[Ali]

Welcome to the 47th
Anti-Dawson/Joey Thread









"Fifteen years of watching PG movies in your bedroom,
followed by another year and a half pretending to be grown up
only to drop each other at the first sign of crisis? That's your history?
Come on, man. And you call this woman your soulmate?"








Need we say more?

What We've Learned from Dawson and Joey

100. If you have sex with your "soul mate" you hair gets ruined for a year.
099. Only your soulmate would be way more passionate about making movies than about
you.
098. Only your soulmate would be relieved that someone else is taking care of you and it's
not her.
097. At any given opportunity, your soul mate will decline spending large amounts of time
with you.
096. After breaking up with your soupmate, you are no longer allowed to have any other
relationships, unless you decided to come back to said soupmate.
095. "Went out for breakfast" really means "I'm in a full-fledged relationship with another
woman and I'm gonna go break up with her on her answering machine."
094. Only your soulmate would choose to take dance lessons with your best friend over
you.
093. Only your soulmate would blame you for his father's death in an accident.
092. Don't EVER throw a surprise birthday party of your said soulmate... it will only turn
out to be a disaster.
091. If your soulmate tries to kill someone so they can win a boat race... RUN.
090. Only your soulmate would consider that you're not a hero.
089. Don't turn in your soul mates' father to the police.
088. Only your soulmate wouldn't know that the reason you look different is because you
lost your virginity to your boyfriend.
087. Only your soulmate would say that as long as he lives, he will never understand you.
086. Only your soulmate would see you crying on the dock and run in the opposite
direction to the man of her dreams.
085. Just because you have known someone your whole life doesn't mean you know them
as a person.
084. Soulmates don't want eachother, but nobody else can have them either.
083. Only your soulmate would be this oblivious about your feelings.
082. Only your soulmate would say he can't be himself when he's around you.
081. If your boyfriend says "the night is young", walk away.
080. Only your soulmate would say you're not the hero of the story.
079. Never make a pact to go to a prom with your guy friend when you are only a
freshman in high school.
078. When your soulmate says you are meant to be and she looks upset, that should be a
sign.
077. Don't read your soulmate's diary... or anyone's for that matter.
076. When your soulmate says she needs your friendship, which is completely different
from how she needs you're best friend, maybe you should catch a clue.
075. Don't blame your soulmate for your father's death.
074. You will only have a one night stand with your supposed "soulmate".
073. Everybody but your soulmate will know when you're falling madly in love with
someone.
072. Only your soulmate would tell her ex, who's your ex-best friend, that it wasn't her
choice that she didn't ask you to stay for her.
071. Only your soulmate would choose your best friend over you... TWICE!
070. Don't follow your heart because there will be consequences... like your soulmate
giving you ultimatums.
069. Just because you got your dream, doesn't mean you have everything else.
068. Only your soulmate would tell your best friend that your the past and he's her future.
067. Only your soulmate would forget you exist to go after another girl.
066. Only your soulmate would find you beautiful with makeup and a dress on.
065. Only your soulmate would be in denial about you waiting for him.
064. Note To Self: The only way of ever marrying your soulmate, is in your dreams.
063. Don't ruin a half-decent friendship by kissing said friend.
062. Only your soulmate will act like you betrayed him when you weren't even together.
061. A soulmate doesn't always mean the love of your life.
060. Only your soulmate would lose her virginity to your best friend.
059. Being someone's soulmate doesn't necessarily imply romantic connections.
058. Only your soulmate would say you don't inspire her to run a way with you.
057. Only your soulmate would lose complete touch with you while acquiring their own
dream and not even realize that you got back together with said best friend.
056. Thinking about spending the summer with your soulmate would make you this happy.
055. Only your soul mate would get a BJ from a stripper wannabe.
054. Only your soulmate would say he can't be himself around you.
053. Only your soulmate would compare your lives to TV or movies and try to rationalize
everything based on those outcomes.
052. Only your presumed soulmate would have to beg you to go to the prom with him,
promising it was just in friendship, then bribe you with diamond earings that he "borrowed
from his mom" to finally leave you standing in the street alone because you were dancing
with his best friend.
051. Only your soulmate would ignore your e-mails over 5 years.
050. Don't try to be like the guy your "soulmate" is in love with... You'll end up looking
like an even bigger ass.
049. Only your soulmate wouldn't be able to promise you that you are making the right
decision by staying because of her.
048. Only your soupmate would fail to mention to you that she changed her mind and will
actually attend your mother's wedding.
047. Only your soulmate would call you on the phone from her trip with your best friend
feeling scared and unsure of her feelings, and when she gets done talking to you.... She
finally shows a little... "Spine" by moving on and choosing who is truly in her heart....
and will run as fast as she can to "Real soulmate" and collapse's into his arms and "BED".
046. Only your soupmate would guilt you in going to a dance when you've just broken up
with the love of your life.
045. Only your soupmate would lose all contact with you for five years.
044. Only your soupmate would be so blind to see that you've actually fallen for someone
else.
043. Only your soupmate would think he makes you nervous, not taking into account that
you were just dancing with your HOTT True Love.
042. Only your soulmate wouldn't notice the longing looks between you and his best friend.
041. Only your soupmate would dump you after two months of dating under the lame
excuse that she wants to find herself.
040. Only your soupmate would force you to wear his mothers diamond earrings.
039. Only your soupmate would make you forget that he broke up with you and then try to
blame you for moving on.
038. Only your soupmate would start taking your clothes off and say "the night is young",
and think its romantic.
037. Only your soulmate would write a letter to manipulate you.
036. Only your soulmate would be a lousy driving instructor and yell at you while you're
learning.
035. Only your soulmate would make you turn in your own father.
034. Only your soupmate would cry over the fact of having to spend the summer with you.
033. Only your soulmate wouldn't understand why you two weren't together anymore.
032. Soupmates dont have sex they do a "hole in a sheet act".
031. Soupmates make you feel suffocated.
030. Choosing morals over the people you supposedly love never ends well.
029. When stating your 'soulmate' is like your sister, and being with her would be a little
incestuous... don't change your mind after you spot her wearing 10 pounds of makeup
and declare her yours for the rest of time.
028. When your soulmate says she's relieved that someone else is taking care of you, that
should tell you something.
(Let's continue!...)

