Is Popular Culture influencing our attitude to Litter?

When looking at the mess around you, it is possible to come up with reasons as to why the area ends up messy - is it because people don't care? Is it because there is a problem with getting rid of it? As much as you think you are getting the answers found out, believe it or not, those questions are only the branches and is it possible that there is a problem that runs deeper to the root that nearly nobody thinks and talks about? If the driver throwing away the litter was listening to music of a high action or relaxing tune, did the happiness-inducing sensation of the music help him or her to alleviate any stressful responsibility that was handed down to them by their parents or society which included any workplace constraints? Or did that fun come from something else? Did the person who let their dog defecate on your front lawn feel the same way?

Now, popular culture itself is not responsible for directly causing the problems we see in not just the UK but around the world today (if it were, there would be massive controversy which would result in the industry quickly going bust), after all it is humans themselves that are doing that, but we will examine in this article about what exactly goes into the mindsets of those who dare to ruin the areas we live in and what exaggerates the problems.

When growing up as children, we are given important lessons by our parents or guardians from the first time we walk which are designed to help us succeed in life. As time goes by, our brains develop and expand more quicker as we see and learn more of how the world works, including the idea that kindness makes the world go round and the reasons of why being a bad guy/gal is never going to get you anywhere in life. The rules as such include not bullying as well as hurting other people, not being rude to anyone around them, being polite as well as respectful, eating the right foods & drinks, respecting the environment around you, taking responsibility if anything goes wrong, get educated and taking up tasks that you will eventually need to survive when they grow up as well as being thankful for what you have got. Unfortunately, for some children, the circumstances gained in their upbringing can end up turning their attitude the other way round. When children are denied the love and attention as well as behavioral discipline they morally deserve from their parents or just by people around them, they feel the need to compete for attention elsewhere by way of obtaining feelings of anger and taking desperate measures in order to obtain the result (returned love). This can also happen if human support groups like other close members of the family, friends, neighbors or even work colleagues withdraw their relationship from the child even if it has grown up in latter years.

On the other hand, the expression of love itself can also be warped. Take the idea of humour, particularly in the form of banter; it is defined as 'the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks' in the form of a noun and 'exchange remarks in a good-humoured teasing way' as a verb. The idea of teasing someone involves making fun of the features or activities that the other person has and takes part in, as long as they laugh back. If the group is bored or already enjoying themselves, it is up to the members to try and up the ante if the joke or funny situation has to be memorable. This is seen in pretty much any culture you go to but is especially prevalent in the western hemisphere. Having fun is obviously most likely to involve taking part in stupid activities (likely picture-based) rather than intelligent conversations (word-based), activities that may include creating a mess on the floor, pulling a chair away just as someone is about to sit down, explaining why looking at UFOs one time is an illusion that best belongs to mental health patients, accidentally choking on food, eating too much food in a competition, being drunk, drinking too much alcohol or caffeine, listening and singing along to silly songs (casual gender-judgment is included too), saying offensive words that are not really meant to said in a given situation, making a few driving mistakes, accidentally dropping something when you were not meant to, farting, annoying other people, I can go on and on here, in order to have a laugh at others as well as yourself in the process. It seems the only way to have fun is to let go of your inhibitions. Now, I am not saying for one moment that we should kill comedy but what if those inhibitions happen to be the very basic rules of common sense you were taught, and are meant to be taught, as a child including the rule of no using purposefully hurtful insults, no disrespecting animals or other people around you, no deliberately making a mess that can cause harm (which includes dog fouling and littering) and restraining from any completely unnecessary anger? Of course, if you break any of these rules, you're expected to receive some form of punishment which includes getting shouted at, losing any kind of valuable such as a toy, having an activity suspended, being placed on the naughty step for a limited time, having to do unneeded exercise typically in the form of push-ups or sit-ups or even being fined a sum of money or being taken to jail via a court. If the form of humour involves getting deliberately close to being punished via the said punishments, especially in the form of uncalled for pranks without thinking clearly of the consequences, then the persons experiencing the humour of a particular situation involving those pranks are clearly going to get a thrill out of either escaping punishment or getting punished altogether. Typically if the child became aggressive as a result of their bad behavior being pointed out at them and tried to be violent towards the parents, the punishment would be more severe. But if a fully grown adult behaves badly and then threatens to attack those that point out his/her bad behavior, they are usually not confronted any further because they have reached the stage where they can physically defend themselves if they ever became threatened by anyone and due to the behavior going unpunished, they therefore feel the need to commit even more bad behavior with no fear of their 'fun' being defeated by a hierarchy above them or just as ready to defend themselves as they are. These sets of 'rules' found in gang culture, gypsy culture, tribes or even in some working class cultures are passively accepted instead of challenged by even opposing groups. This is why neighbours, family members, friends, drinking pals or even work colleagues are reluctant to even politely (even with no actual threat) ask the misbehaving person they know or don't know of to curb their behavior in case they are put in their place and instead choose to show only love or likeness for them. Therefore many scared people feel the need to get their local authorities or governments to justify increasing police powers or punishments to go above what the misbehaving person would fire back with, even though perhaps militarizing police in the USA, for example, can cause the threatening persons to feel obliged to defend themselves more (look up the War on Drugs or aggressive persecutions of people by the police. There is a page on Facebook called 'Police The Police' who showcase plenty of videos shaming bad practises of cops against any person for petty experiences).

