Popular Culture and Personal Delusions, by Doug Abramson – The Guest Spot

April 17, 2011 Guest Spot 0 Comments

There have been some events recently that have made me realize that many people brainwash themselves into believing that some personally cherished piece of popular culture was not only better than it was, it has become sacrosanct. One of the events was Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday. You might be wondering what a deceased president’s birthday has to do with pop culture. With most presidents I wouldn’t classify it as pop culture; but Reagan’s birthday had almost nothing to do with what he did, or was as an actor, man, or politician. The events had to do with what I call “St. Ronnie the First”. St. Ronnie is a fictionalized character, based on a real person. A little like Santa Claus. He is a personification of what some people want a politician to be. He believed what they believe, was infallible, unbending and never strayed from the proper ideology. President Reagan wasn’t perfect, he was a real man that could make mistakes; and was a pragmatic politician that could compromise for the greater good. This isn’t St. Ronnie, so where did he come from and why do some people worship this fictional character instead of respecting the real man. Why do they cling to this character so hard, that to even suggest that the real man wasn’t the image in their heads, causes many of them to irrationality insist that he was; regardless of any evidence presented to them?

This behavior isn’t restricted to dead presidents. Many areas of popular culture, especially so called geek culture, have similar rose colored blind spots. A recent example that I ran into on a cartoon blog involved the classic Disney characters. Somebody at The Mouse’s marketing department decided to license a line of “Urban Chic” clothes. I’m not sure what that means exactly, but the pictures on the site looked like a fifty year old white man’s concept of what modern R&B fashion, crossed with graffiti art and Mickey & Friends should look. Personally, the clothes didn’t do a thing for me. I chocked that up to me not being the audience and thought that that was that. Then I actually read the posts and related comments. A large number of the people on the site were ranting that this was a cheap money grab, a bad idea, badly designed and (my personal favorite) an insult to Walt Disney and THE CHARACTERS! Disney let his creations get slapped on a ton of products in the ‘30s and ‘40s, as long as the check cleared. He began to be more image focused after WWII, but a great deal of the merchandise was cheap and designed only to make a quick buck. There’s nothing wrong with that. Mr. Disney was running a business, not an art theory seminar; but people want to talk about his artistic integrity, while ignoring the fact that he was a business man. As for insulting the characters; after living through Disco Mickey as a kid, I didn’t think that they could be insulted anymore. Why do people get so worked up when commerce conflicts with their version of someone else’s artistic vision?

The answer to both of my questions seems to be: self-delusion. What causes these kind of delusions? Why can’t so many people find a real politician, with real positions and values to believe in? Why do so many people become enraged when a corporate owned property is presented in a manner that they don’t like? Why can’t they focus on the versions that they do like? Why can’t they ignore the versions that they don’t? Why can’t they metaphorically “turn the channel” and find something to enjoy? Is emotional distress more enjoyable than having fun? Is deluding one’s self over pop culture worth the effort? What causes these delusions? I don’t know, but I think that a lot of people would be much happier if they got over themselves.

Doug Abramson lives in Southern California and is gonna go look for an Urban Chic Hong Kong Phooey T-shirt at the big and tall store.