Where has God gone?

Where has God gone? The corruption and sordid nature of the young modern seems to beg the question of how morally bankrupt the youth culture has become. Growing up I was brought up strictly Christian, baptized at birth, Sermons on Sundays, prayers before meals, that whole deal, but after watching the corruption and in-fighting of the congregation and the eventual schism of the church I grew up to abhor institutionalized religion.  I still do now in a sense and can never see myself going back unless I were intrigued by some fine young lady. 

I'm no angel, I've participated in my fair share of chaos and mayhem, week-long benders, habitual drug use, run-ins with the law, but in some sense at the very back of my mind I know right from wrong. I can differ between what is just dancing around acceptable behavior and when you cross the line into utter immorality.

So many of the heroes that we look up to have fallen from grace or just merely chosen a road in which fame, glory, and money are the ultimate achievements. The myriad number of athletes who have admitted to using enhancement drugs (A-Rod, Clements, Marion Jones), the rise of ultimate fighting as an entertainment sport (Randy Coutoure, Chuck Liddell), the numerous celebrities whom have gained national media attention for being whores (Traci Lords, Jenna Jameson, Sasha Grey). As a culture, we seem to be deeply drawn to the dark, dirtiness of humanity like rubbernecking at a car crash on the shoulder of the freeway. Where can the line by drawn from a little debauchery to extreme depravity?

It's just entertainment, no one takes that shit seriously you will say. People don't automatically copy what they see, it's merely to pass the time, have a quick wank.  Fucking and fighting have been glamorized to a point where these celebrities become a very staple of our culture. They are rewarded for this. Their images and acts are broadcast streaming at your fingertips through the internet, through cable television, through magazines. Sex and violence, Astarte and Mars, modern day demi-gods of our culture, celebrated and scorned, love and hated. 

But maybe they have got it all right. What's the more insane act, to sit in a cubicle nine hours a day for the rest of your natural life or to fuck for a living. To be a cog in a wheel at some corporation which couldn't give two shits about you or to train to beat the shit out of another human being. Surely, they have differing disadvantages, carpel tunnel instead of gonorrhea, lack of self-fultillment instead of brain damage and on and on. So really, there's no real definite answer, I just know that if I had a daughter or a sister who wanted to be a pornstar, I would not accept it very readily.  

But culture seems to have a give and take, an ebb and flow, each generation has its own set of values and moral standards which it deems to be right. I suppose in the end people can really do whatever the hell that they want for all I care as long as they don't impede on my rights. It'll be interesting where this road goes, if it'll continue down the current road of depravity or somehow we'll experience some sort of rebirth and be saved.