfully towards women.

Like I said before, music has a powerful impact on us. When I was in high school, my swim team coach would put on a meditation tape (with ELO’s Fire on High in the background) to get us mentally prepared for a coming meet. When I sought to teach my students about the 1960’s counterculture, I used a lot of music, and they listened. It’s a fact that we take in things that we see and hear; with televisions and music constantly blaring everywhere these days, we are inundated with messaging. Most of this messaging comes from corporate channels, such as cable television, advertisements and popular music.

This music, even if we don’t actively seek it out, seeps into our collective psyche like a poison slowly growing in potency from repeat exposure. Radioactivity is inevitable. It’s hard to know where this will lead, but I think we are seeing its effects already: selfishness, insecurity, decreased civility, increased violence. In short, we have been collectively dumbing ourselves down and teaching ourselves not to pay attention.

Looking back at my dream, though, I think that it is hopeful. After all, the bus made it up the hill both times and the college was still there. While sometimes I get depressed about our cultural waywardness, I still hope that we might once again be able to aspire to greater things. My current vision of the cool beckoning stone of the college on a hill reminds me that the great promise of mankind is still out there, even if illuminated only by our dreams.