"The truth is I've never thought of Joey in a romantic context. I've always thought of her
as like a sister. I just don't think I could ever get past that. If Joey and I got together
it would be, a little incestuous."

Reasons

01. They are way too co-dependent.
02. They held each other back.
03. They use each other as security blankets.
04. They are always 15 and having the same argument over and over and over.
05. They can never be together for longer than 2 months without breaking up.
06. They always have massive arguments, but never resolve anything.
07. They didn't want each other, they just didn't want to lose the other.
08. Dawson almost killed Pacey to win her love.
09. Their sex the first time was so bad, that they almost killed each other and
never repeated their mistake.
10. Their chemistry had no fizzle, like a flat soda.

Top 5 Fights

#1
The Longest Day - 3x20

"The way that I feel about him [Pacey] is completely separate from the
way that I feel about you and our friendship."




#2
The Song Remains the Same - 6x02

"Joey you and I both know if either one of us had stopped and thought for even a second
last night, then what we did never would've happened."




#3
Be Careful What You Wish For - 2x16

Face, meet cake.




#4
The Dance - 2x06

"There's no justifiable reason why the girl who spent the last 15 years of her life
pretending I was the only thing she wanted ended up kissing some other guy and lying about it."




#5
Parental Discretion Advised - 2x22

"What I have to say you're not gonna like, so I'll say it quickly. I hope one
day that I will be able to forgive my father for all of this. And I don't know if I'll ever be
able to forgive myself. But I know that I will never forgive you. See Dawson, there are
certain circumstances that love cannot overcome and from now on, I don't wanna know you."

Their Songs

I Want to Break Free – Queen
Jealous - Sinead O'Connor
The One - Foo Fighters
Big Girls Don’t Cry - Fergie
You're So Vain - Carly Simon
I'm not Your Type - Late Tuesday
My Nice-Friend Face – Late Tuesday
The One - Vanessa Carlton
Happy Without You - Annie
Listen - Beyoncé
It's Not - Aimee Mann
By Linkin Park:
One Step Closer
A Place for My Head
Pushing Me Away
Don't Stay

Videos

I Want to Break Free: Anti-Dawson and Joey
Born To Lose vs Sexy Thing
Why Aren't They Together?
My Girl's Ex-Boyfriend
The Triangle, Joey's POV - "I Belong to ME!"

