What happened to make serial killers, vampires, werewolves, witches and zombies such sympathetic figures in American popular culture?
The American corporate right wingers made ruthless evil fashionable. That’s what happened.
And I don't mean Wiccans, but witches as a monster symbol. Popular culture is a funhouse mirror that distorts — but actually reflects — the society which spawns it.
Ruthless predatory behavior is admired and rewarded in American society, so what's wrong with monsters? Nothing. They just want to rend and tear. Is that so wrong?
And Superman is only acceptable now if he breaks some necks.
SilkkyFire replied, “I'm 61 and probably a little bit of a weirdo, even among my own generational cohort. But I can tell you, the explicit violence and constant references to torture and suffering in streamed drama is both shocking and unbearable. It makes a lot of programming (some of which is otherwise excellent) almost impossible to watch.
“Many years ago now, I was watching an episode of CSI and there was a scene where the techs were pulling pieces of a man out of a tiger's gut while making catty comments. Network television! I shut the thing off, and I was done. Never watched that show again.
“We have become very blasé about explicit depictions of pain and suffering, taking it all in with crude cynicism. Does it make us more compassionate to be entertained by those things? I don't think so. I think it becomes more like porn, with the ante constantly rising, and the mind engaging with it, corrupted. It doesn’t bode well for what we are becoming.”
Habbbb replied, “Agree with you both, and would note that the insistence on ‘getting back to normal’ while covid continues killing and disabling large numbers of people, as well as tourists in Hawaii swimming and snorkeling where more than a thousand still are missing and where bodies were seen floating soon after the devastating fire, are real-life examples of this dissociative/sociopathic horror.”
SilkkyFire said, “Thank you. Our politics is a horror show, but the increasingly indecent nature of our culture (which our politics reflects) makes me deeply sad. When I say ‘indecent’ — well, I don’t care if you wear a tank top to the grocery store or say ‘damn!’ when you stub your toe. That is not what I am talking about. To me ‘decency’ really is comprised of two things: Honesty, and a caring attitude in regard to others. Is that who we are? Is that what we value?”
Disgruntled in CT replied, “It started long ago. Exploitation is not new. It was the bedrock on which this country was built. The culture reflects it. Long ago it was the brave gunfighter fighting the bloodthirsty Indian. All societies seem to develop in similar fashion. But in developed nations, we should want to progress toward a more equal society. Unfortunately, this can’t happen if our standard for success is wealth.”
Paul Allen:
ReplyDeleteYours is a nation that proclaimed Liberty as an absolute right, but relied upon slavery in order for you to prosper. That contradiction has transformed over time, but still dominates your national psyche.
Louis Janney:
ReplyDeleteWe have one of the major candidates in one party who promises to start “slitting throats” of all of the woke deep state actors upon his inauguration. And he’s reportedly a Harvard trained lawyer who incidentally laughed at GITMO detainees being tortured while he was there to protect their rights.
Let's get a wider view and watch how amorality is sold to our society. Once we regarded “Lord of the Flies” as a horror story. Now we treat it as comedy on “Survivor.” And children raised on nothing but Hollywood's product could be forgiven if they thought the two most popular professions in America were “assassin” and “prostitute.”
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