America and western Europe sure have their priorities right, blanketing our newspapers, magazines and the airwaves with newsworthy items that reflect our culture. For example, the April cover of Vogue magazine featuring a rap thug and a reality TV queen on its cover has been covered as extensively as the sinking of the Titanic was back in 1912, except that those were pre-TV and pre-internet times and only ink-stained wretches invaded our homes daily. The editor of Vogue apparently wrote that she wanted to feature those who define our culture and who stir things up.

That’s not even original, because another monthly some time ago featured on its cover the mass murderer of the Boston marathon, calling him sexy. The Muslim thug, whose family was described by the neighbours as loud, obnoxious, entitled and who dumped waste out of their state-supplied home, was then called ‘pillow-soft’ by a besotted numbskull reader. Basically the Tsarnaev family defines our culture better than Vogue’s editor ever imagined, in being obnoxious, loud, entitled, polluting and hating the very system that keeps them alive and kicking — and murdering innocents, I might add. Vogue is one long shopping catalogue of overpriced and mass-produced pop-culture junk, and it’s the best there is, the rest too horrible to look at and certainly to mention in these here sainted pages.

Oh, yes, the reality star who featured on the cover of the glossy with her rap thug hubby was said by the editor to have real guts because she created a place for herself in the glare of the world’s spotlight. When I read it I did a double take. To describe her as having real guts is such an abuse of language it deserves at least three years in a strict penitentiary. Almost as bad as the talking heads on television who pompously insisted that the Boston bomber felt inferior to his older brother, which was the reason he planted a bomb on a sidewalk full of women and children. Nice! This loopy, new-agey psychobabble fills the networks each evening, but I am told that daytime is far, far worse. Full of idiotic, monosyllabic morons telling the world how much better they feel about themselves. Like the Duke University student, whose father is a doctor in the military serving in Afghanistan, who made a porn video with men spitting on her while she serviced them orally, and who said on national TV that she feels ‘empowered’ as a woman since the video went viral. The university approved. Again, how nice. In the meantime, students at New York University tried to shut down a restaurant because its owner, a devout Christian, kept it shut on Sundays. ‘He must be a homophobe and a racist’ was one sign that can be repeated in these pages — i.e., Christianity now translates into racism and homophobia. Go figure.

So, what has happened to us? That’s an easy one: egalitarianism and immigration. Once upon a time the Wasp establishment had standards and people tried their best to uphold them. Teachers and priests held us to account. Now they reach way down to the lowest common denominator in order to avoid the R word being slung at them. Hollywood and the TV industry have a hell of a lot to do with the new standards. The F-gerund is almost compulsory and recently used by an American emissary. The diplomat is married to one of the Kagan brothers, backers and architects of the Iraq disaster. In fact, like Hollywood, the neocon élite of DC has become one of the greatest corrupting influences of our generation.

Mass misbehaviour is now the order of the day. The new rich create their own laws, devise their own moral codes and establish their own habits; their isolation thanks to their money makes them feel reckless and untouchable. Once exposed, the public feels titillated. Whereas John Q. Public was once turned off and disgusted by their antics, these are now almost a badge of honour. Guilt by association. A top executive was forced to resign when it was revealed he had opposed same-sex marriage five years ago and had given $1,000 to a California proposition that was eventually deemed unconstitutional. All the right people cheered, except for an openly gay columnist, a Brit, who wrote that it was excessive and a hollow victory. His voice was lost in the cheering. The fact that both Obama and Hillary Clinton held the same views as the executive five years ago was deemed irrelevant.

Otherwise, everything’s hunky-dory. Karate and judo take up most of my time, the creaking joints becoming creakier by the day. New York is as vibrant as ever, but the scruffy young people who now make up the so-called beautiful people are too ugly and too ill-mannered for my taste. Skinny jeans, wallet chains and lots of so-called fashion paraphernalia make them look like homeless people except for the ubiquitous mobile contraptions they carry, some as many as three. It is almost impossible to avoid bumping into them when walking while they text to their heart’s content. All very serious stuff of course, all about Aristotle and Cicero and Goethe. It’s wonderful to live among civilised people and hear classical music blasting from their cars and headphones. It’s so much fun I’m thinking of moving back to Africa — Nigeria or the Central African Republic, to be exact. Yippee!