by fwdude
This weekend, I will be attending the high school graduation of a young
relative, as tens of thousands of others likely will as well. Though these
events are a dime a dozen, and a high school graduation doesn't seem to carry
the weight of importance that it once did, it seems appropriate to regard the
attendance of such an event as a special occasion, special enough to don at
least a clean shirt and pants without holes.
But what I expect to see will probably be trumped by even what I've witnessed
in past years - people wearing shorts, theme t-shirts, muscle shirts, holey
jeans, and flip-flops. At a graduation. Even at college graduations.
What I've noticed over the past several decades is a drastic trend toward an
anything-goes attitude toward dress. The last time this drastic a shift seems to
have occurred is in the late sixties, when the hippie, commune-living attitude
made inroads into society and youth wore whatever they pleased, wherever they
pleased, if anything at all.
Today, I see church-goers wear what look like pajamas, short shorts, tube
tops, muscle shirts and worse. It's almost like they're defying the traditional
"rules." And not only congregants, but pastors and participants seem to be in a
contest to see who can dress down the most radically, usually by those who want
to be "relevant" to today's youth. (See Ed Young as an example.) I attended a
wedding - A WEDDING!!! - several years ago and with very few exceptions, the
only people wearing a tie or dress were the marrying couple. Most wore golf
shirts, "nice" jeans and tennis shoes. I (wearing my suit) was almost
speechless.
Today, there seems to be no venue, no ceremony, no establishment, where
manner of dress is any longer important at all. And I see this attitude as
directly related to, and caused by, the voracious consumption of society by the
rabid, morally-anarchist secularists. Children used to aspire to wear what
grownups wore - in Great Britain, young boys were only allowed to wear shorts as
appropriate, slacks being a man's attire, and were only allowed to wear such
upon attaining "the King's commission." Now, adults seem to want to emulate
children, with sagging waistbands, "bling," tatoos and hyper-oversized pants
that can't seem to decide if they're shorts or not shorts.
My question is this: is there ANY event or occasion when it is appropriate to
dress in other than ordinary, daily apparel, without undue coercion? Or, put
another way, is there any occasion when daily, casual wear is inappropriate?
I can already hear the rebuttals by cultural relativists: "but every era has
its trends which fly in the face of tradition!" True, but there were still
differences in the manner of dress according to occasion. Now, there
appear to be none whatsoever. A standardless society when appearances are
concerned. Once, even the poorest farmer owned at least one suit, a tie, and a
good pair of dress shoes. Everyone was expected to have the ability to look
presentable at the most elegant occasion, and all but the poorest (by real
poor standards of the day, not today's "opulent poor") could satisfy this
minimal standard. Today, I know scores of people who own not one suit, tie, or
dress shirt.
I truly believe this attitude mirrors the standardless "morals" we are seeing
sweep across every institution which once stood for something. The military
might be one last holdout, but even that will see changes - be certain of it.
DIOGENES invites you to pull up a chair on this fine day and read posts from around the world. The writing may lean to the right...but that's the way Diogenes wants it! You may leave your opinion, but Diogenes rarely changes his! WELCOME!
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