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| Here, a deranged Superman rips the Joker apart. |
What
happened to make serial killers, cannibals, vampires, werewolves, witches and
zombies such sympathetic figures in 21st century American popular
culture? The right-wing American corporate culture made ruthless evil
fashionable. That’s what happened.
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
tear open the throats of innocent people. Is that so wrong?
Even
Superman is only acceptable now if he lets his foster father die and breaks
some necks. During the Depression, the hunger for economic justice and anger at
inequality were white-hot. Ordinary people, feeling powerless, naturally turned
to superhero fantasy. The 21st century Superman, by contrast, is starting to
seem indifferent to the suffering of
ordinary people.
“What was
I supposed to do, just let them drown?”
“Maybe.”
I guess
the Man of Steel filmmakers actually
expected us to take
Pa Kent's answer seriously.
Jim Jenkins said: "The townsfolk now line up behind the monsters with their pitchforks and torches to identify and destroy the truth tellers, the teachers, the nurses, the mental health professionals, the reporters, the union activists, anyone heretically trying to give their family a leg up. The townsfolk recognize that they are after all only one lottery ticket away from enjoying monster status themselves."
ReplyDeleteLarry Blalock said: This ugly ubiquitous meanness, along with the normalization of deception in our culture, politics, communications and business, the endless wars, corporate corruption, poverty and near poverty and the crime it breads, the mass incarceration and police brutality, environmental devastation and unsustainable production, consumption and waste, the commodification of everything...none of this occurs in a vacuum.
ReplyDeleteAll of it and much more, in my view, is deeply rooted in the dog-eat-dog nature of the system of organized greed we call capitalism.
It's important to identify the many problems while we also begin to recognize and reveal the systemic root cause of this meanness.
'A better world is possible' as a World Social Forum slogan proclaimed.
It will take all of us to help make it happen.
Larry Blalock said: This ugly ubiquitous meanness, along with the normalization of deception in our culture, politics, communications and business, the endless wars, corporate corruption, poverty and near poverty and the crime it breads, the mass incarceration and police brutality, environmental devastation and unsustainable production, consumption and waste, the commodification of everything...none of this occurs in a vacuum.
ReplyDeleteAll of it and much more, in my view, is deeply rooted in the dog-eat-dog nature of the system of organized greed we call capitalism.
It's important to identify the many problems while we also begin to recognize and reveal the systemic root cause of this meanness.
'A better world is possible' as a World Social Forum slogan proclaimed.
It will take all of us to help make it happen.