Love is also expressed in the form of media expression whether it be in films, television shows, music and in radio. Many children and young people often look for someone to look up to while growing up in order to influence their position on life whilst giving reassurance. This can principally be the case when they feel a huge sense of rejection from the culture they grew up with in their lives. If the person they look up to is fun, persuasive, teaches them how to live their lives and gives them a sense of well being, they are likely to follow that person. If the higher figure expresses their creativity through aggression, rudeness or sometimes violence, then that person will still be followed if the child feels that his or her life is as stressful as the celebrity helps them believe. Traditionally, it is seen that we do not ever turn to our parents, good or bad, the ones who look after us and raise us up to become who we are, because they are not as likely to be seen as interesting or free-thinking as the other people around you. The rules they give us and the punishments received if we badly behave make us think that our own creativity is not worthy. This even goes towards our elders, our religious leaders and even politicians. Therefore, we naturally turn to those that help to gain back our creativity and sense of fun into our lives. If our culture teaches us that happiness and having fun is far more important over taking responsibility for our own actions, then the people following it are likely to become messed up and live dysfunctional lives. To put this in perspective, our working weeks consist of turning up to your educational facility or going into work on the weekdays, getting stressed out in the process and then letting off steam come the permitted days (AKA The Weekend) where we no longer are likely to be stressed out by our responsibilities. If we see a person dropping litter onto our streets as a way of releasing our stress, then we are likely to follow that example.

With that said, I have done my research into movies, TV shows and music videos that directly show examples of littering by the people on screen. Unfortunately, even though researching music videos is easy, trying to gather information from films and TV shows has proven difficult; I did send out a tweet asking for my followers to help find clips in films, TV shows and music videos which show direct examples of littering but so far, I have not had any responses so I have included a few examples to demonstrate my point:

1. In the beginning of the music video for Wannabe by The Spice Girls, Emma Bunton (AKA Baby Spice) is seen grabbing a book and tearing it in the air at the front door to the front hall before running inside with the rest of her bandmates. The group had influenced a 'Girl Power' movement at the height of Britpop throughout the 1990's in the UK. If Emma was shown openly littering in a music video where the beat makes you have fun, does that mean the mainly female audience will be encouraged to throw litter everywhere to express their frustration or freedom? Even though the 1990's showed a peak increase in crime in the UK, which included the so-called Yob Culture, I will leave it to you to decide if that was the case.

