In moderation

it seems that in a world where we read headlines abt teenage obesity and teenage anorexia on the same page it is something that is sorely needed if only we can find out how!

is part of the problem the stigma that words such as 'average' and 'grey' have? and so it is a psychological problem, in that we associate such things with being 'dull' and 'boring', both in terms of how we view our own lives and those of the rich and famous? More notice will be taken of a drunk in the gutter or someone who regards alcohol as the devil's love juice and nary a drop shall pass their lips than someone who has a couple of pints down the Rose & Crown, for instance.

This article kinda speaks to that, I think

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2007/09/10/overclass/index.html

Words to live by: everything in moderation, including moderation.

But moderation is 'dull' and 'boring'

But, yeah, I think that you're hitting on a key aspect of present-day cultural disease...and, is delineating it as Western culture, and those parts of the world aspiring towards Western cultural ideals painting too broad a stroke? Or should it be limited to US/UK? plus, erm, fill in the blanks, here, please...

Mods: Aspies or Nazis?

"Woss normal then? I mean, you gotta be sambody ain'tcha? Uvverwise, you might as well...jamp in the sea an' draahn" - Jimmy, Quadrophenia (from memory, possibly inaccurate)

Nobody wants to be normal or average or moderate or in the middle of anything, basically - middle aged, midddle class, middle management, middle of the road, all derided to various degrees.

this has political implications too maybe? why the Lib Dems don't get more votes?

Yes, absolutely, boring middle class geography teachers with beards on their elbows and leather patches on their faces

G00blar is correct, I think.

I read some interview with some also-ran minor beat poet figure whose name I perhaps appropriately cannot recall...but, anyhow, he said that the moderation in all things old-timey Greek cultural ideal actually meant be moderate most of the time, but occasionally over-indulge. (In other words, be moderate in regards to frequency of episodes of over-indulgence). I have doubts as to whether his interpretation is correct, or constitutes more of a wishful-thinking sort of revisionism, but at the same time, I agree with that take on things ultimately (and maybe perhaps only b/c I tend to live that way by default myself, at least in terms of my personal vices)

GG, yeah, but Lib Dems are cast as being radical extremists representative of the worst excesses of Hollywood, etc.

What, the UK political party, the Liberal Democrats are cast as being radical extremists representative of the worst excesses of Hollywood, etc.?