"I like it but it... it's not love."
- Dawson

Awards

Worst Example for America's Youth
TV Guide: TV's Worst Couples

Links

Hysterical Blindness- TWOP Recap of DJ's Big Sex Scene

Quotes

Dawson: Even if Joey came up to me today and said, "I forgive and I forget," I wouldn't.
I wouldn't forget that most of the past year has been a hellish nightmare. It's been
verbalizing and angsting instead of living.



Pacey: Here we go again, kiddies. For the 476th time this hour, our number one billboard chart topper, 'The Ballad of Dawson and Joey'. Will those two crazy kids ever get back together again? Boy, I sure hope so.
Joey: Pacey, would you stay out of it?
Pacey: Of course, far be it from me, lowly creature that I am, to ever tread on the sanctity of the Dawson and Joey dynamic. Sorry, it's just that I find the way that you treat him so fascinating, Potter.
Joey: And how is that, Doctor Witter?
Pacey: Like he's some weird, neutered, little virginal creature.
Dawson: What's your problem?
Pacey: Huh! I don't have a problem. I am but a Greek chorus, here to observe and interpret.
Joey: Pacey, when did you adopt this mean streak?
Pacey: Come on, Joey. You and I, we've always been known for the 'Snap, Crackle, and Pop' of our repartee.
Joey: Right. The good natured banter. But to the best of my recollection, I don't remember it ever being pointed and it's never been hurtful.
Pacey: Or even being taken so seriously.
Joey: But how could I not take it seriously, Pacey? And you said, one harsh, nasty thing after another to me tonight. What did I really do to deserve all that?
Pacey: You didn't do anything to deserve this. The drunken lout in the corner just plead sheer frustration. I mean, honestly, do you have any idea how exhausting it is to exist on your periphery? Do witness this perpetual dance that you two have? One week you're soul-mates, the next week you're giving each other up for the greater good. I mean, do you think it's possible that sometime soon, you could make up your mind? Please? And on the reverence that you treat this little sage of yours with, is enough to make a guy puke.



Joey: I had spent the entire weekend thinking that you had heard everything I had to say on that message and that you came anyway. That you understood me.
Dawson: Joey, as long as I live, I will never understand you. I mean, I had this fantastic weekend. Hanging out with you. Hanging out with my friends. Questions whether or not, I even wanted to go back to LA, and then I wake up this morning to find out that the girl that was so upset that I couldn’t come, could actually kiss me off in the waning hours of Friday night.
Dawson: Joey, I am here. I’ve been here for two days, and only now are we finding a way to talk about stuff that really matters. Like why you left that message. All right? And you know, maybe that is the ending we are supposed to have. Maybe every other attraction that we feel each other is just, fear of moving on, fear of growing up.

Joey: Dawson, how do you know I'm not just a security blanket for you? You know, something
that you'll keep coming back to whenever the world gets scary.

Audrey: They do this all the time, right? No big whoop. I mean, it's normal to fight. It's healthy.
Pacey: Oh, I don't know if healthy's the word I would use to describe their relationship.
I mean, I'm all for "will they, won't they" finally getting their shot, but for two people
to be that dependent on each other for their life's happiness is just--
Audrey: Incredibly romantic?
Pacey: Or perhaps structurally unsound?
Jack: Yeah, I'll second that.

Future Thread Titles

Just two old friends making a big mistake.
Dawson is Joey's past tense.
Dawson & Joey = Past Tense
Because roommates doesn't equal soulmates.
Because 15 years of PG movies don't make soulmates.
Every attraction they felt for each other was just fear of growing up.
Because Dawson's one true love is Dawson.
Because they both ended up with their true loves, not each other.
Because trying to kill someone is not considered a romantic gesture.
Because he saw how much she loved Pacey. He saw it in her face.
Because their romance cheapened their friendship.
If date night is "E.T."... then that's their foreplay.

Past Threads

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45,
46

[firewall]

TFTNT, Ali!

I love the side by side comparison of Joey's facial expressions in the OP. Really does say it all.

[smile4me06]

Rachey I definitely am!!!

TYFTNT! I just read through the OP, and I love it! This seriously might be my favorite thread ever!

[clarkson_fan]

TFTNT!!

Continuing on from the old thread, when Joey says "Goodbye" to Pacey i hate how she glances quickly at Dawson as if she needs to see if he's okay with her saying "goodbye" Like seriously, has Dawson done so much emotional damage to you that you can't even say one word to Pacey without feeling like you're betraying Dawson somehow? Okay, Joey. Get a spine. And Dawson. Get a life.

