A hypothesis has gradually been forming in my mind. I'm not certain it's true, but it seems like a decent explanation of phenomena I've observed. So I thought I'd share it to get your feedback. Do you agree? Is there a better explanation? Here goes...
My post-modern generation is not comfortable with good examples, and that both helps and hurts us. Let me back up a bit...
From what I've seen of the 1940-50's (TV, books, movies), "good" examples were everywhere (Leave it to Beaver, Nancy Drew). Pop culture was inspirational -- a picture of what the audience could and should be. The happy family. The hard-worker. The obedient children. Society encouraged obedience and conformity. Which meant 1) certain moral values were expected and often followed, and 2) a lot of people lived with secrets, guilt, miscommunication, shame, and a lack of freedom to be all God made them to be (blacks, women, artists, etc).
The decades since seem to have swung the pendulum the other direction. Sick of the hypocrisy, the claustrophobically narrow acceptable paths, and the inability to match those pictures of perfection, many Americans pushed back. We'd rather have realism than idealism, authenticity over simplicity, freedom over security. And entertainment responded with Homer Simpson, Bridget Jones, Tony Soprano,
Running with Scissors (and thousands of other memoirs detailing bizarre and disturbing childhoods), Carrie Bradshaw, countless graphic crime dramas, apocalyptic literature, even flawed superheroes (
Batman Returns,
Spidey 3 - both of which I loved, btw, but which "updated" these characters from their earlier, flatter incarnations) -- most of which are not so much "realistic" as they are "anti-idealistic" (more negative than reality).
Which brings me back to my generation. We're used to heroes that make us--the audience--feel good. Rather than hiding flaws, we magnify them -- to laugh at them (Talladega Nights), to address them (
Inside Job), and often to celebrate that we're not
that bad.
This shift makes current pop culture an easy target for those who grew up before 1965. They expect books/movies/tv to model good values and good behavior rather than mocking bad behavior or showing compassion for the imperfect. I really appreciate the honesty, frank discussions, and even solutions that come from our current openness. If you can't talk about it, you can't begin to solve it.
However, I also see four dangers associated with taking this model too far:
1)
Withdrawal - We're so sensitive to and uncomfortable with positive examples that anyone else's good behavior can feel like an indictment of our own. I have friends who won't come to a young moms group because they might hear about something they're not doing and feel guilty. How can we grow & learn unless we can see and share negative
and positive ideas, examples, and solutions?
2)
Ignorance - Many in my generation don't really know what a healthy family or intelligent Christian or good father looks like. In the 1980s,
The Cosby Show introduced many to what an educated, affluent African-American family could look like, and it had a real impact on the culture, inspiring kids to reach for a life they didn't previously know was possible. Who's doing this today?
3)
Misinterpretation - There's always the possibility that bad models will be mistaken for good ones. How many teen boys see all the men behaving badly in movies and think it's cool to mimic those behaviors?
4)
GIGO - On some level, trash is trash, no matter how good the lesson it's supposed to be delivering. If you take in enough negativity, it's gonna have a negative impact.
I don't expect popular culture to be Christian, to promote my values, or to make my life easy. It's supposed to be a challenge that exercises my critical thinking skills, keeps me on my toes, and sometimes entertains. But if history is any indication, the pendulum only goes so far for so long before it starts to swing back toward the center, and I for one, would welcome a little more balance.