2. In the music video for Parklife by the British rock band Blur, there is a brief scene before the 2nd verse of the song where the guitarist Graham Coxon is seen spray painting the camera pink and the frontman Damon Albarn throws a unknown piece of litter out of the car that actor Phil Daniels is driving (the actor also narrates the song). The band are also briefly seen playing with a trolley stolen from a supermarket (which can cost £500 each to the supermarkets).

3. One part of the music video to Hit Me Baby One More Time by Britney Spears shows the students throwing their bags from their lockers over their shoulders to the ground but no footage is shown of them picking the bags up. Hmm, releasing stress after the school day, I presume?

4. 8 seconds into the music video for Complicated by the Canadian singer Avril Lavigne, there is a scene where the youths, 1 of whom played by the singer herself, get up off of the ground to head to the mall without picking up the drinks left on the side of the road beside the pavement. At 3 minutes and 41 seconds into the video, the youths are later shown jumping into a pool in the mall and throwing some of the rubber pool toys out of it. Releasing Stress = Causing Chaos?

5. In the music video for Young by Tulisa (at 2:52 in the music video), the artist is seen daubing lipstick graffiti on a black wall in an art museum in order to show off to her 'friends' before being escorted out of the building by a security guard. This does not stop the group having fun afterwards as the whole atmosphere was fun throughout much of the music video.

6. In the music video for DJ. Fresh ft Rita Ora - Hot Right Now, there is no litter lying about or being dropped but there is graffiti everywhere - does that make the presence of Graffiti itself acceptable?

7. 57 seconds into the music video for Hangover by South Korean rapper Psy ft Snoop Dogg, Psy is shown, in character, to be opening a small bottle of alcohol and openly throwing it away to the left of the screen where it is never seen again. A good way to have a good time?

8. 57 seconds into the music video for Shout Out to my Ex by British girl group Little Mix, the girls are shown openly dumping waste from their convertible car into the desert-like countryside. The song was written to talk about not showing feelings of regret and wishing the new couple a happy life. In this case, the song was written after Zayn Malik (formally of boy band One Direction) broke up the engagement with Perrie Edwards. "So instead of dumping my ex's stuff on his doorstep, let's dump it in the countryside to celebrate our break up!"

For the films, there is one scene in the 2010 action comedy film The Other Guys where the 2 main characters played by Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are in a red Toyota Prius preparing for a final confrontation with Chechen and Nigerian investors as well as corrupt police officers within their organization that are plotting to stop them preventing an illegal bank transfer. While debating on what music to play to ramp up the tension, fed-up Detective Terry Hoitz (played by Wahlberg) decides to eject a music CD offered in the debate and throws it onto the streets of New York City.

As for TV Shows, well, that'll be up to you to send in your suggestions via my e-Mail address and the Contact Me section of this website. It can be of any genre you wish.

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."

