Sopranos: nostalgia mafia

Lately I've been on a wicked Sopranos kick.\n I've never seen the show on TV, so a buddy of mine lent me his DVDs. Consequently, I'm hooked. \nAside from the drama, violence and sex, there's a special aspect of the show that intrigues me and keeps me watching more than any other.\nBig guys kissing each other.\nNow, it's not that I want to see Tony Soprano and Pauli Walnuts in the back of the Bada Bing Club making Christopher a real made man. No, the whacking they do is strictly of the violent nature. Rather, what really makes the show fun for me is the respect and old world politics they adhere to, even though it seems to contradict their tough-guy attitudes.\nTony once told his daughter Meadow, "It may be 1999 out there, but in this house it's 1954." The world of the Sopranos is a world where youngsters don't mouth off to their elders, mothers are cherished -- even under the most extreme of strains -- and no foul language is tolerated at the dinner table.\nThey are miffed when the school psychologist attempts to wash away their son's behavior problems by diagnosing everybody's-favorite-excuse-syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder. And when Tony gets a flat tire and his son suggests calling the auto club, Tony is irate. "We change tires in this house," he says.\nHow do we fall in love with men for whom robbery and murder are their primary sources of income?\nIt seems what we like about these mobsters is their frankness concerning the superciliousness of the suburban-yuppie lives that those of us who actually purchase HBO lead.\nFor the average American, the Sopranos offer a nostalgic glimpse into the past, a respite from what economic sociologist Juliet Schor in her recent book The Overworked American calls "the insidious cycle of work-and-spend."\nWhile we work hard and reap the benefits, we lose focus on paying time and attention to the rank and file of family and to actual manual labor. Rank and file disappears when we're all working for self interest. The new rank and file emerges out of who's worked the most for the most. \nIn regard to labor, we work hard so that we don't have to. As Homer Simpson eloquently put it, "Why can't somebody else do it?" Indeed, for nine out of ten family chores, hired help has emerged out of the woodwork to take care of the messes we don't care to deal with.\nIt's the schools responsibilty to discipline our kids. Auto maintenance belongs to the dealership. Mowing the grass belongs to lawn care companies. Stapling the pizza guy's hand to his car steering wheel because he owes you money now belongs to the Pizzoli Brothers -- well, I guess some things never change.\nYet, is nostalgia the ideal we should strive for? Didn't we progress for a reason?\nThough 1954 had a sense of value and order, didn't it also look the other way when husbands beat their wives? Civil rights was still a dream in the making, and no one in L.A. had any idea what a grandé mocha latté was.\nIn 1954, I couldn't afford to buy or even be privy to owning the Sopranos first season DVD boxed set.\nPerhaps I'll leave Tony on TV and allow the yuppie in me to vicariously purge every Sunday night with the opening theme. \nHe may have "got himself a gun," but I thank God that at least I don't need one.