A couple of posts ago I wrote that the landscape of American mythology is "brittle" at this moment. It is as if we have all just woken up from a The Matrix-style dream and have realized we must deal with a reality that is much, much worse than the dream.
Photo: time to get back to the basics-- chili and coleslaw.
It's a funny thing to realize that in the last five years we've been in two wars that have cost the world hundreds of thousands of lives, and that we've gotten into trillions of dollars in debt from them, and yet the biggest news now is how we ignored the suffering and the cost and spent and speculated ourselves domestically into a near-depression.
Now that's the kind of realization to induce a headache.
(Here is a little hair of the dog, however, and he's good on myth, too. Check his book on my books list)
We could have dealt with the pain earlier, but not enough of us were ready, and who knows whether if (for example) we put the Democrats in power in 2004 anything would be better today. It all seems so inevitable in retrospect.
But seeming inevitability is the job of myth-- stories with power to mould our minds-- and myth did a great job in the last five years.
This is a big topic for more than one blog post-- and I hope you'll give me your ideas about it as we go forward. Let me give a few examples to start.
The rise of universal Internet, in which I, yes I, absolutely participate-- has given us a 24/7 distraction that was not there before. I remember a scene in Wall-E this summer where the inhabitants of Spaceship Earth, rendered almost unable to walk by 700 years of weightlessness, sit on power hover chairs glued to a screen that tells them that "blue is the new red," and they all, in unison, click on a screen and instantly change their identical space suits from red to blue.
(Wall-E I thought very dark, though others disagreed).
The Internet can be a powerful engine of political organization and community-building, as President-elect Obama demonstrated in this campaign. But it can also ram home the message that you are the only one who exists and who matters, as you fly, god-like, through a universe of other people who seem not to be able to see you unless you want them to.
Reality shows reinforced this impression, especially as we watched them and saw people suffer, but did nothing about it but perhaps click on a link to vote for them.
Competition shows like American Idol gave us the impression that the most important thing in the world was personal fulfillment and following one's dream. In the meantime, a small percentage of the American people was overseas sacrificing themselves for us-- and they still are.
A couple of other examples: shows such as Flip That House, about speculators buying cheap houses in bad condition, renovating them, and selling them for hundreds of thousands of dollars of profit, aggravated the housing bubble.
The Food Channel has also contributed to our obesity epidemic. Every show-- and I love them all-- features food that is just a bit special, and therefore has that little something extra that we could do without. Emeril constantly adds that extra butter or cream and makes an excuse like, "Hey, it's Thanksgiving!" Except that when you see rich food constantly on TV, you're encouraged to have it constantly in real life.
(And if every meal is a feast, but you don't have the money for it, use your credit card. Again and again.)
(BTW: Highly beware the show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, which features restaurants that have the most obscenely fattening and delicious food: ribs, hamburgers, deep-fried everything, and all eaten with undisguised glee by spiky-haired host, Guy Fieri. Click on the link at your own risk. You will lose time and drool).
Hollywood, which has a strong liberal streak, attempted to counteract some of the mythology through war movies such as Lions for Lambs, In the Valley of Elah, and Redacted. None of these did well at the box office, first because no one ever likes prophets, and second because most of us didn't want to be reminded we were in a war.
Which was exactly how the administration wanted us to be.
For a mythology lover, the last five years have given me the chance to sit back, observe, and enjoy. I'll continue to analyze, but I'm going to hope that this lack of mythology continues on for a while, at least until it's replaced by stories that keep us awake and aware, rather than numb and dumb.
Photo: Tuck, awake and aware, and ready for a walk.
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