Culture Thursday: On MAGA and the willful misunderstanding of pop culture

The reviews are coming in for the latest reboot of the Superman mythos, and they go from commendatory to glowing.

People think of superhero movies and science fiction films as pabulum, as aimed at the lowest-common denominator. The iconic director Martin Scorsese years ago said that comic book movies were not real art.

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of them. But what is the difference between, say, Captain America and The Iliad? Both deal with mythic themes and almost-divine heroes. In the grand scheme of things there's little difference between Achilles and Batman. Read some Joseph Campbell and you'll see that the same stories are being retold, but adapted to the culture and the times. George Lucas cited Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces as a major influence on his creation and conception of the Star Wars mythology. Star Trek takes its inspiration in the old medieval morality plays. Nothing under the sun is new; so you remake it into something new.

All of this is to say that, contra Scorsese, yes, this is art, and important art. Art which is entertaining is no less art for that.

But what I want to speak on is how people who have no concept of art, or mythology, or metaphor, or allusions are all flustered by the new Superman film.

Director James Gunn has made it clear that the story of Superman is the story of an immigrant finding his place in America. Yes, he's an almost divinely-powerful alien from another, dead planet, much different than the campesino traversing the length of Central America to try and escape the poverty and violence of his homeland. But it's hard to deny that Superman is in all senses of the word an immigrant, an alien in a strange land, trying to figure out how to be who he is when he is different from all those around him. If that is not the immigrant experience, I don't know what is.

MAGA is up in arms over Gunn's assertions. What does he know? I mean, he's just the director of the film who put in the subtext. But why does it have to be "woke"? Can't people leave out the politics?

MAGA says the same about Star Trek and Star Wars. The world of Star Trek is one of Utopia, where war, poverty, disease, and bigotry have been eliminated. It is a post-capitalist society, where on Earth every human being's needs are met, and people work for fulfillment, not merely to survive. Species across the Federation join Starfleet and risk death not for monetary gain or power, but out of idealism. And Star Wars? Its nine core films, spinoff films, and television programs are one long exposition on the perils of authoritarianism, and the resistance to it. The Empire is a fascist empire, and the First Order is its neo-Nazi successor state. It is far from a simple "space opera".

So it puzzles me why authoritarians are fans of such works of art. What pleasure do they derive from them? What lessons do they learn? Because most of these films, books, and comic books are the antithesis of the MAGA ideology. They are explicit rebukes of it. Just like there is nothing new in the world of art, there is nothing new in the struggle between freedom and dictatorship. Human history has been one long story of men—yes, 99% men—seeking to impose their wills on those weaker than them, and the weak fighting back and resisting. Art has a liberal bias. More than that, it has a bias towards freedom. "Art" by conservatives pales in comparison, for they cannot grasp that the essence of art is to liberate and to expand what it means to be human. Conservatives want to constrict and limit human expression. And thus we have conservatives/authoritarians on social media bemoaning wokeness in their favorite franchises, proving that they do not understand what those franchises stand for. It's like Paul Ryan saying that Rage Against the Machine was his favorite band. Did he ever actually read the lyrics on the liner notes? As I remember a comment when that revelation came out, Ryan is the machine against which the band rages.

The reason is very simple. Conservative authoritarians have no culture of their own. Lee Greenwood? Kid Rock? Feh. Anything exciting and bracing is produced by the left. And as pop culture is omnipresent, it's no surprise that they consume it. But they know the messages are directed against them, and they feel slighted. But what choice do they have? Kirk Cameron and his woeful End Times films? Kevin Sorbo? Roseanne Barr? I don't blame them for not wanting to restrict themselves to such fare. But their little, addled, constricted souls cannot reconcile the art they love with what they believe. So as they still consume that art, they rail against it, hoping that it will become more to their liking.

It must be galling to know that most of the world's cultural production is not meant for you. That you have no place in it. That the few outlets for your worldview pale in comparison. Rather than engendering a reconsideration of their beliefs, they merely wallow in victimhood. They're addicted to a culture which is not meant for them, and they hate it and themselves for it. 

All of the great comic book heroes stand against tyranny. If that disturbs one, one must ask hard questions of oneself. Of course, one won't. For that would be a psychic shock which one wouldn't survive. So, they just keep shoving the food into their mouths, swearing the next bite will be the final one. And it never is.