[firewall]

Well said, clarkson-fan!

Dawson treated Joey like his property. He didn't love her enough to want her to be happy--even if that meant being happy with someone else. He only wanted to possess her and be the most important person in her life.

Meanwhile, Joey let herself fall prey to Dawson's emotional blackmail. And she almost lost the love of her life as a result. Imagine if Dawson hadn't finally told her to go to Pacey? She would have just let Pacey leave and continue to be miserable by Dawson's side throughout the entire summer. I'll just never understand why she let Dawson have that much power over her.

If she had stood back and looked at the situation like an adult, she would have seen that if Dawson really cared about her and really considered himself to be her "soulmate" *gag*, then he would have eventually forgiven her for following her heart. And if he didn't forgive her, well, then that should tell her something...

[Age-a-licious]

This thread is so funny to me. I have no idea why thought. I just love reading the reasons why they would never be. "When soulmates have sex, there hair looks bad for a year"

[fringe du jour]

The thing is Joey eventually forgave Dawson for making her turn her father in to the cops. He could have given her the same sort of forgiveness when she fell for Pacey. Dawson was one of the most selfish characters I've ever seen. Selfish and spoiled. Nobody had a life separate from him they were all supporting cast to his internal leading roll.

[Rachey1984]

Well said clarkson_fan - worst thing is Joey was portrayed as such a strong character. When it came to Dawson she was always like a love sick puppy.

The speech Joey gives Pacey in 'Self Reliance' I can't remember the exact words but she says whenever she's around him she feels 15 again. I'm watching S4 DVD's at the moment and I hate the way Joey is so upset by the notion of Dawson and Gretchen, why should she care? She's with somebody she loves and as long as Dawson isn't pining after Joey anymore then the triangle ceases to exist right? And Pacey is so understanding towards her precious feelings for Dawson, in the real world she would have some serious explaining to do.

One more thing, Gretchen is constantly making references about Joey to Dawson as 'this girl he broke up with last year' - they broke up soooooooo long before that and their brief relationship hardly set the world alight! Very annoying!!

[Finnegan]

If asked to summarize DC's message in one sentence, I'd say:

"Dawson's Creek" depicts the vicissitudes of mate selection in the contemporary West, and elicits sympathy for youth's subjection to them ironically, by focusing on a character, Dawson, who longs for an unattainable escape from them by cultivating a doomed fantasy that he is predestined to marry an all-but-biological sister close to him from early childhood.

Dawson is kind and throughly likable, and to fail to sympathize with his fantasy would be heartless. But to fail to realize that it is unattainable, that Dawson must give up his fantasy, is to miss what modern Western society cruelly requires of its young.

I suspect that this may be why the show was so successful - popular even among highly educated adults, as a creative writing professor then at Yale, now at Harvard, Jane Rosenzweig, noted in an essay, "Reality Lite," in The American Prospect magazine in July 2000.

The burden of choice and uncertainty in modern youth is heavy and historically novel. In traditional society, one did what one's father or mother did for a living, lived where they had lived, and married one of a very small set of available mates, usually in one's teens, and usually in a match arranged by one's elders. The advent of specialization of labor over the past two centuries has utterly changed all that. Now there is a vast choice of careers, locations, and mates, extending over an adolescence prolonged by educational requirements, during which one lacks the income and stability needed to marry and raise children. Now, throughout one's decade of greatest biological lust, one is unable to comply, short of celibacy, with the demands of traditional sexual morality, namely to gratify lust only in marriage, to channel desire into posterity.

The contemporary popular culture that has arisen in response to the inapplicability of traditional culture to social conditions created by specialization of labor is less a rejection of traditional sexual morality than an attempt to adapt it to those novel conditions, to salvage as much of it as possible. Modern popular culture does this by romanticizing serial monogamy as a norm preferable to the libertinage of casual sex or the emotional isolation of celibacy during the unnaturally and cruelly protracted adolescence: it seeks above all to inspire courage to commit emotionally to relationships likely to be transient, at best uncertain in duration, to shoulder the yoke of heartbreak as the only alternative, throughout our decade of greatest lust, to casual sex or celibacy. "Breaking up is hard to do," as the classic rock song put it.

