Great article. We are amidst the ashes having to rebuild. A burden and a gift to us artists who are able to build a vision for the future. Hopefully I can get good enough to inspire others.
Dave Martel (Bizarchives) and Matthew Pungitore did a podcast on Hyper-romanticism vs Neo-decadence, well worth a listen if you haven't already - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5h2gtTfGaA - and there was a disagreement on the good, the true, and the beautiful that is going to take years of creating art to figure out an answer to. The only way to answer this question is to make art. More artists, more art, and more conversations about art.
We have spent enough time pinpointing the problems of today and being anti-something is not sufficient. A look at right wing politics in the west has demonstrated that for twenty years. We need a positive vision and, yes, the true, the good, and the beautiful is that but not if we don't agree on what those three words mean or are symbolised by.
An additional problem is satire. Three of the most recognised 'right wing' fictional settings, Starship Troopers, Judge Dredd (2000AD), and Warhammer 40k are seen as or intended as satire. Jokes. As a result I think right wing messages, hierarchy good, heroism good, faith good, etc, can be misinterpreted by audiences used to seeing these things mocked as not serious or necessary to good living. Yet as The Distributist wrote the other day there are useful lessons in 40k. https://fiddlersgreene.substack.com/p/40-lessons-from-warhammer-40k
People forget that once upon a time, Tolkien was popular among hippies too. That is, the right AND the left both enjoyed him which lead to him getting locked into popular culture to such an extent it won't easily be shaken.
Now you've got a mass media complex so coordinated, I doubt they'll ever allow something like Tolkien to ever happen again. The closest we got was Rowling and Harry Potter - loved by both sides though back in the day the Left doubled down on it with all the stories of the "crazy religious folks" who were burning the HP books. (Oh how ironic it seems today, eh?)
Thing of it is, ironically the Left is also sabotaging their own efforts. Everyone thinks "consume product then get excited for next product" is capitalist, but at the root it's marxist, as Paulo Freire’s perpetual theory of revolution can be summed up as "revolutionze then get excited for next revolution." (because if you ever stop having revolution, you become rigid and fascist) That you can get the capitalist on board with it by this "perpetual sell" idea is what gives it staying power. Anyway, since essentially we must always be in perpetual revolution, always in year 0, then there can be no past, you must always be striving to utopia. Like you said in another piece, this lessens their art and homogenizes it because they can't make anything great, they must always be in service to the revolution and indistinguishable from each other.
This is where they start running up against reality. You can't just keep offering the same sermons to people all the time - you have to eventually offer more. When a work is rich and deep enough, people get attached and will do things like buy action figures of their favorite characters. But with the homogenized works, there is no attachment. Why bother with a funko pop of Bob of series X when it looks just like a funko pop of Bill from series Y? Wait - was his name Bill? Or was it Carl? Oh who cares, it's time to watch and get excited for new product! Which means they steadily lose funds and resources. Eventually even the capitalists notice "you promised us more sales, where are our sales?" So even in the end the Left still leads to starving people, this time just in their souls instead of bellies.
I mean from my observation, the last things to have much cultural impact are The Boys or Game of Thrones - and those are starting to die. Stranger Things and Cobra Kai at least seem to be holding steady and those seem closer to the middle of the road in this political game.
Unfortunately I just don't think there is going to be much to change it all until there is some generational turn over or a massive, cataclysmic world event.
Great article. We are amidst the ashes having to rebuild. A burden and a gift to us artists who are able to build a vision for the future. Hopefully I can get good enough to inspire others.
Dave Martel (Bizarchives) and Matthew Pungitore did a podcast on Hyper-romanticism vs Neo-decadence, well worth a listen if you haven't already - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5h2gtTfGaA - and there was a disagreement on the good, the true, and the beautiful that is going to take years of creating art to figure out an answer to. The only way to answer this question is to make art. More artists, more art, and more conversations about art.
We have spent enough time pinpointing the problems of today and being anti-something is not sufficient. A look at right wing politics in the west has demonstrated that for twenty years. We need a positive vision and, yes, the true, the good, and the beautiful is that but not if we don't agree on what those three words mean or are symbolised by.
An additional problem is satire. Three of the most recognised 'right wing' fictional settings, Starship Troopers, Judge Dredd (2000AD), and Warhammer 40k are seen as or intended as satire. Jokes. As a result I think right wing messages, hierarchy good, heroism good, faith good, etc, can be misinterpreted by audiences used to seeing these things mocked as not serious or necessary to good living. Yet as The Distributist wrote the other day there are useful lessons in 40k. https://fiddlersgreene.substack.com/p/40-lessons-from-warhammer-40k
People forget that once upon a time, Tolkien was popular among hippies too. That is, the right AND the left both enjoyed him which lead to him getting locked into popular culture to such an extent it won't easily be shaken.
Now you've got a mass media complex so coordinated, I doubt they'll ever allow something like Tolkien to ever happen again. The closest we got was Rowling and Harry Potter - loved by both sides though back in the day the Left doubled down on it with all the stories of the "crazy religious folks" who were burning the HP books. (Oh how ironic it seems today, eh?)
Thing of it is, ironically the Left is also sabotaging their own efforts. Everyone thinks "consume product then get excited for next product" is capitalist, but at the root it's marxist, as Paulo Freire’s perpetual theory of revolution can be summed up as "revolutionze then get excited for next revolution." (because if you ever stop having revolution, you become rigid and fascist) That you can get the capitalist on board with it by this "perpetual sell" idea is what gives it staying power. Anyway, since essentially we must always be in perpetual revolution, always in year 0, then there can be no past, you must always be striving to utopia. Like you said in another piece, this lessens their art and homogenizes it because they can't make anything great, they must always be in service to the revolution and indistinguishable from each other.
This is where they start running up against reality. You can't just keep offering the same sermons to people all the time - you have to eventually offer more. When a work is rich and deep enough, people get attached and will do things like buy action figures of their favorite characters. But with the homogenized works, there is no attachment. Why bother with a funko pop of Bob of series X when it looks just like a funko pop of Bill from series Y? Wait - was his name Bill? Or was it Carl? Oh who cares, it's time to watch and get excited for new product! Which means they steadily lose funds and resources. Eventually even the capitalists notice "you promised us more sales, where are our sales?" So even in the end the Left still leads to starving people, this time just in their souls instead of bellies.
I mean from my observation, the last things to have much cultural impact are The Boys or Game of Thrones - and those are starting to die. Stranger Things and Cobra Kai at least seem to be holding steady and those seem closer to the middle of the road in this political game.
Unfortunately I just don't think there is going to be much to change it all until there is some generational turn over or a massive, cataclysmic world event.
The hundred thousand dollar question is simply this; what cult will unify right?
I'm hoping it's some form of Christianity. Fingers crossed.
You and me both.