- Mark Twain

Rebellion, particularly when it comes to teenage years or even in so-called Crises like in mid-life, is the decision milestone of curiousness when you decide to look at what you have been prevented from seeing. This involves examining the social boundaries given to you by both your parents and society. If you grow bored to the point where you feel the other 'information' about how society works is being suppressed from being given to you, you are going to finally snap at some point. E.g. You are told that dangerous drugs like cocaine, heroin, cannabis, LSD, methadone and magic mushrooms are bad for you with no clear demonstration of both the consequences of taking them or why people would want to take them, so eventually you decide to try taking them out of peak curiousness. Then there is the other part of taking part in rebellious activities which is the Group (officially the Herd, Mob or informally Pack) mentality. As highlighted in the previous paragraphs, any kind of culture that you are brought up with can influence you to adopt certain behaviors. If you are taught that drinking soft drinks such as Irn-Bru, Coca Cola and Sodas, eating junk food such as chocolates, candy, sweets or takeaway meals or drinking alcoholic beverages (even excessive amounts) or even smoking tobacco makes you the life of the party, even though you kinda know that the above listed items are scientifically capable of making you ill either in the short term or later on in life, it's obvious that you are going to consume them because as stated in the previous paragraphs, doing the opposite (going healthy) will risk upsetting the group or the party, hence the reason you would be both amusingly and somewhat categorically referred to as a 'health freak'. Ironically, leaving the glutenous group is taught as not being rebellious, so to label you a 'freak', boring or crazy of any kind is a way of keeping you in line with what the group does. This also happens in certain political or religious groups that specialize in any form of punishment to warn you about the consequences of daring to leave the group. The Canadian blogger and cryptocurrency investor Jeff Berwick (of The Dollar Vigilante) half-jokes in his blogs about asking his viewers to take away the 3 last letters of the word Culture and what do you get? A CULT! Cults are defined as social groups defined by their religious, spiritual or philosophical beliefs or their common interests in a particular personality, object or goal. If the leader of a cult tells his or her group members that their focus must be on an objective, then the group (sheep) are likely to follow what the shepherd does. If you were told as a child by the people raising you up that a mysterious mythical figure will bring you extravagant gifts out of the blue for a special time of the year, you would instantly believe it because you are given the impression that a miracle will happen to you and that your wildest dreams will certainly come true at that predicted time. You would be very lucky if you didn't live a life similar to the 1998 film The Truman Show. If one sheep breaks away from the group, the following Japanese proverb best sums up the consequences: "the nail that sticks out shall be hammered down". This means the sheep that stands up has to be faced with punishment from the shepherd and viewing the punishment in full, the rest of the flock are taught that "this is what happens when you try to rebel against me". Of course, severe punishments for leaving the group are rare in the generally individual-focusing West but still, alternative kinds such as social isolation or sacking from the job you work in are common. Staying on the subject of the gift-bringing mythical creature, the reaction from a child if told to believe in it to fully raise their optimism but then told that the jolly figure is anything but real risks upsetting them and therefore seeing the parents as untrustworthy. Secondly, telling the child that this mythical creature has a secret intelligence agency which keeps an eye on whether they are good or bad is both not bad for teaching them that committing bad acts is always wrong and at worst, is an example of lazy parenting (after all, parenting is YOUR responsibility). If the parents of a child decide not to lie about this creature being real, the child would naively risk telling every other child in the classroom the same thing, therefore greatly upsetting them, leading to large complaints from parents and an awkward meeting with the head teacher along with a forced apology. This means the parents feel that they HAVE to go along with the game or else. Rebelling can be good if you fully know the group you are in is doing bad things (e.g. refusing to commit crime or verbally curse at others or take drugs or have sexual intercourse when they know that it is not the right time to do so) but as demonstrated in the previous paragraphs, if done the wrong way, it can lead you to making bad mistakes such as dog fouling or littering or committing other crimes.

Thankfully, we are at a point where we are all connected together for the first time via the internet, technology and social media and this has become a turning point where we can finally be awakened through our consciousness to see what is really happening in the world around us. The problems of the environment around us many years ago were almost never talked about and to do so would have earned you a ribbing about either being somehow taking on the task of cleaning it up as some sort of punishment, doing it because "you're so old", you're a bore, you're a hippy from Greenpeace or because you could not take Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker protesting against Michael Jackson while the legendary artist was performing his hit "Earth Song" at the 1996 Brit Awards or simply because it was someone else's job to do. Thanks to video-sharing sites like YouTube which have become popular since 2006, which allow you to broadcast any kind of video online, we can now access videos such as the debut of Boyan Slat (of The Ocean Cleanup)'s talk on how we can clear up our oceans and look at how well he has done to the present date. Even though I am yet to hear a single Hollywood actor except Leonardo DiCaprio or a young famous comedian/singer talk about the problems going on, our main news agencies so far do not censor our complaints about dog fouling and littering and how our governments tackle the problems so for now, we can use our democracy to our advantage and raise awareness of the problems to the people around us. Remember, when you tell one person, the chances are they will tell another and only in that way will people really begin to fight back against the problem.