Values (sans the rants, hopefully)

I was watching Jude Law's Alfie a moment ago. I recall having heard people discuss about it around me some time back, but I had no recollection of what they were saying. I also checked Rotten Tomatoes for reviews and the results were looking slightly grim. So I was slightly worried... But Alfie in fact wasn't that bad. I haven't seen the original, but I sort of enjoyed this movie, despite the fact that I guess it was somewhat light. Granted, Mr. Law's hairstyle could've been slightly different. But the movie, in its light way, shed some light on the shallow nature of the world. The lack of commitment and the search for the cure to your bottomless lust.

There's also been quite a bit of discussion lately in Finland about how teenagers are selling themselves to middle-aged men to earn a quick buck--some for even as low as a couple of ten euro bills. The questions have been around how and why have we come to a situation like this. It is horrifying, to say the least. I guess here we have a very tangible situation what happens when materialistic values get hold of children way before the classical "proper values" are instilled. In fact, traditional values seem to be a rarity these days. Or at least they've gone underground along with the people who openly say that they value them. Of course it's not very trendy or hip to have traditional values since even the term "traditional" sounds very much like "conservative" and that in turn is associated with all matters nasty these days.

In a way I'm very tight pressed to not go off on a rant about the importance of traditional values and proper moral and ethics. Some people who might read this will know since they might've had the dubious pleasure of being victims to my speeches. But an interesting trail of thought to pursue might have something to do with thinking about what the experience above will do to people at a later age, regardless of gender. I'm still hoping that the situation is that the incidents that have come to attention have been part of the few that happen, but unfortunately I fear that I might be wrong. But even still it seems that the current values of open relationships and all the other trendy new buzzwords hiding dubious meanings might in fact be hurting people very much, both directly and indirectly.