The core moral problem is that compassion requires sustenance from passion, especially in youth, and neither libertinism nor celibacy provides compassion with the support it needs. Would a society in which the professional classes -- doctors, lawyers, MBAs, academics -- were either libertines or celibates until their late 20s or early 30s, serve well the ultimate goal of traditional morality? Would it be a society in which people were better able to love their neighbors as themselves? A society in which people were better prepared, at a late age, to marry and raise children? The problem is that the emotional cost is high: we arrive at marriage and child-raising not only later but more scarred emotionally, less trusting, than we once did; to cope with this and fight against it, it helps adults to understand that they are scarred, and why. Modern adults cannot understand and fight their own emotional malaise without understanding how unnatural are the hardships of modern youth that gave rise to it. Hence the appeal of WB teen dramas to "boomers."

The genius of the WB network's teen TV offerings, and of "Dawson's Creek" in particular, was to show contemporary youth culture from a perspective with which people committed to traditional culture could sympathize, and thereby to evoke the sympathy of the traditional for the contemporary. The kids on the WB shows were unrealistic: that they were more beautiful physically than real kids merely masked and complemented a more important difference: they were more moral than real kids. The protagonists all had active consciences, and struggled to do the right thing, under social conditions in which traditional morality offered no readily applicable guidance. But these shows also evoked the sympathy of teen-aged viewers for the core of traditional morality, suggesting and perhaps helping them to understand the moral traditionalism of a popular culture widely disparaged as undermining rather than salvaging traditional sexual morality. The WB's teen dramas tried to serve, in a modest way, as peace-makers in America's "culture wars," increasingly the main conflict of American politics, and "Dawson's Creek" was particularly good at it. (To see how consciously its writers tried to serve in this role, one need only consider the character of Jen's grandmother, a devout and saintly Christian, portrayed with utmost sympathy.)

Having lived in societies where arranged marriages are still common, and having seen that such traditional mate-selection can function well, and being keenly aware from my fondness for reading history that modern mate-selection in the West is very different from anything seen in any past society, I personally am quite sympathetic to Dawson's fantasy. But there is no way to return to traditional mate-selection unless we are prepared to curtail specialization of labor and return at least part of the way to growing our own food, spinning and weaving our own clothes, etc. Absent such a return, traditional youth is dead, and the traditional family is doomed. We still have not understood this, and failure to understand it gives rise to America's "culture war." Nor do we want to understand this, because it is not a happy predicament with an easy solution. But the WB's teen dramas, and "Dawson's Creek" in particular, help to nudge us, unwilling though we be, toward greater understanding of our modern predicament.

[Ali]

Glad you guys like the OP! I'm still adding quotes from the last thread. I know there are tons more too we haven't thought of.

Originally Posted by clarkson_fan (View Post) Continuing on from the old thread, when Joey says "Goodbye" to Pacey i hate how she glances quickly at Dawson as if she needs to see if he's okay with her saying "goodbye" Like seriously, has Dawson done so much emotional damage to you that you can't even say one word to Pacey without feeling like you're betraying Dawson somehow? Okay, Joey. Get a spine. And Dawson. Get a life.

I second all of this!

Originally Posted by Rachey1984 (View Post) One more thing, Gretchen is constantly making references about Joey to Dawson as 'this girl he broke up with last year' - they broke up soooooooo long before that and their brief relationship hardly set the world alight! Very annoying!!

Ahh, yes. The rewriting of history. Like Dawson saying in S2 that he's "been in love with Joey for 15 years."

[firewall]

Originally Posted by Finnegan (View Post) "Dawson's Creek" depicts the vicissitudes of mate selection in the contemporary West, and elicits sympathy for youth's subjection to them ironically, by focusing on a character, Dawson, who longs for an unattainable escape from them by cultivating a doomed fantasy that he is predestined to marry an all-but-biological sister close to him from early childhood.

So true. And it took him over 15 years to even realize he was "predestined to marry" Joey, his practically-adopted sister. This sums up what is wrong with them as a couple and what's wrong with their chemistry over all. Its practically incestuous.

[Finnegan]

Yes, Rainydreams, but if one fails to empathize with Dawson's fantasy, one misses the point of the show. The empathy is all.

Dawson's fantasy would NOT have been unrealistic in Europe or America 200 years ago. It would not be unrealistic today in a rural village in Africa, India, or China.

Dawson's fantasy is in fact natural and historically normal, and that is is no longer realistic for us is a cruelty that specialization of labor inflicts on modern youth. We pay a higher emotional price for our material prosperity than we commonly understand.

[clarkson_fan]

Originally Posted by Finnegan (View Post) Yes, Rainydreams, but if one fails to empathize with Dawson's fantasy, one misses the point of the show. The empathy is all. Dawson's fantasy would NOT have been unrealistic in Europe or America 200 years ago. It would not be unrealistic today in a rural village in Africa, India, or China. Dawson's fantasy is in fact natural and historically normal, and that is is no longer realistic for us is a cruelty that specialization of labor inflicts on modern youth. We pay a higher emotional price for our material prosperity than we commonly understand.

Wait, i'm a little confused. Are you anti-DJ, or are you just here to try and get us to like Dawson? Or sympathize with him? And its not 200 years ago, so...yeah. And it isn't like that in Africa, India, or China. Things have progressed very much in these countries and anyway, i'm not understanding your point.

[Finnegan]

Originally Posted by clarkson_fan (View Post) Wait, i'm a little confused. Are you anti-DJ, or are you just here to try and get us to like Dawson? Or sympathize with him?

I'm trying to express, and invite discussion of, my understanding of the core message of "Dawson's Creek" in its cultural context: that message, in my view, entails both sympathy for Dawson's fantasy of marrying his childhood friend and awareness that he must give it up. That's not very complicated. And this board seems to have no more appropriate thread on which to do it.

It isn't like that in Africa, India, or China.

Lived in any of those places? Learned any of their languages? Spent time in any rural villages in any of them? I have.

I'm not understanding your point.

"Blessed are the peacemakers." My point is that "Dawson's Creek," like WB teen shows generally but more effectively than most of them, tred to help moderate America's "culture war" by fostering empathy between the adherents of traditional and popular cultures, helping them to see one another not as enemies but as potential friends. Dawson's fantasy, to escape the emotional trials of modern mate-selection, is a longing for now-dead conditions under which our traditional sexual morality evolved and to which it was far more applicable than it is to current conditions. Dawson fancies himself entitled to a benefit of a traditional society; that benefit is unattainable because that society is dead. Other than that, I'm sorry, I really can't say it any better than I did the first time:

"Dawson's Creek" depicts the vicissitudes of mate selection in the contemporary West, and elicits sympathy for youth's subjection to them ironically, by focusing on a character, Dawson, who longs for an unattainable escape from them by cultivating a doomed fantasy that he is predestined to marry an all-but-biological sister close to him from early childhood. ... To fail to sympathize with his fantasy would be heartless. But to fail to realize that it is unattainable, that Dawson must give up his fantasy, is to miss what modern Western society cruelly requires of its young. In traditional society, one did what one's father or mother did for a living, lived where they had lived, and married one of a very small set of available mates, usually in one's teens, and usually in a match arranged by one's elders. The advent of specialization of labor over the past two centuries has utterly changed all that. Now there is a vast choice of careers, locations, and mates, extending over an adolescence prolonged by educational requirements, during which one lacks the income and stability needed to marry and raise children. Now, throughout one's decade of greatest biological lust, one is unable to comply, short of celibacy, with the demands of traditional sexual morality, namely to gratify lust only in marriage, to channel desire into posterity. The contemporary popular culture that has arisen in response to the inapplicability of traditional culture to social conditions created by specialization of labor is less a rejection of traditional sexual morality than an attempt to adapt it to those novel conditions, to salvage as much of it as possible .. by romanticizing serial monogamy as a norm preferable to the libertinage of casual sex or the emotional isolation of celibacy during unnaturally and cruelly protracted adolescence: it seeks above all to inspire courage to commit emotionally to relationships likely to be transient, at best uncertain in duration, to shoulder the yoke of heartbreak. ... The genius of the WB network's teen TV offerings, and of "Dawson's Creek" in particular, was to show contemporary youth culture from a perspective with which people committed to traditional culture could sympathize ... helping them to understand the moral traditionalism of a popular culture widely disparaged as undermining rather than salvaging traditional sexual morality. The WB's teen dramas tried to serve, in a modest way, as peace-makers in America's "culture wars," increasingly the main conflict of American politics, and "Dawson's Creek" was particularly good at it.

[Wingster]

Lived in any of those places? Learned any of their languages? Spent time in any rural villages in any of them? I have.

As someone who has spent time in India and is of Indian descent i find that assessment a bit incorrect if not slightly insulting.

The society you're describing mostly doesn't exist anymore.