On Feb 22, 10:30 am, Sir Frederick
fuzzysys.com> wrote:> On the worship of ugliness :
> ----------------------------------------------
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CalThomas/2007/02/22/rise_of_the_a...
> Rise of the Anti-Hero
>
> By Cal Thomas
> Thursday, February 22, 2007
>
> "Anti-hero: A main character in a dramatic or narrative work who is
> characterized by a lack of traditional heroic qualities, such as
> idealism or courage."
>
> Consider what occupies and diverts our attention from substantive
> matters: Anna Nicole Smith; Britney Spears; the astronaut gone wild,
> Lisa Nowak; the sleeping, dating, marital and divorce arrangements of
> film stars. It is all about the base, the tawdry and the anti-heroic.
> Today's heroes are cartoon characters and those (Superman, Batman, etc.)
> are from another era in which real heroes mattered.
>
Those issues are actually important since these instances are examples
of what to do in those kinds of situations. If our minds are software
peakock's tails then that is why we are so tuned into the "plummage"
of the main attraction. And besides that, before the evolution of the
Chief or State, this gossip crap was the only "law" in town, and
people could interact with each other and each have some control so
that if one gets out of line one gets trouble;
Evolutionary psychology argues that human nature--our psychological
architecture as much as our physical form--was shaped to survive and
reproduce under a particular set of conditions. This was the existence
of clan-dwelling primates, who subsisted by foraging and hunting in a
savanna-like environment. It is only in recent biological times that
we left the world of clan-dwelling primates for the world of
agriculture, city settlements and, eventually, business organizations.
We inhabit our high-tech world with Stone Age minds because there has
not been enough time to change our psychology to match our
environment.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1175/is_3_34/ai_73537491
Evolutionary Psychology and Hollywood,
The Brain, the Big Screen, and the Origin of Gossip
by William A. Spriggs
http://www.evoyage.com/BillsEssays/hollywood.html
http://www.evoyage.com/BillsEssays/Hollywood2.htm
Ostracism was a procedure under the Athenian democracy where a
prominent citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for
ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the
victim, ostracism was often pre-emptive in character. It might be a
way of diffusing a major confrontation between rival politicians by
removing one of them from the scene, or of neutralising someone
thought to be a threat to the state, a possible tyrant. Crucially,
ostacism had no relation to the processes of justice. There was no
charge or defence, and the exile was not in fact a penalty. It was
simply a command from the Athenian people that one of their number be
gone for ten years.
Shunning is the act of deliberately avoiding association with, and
habitually keeping away from an individual or group. It is a sanction
against association commonly associated with religious groups
following excommunication or dismembership. In some cases, the shunned
person or group is considered anathema, abominable, or spiritually
diseased by shunning group.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.angst/msg/afd1e5ba2d368af6
> Some blame television networks, especially cable, for our increasingly
> prurient interests. In recent days, TV has climbed into the septic tank
> with so many of the rest of us and delivered not what we need ("eat your
> vegetables, dear, they are good for you"), but what we seemingly cannot
> get enough of ("never mind the vegetables; eat your dessert"). TV
> wouldn't be obsessing with it if we didn't demand it.
>
> USA Today reported on a Pew Poll that found most Americans believe the
> media overdo celebrity news, but they watch it anyway. Sixty-one percent
> say they think the media overplayed the death of Anna Nicole Smith, but
> 11 percent said they followed it as closely as the 2008 presidential
> campaign (13 percent) or the Super Bowl (11 percent).
>
> Can you name the last person you heard about who behaved in a classic
> heroic manner? How about our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan? The media
> ignore their heroism, even when they are awarded medals for bravery.
> When the word "hero" is used at all, it is generally to label someone
> who is simply doing his job or her duty.
>
Thats really unfair since if there were a "Civil Rights Era" again, or
other radical times, the heros would rise again. I think that the
politicos have learned just how much to fix things cheaply in order to
stop revolt by the people. Plus the times don't require such
heroicism, but may again in the future. So we are talking about
increases and decreases of something, not its absence.
> There's little time to explore heroism among a people who prefer to
> indulge themselves in stories about a Qantas flight attendant having sex
> in the airplane lavatory with actor Ralph Fiennes, or Bridget Moynahan
> of ABC's "Six Degrees" announcing that she is pregnant with the child of
> ex-boyfriend and New England Patriot All-Pro quarterback, Tom Brady. Who
> gets married before having children these days? And what difference does
> it make in our "anything goes" culture?
>
> Politically, heroism disappeared around the time of Harry Truman, with
> brief reappearances during the administrations of John F. Kennedy and
> Ronald Reagan. Now, everything is poll-tested and "leaders" follow the
> opinions and base instincts of those they should be persuading to follow
> them. Today, when one speaks of "vision," they are usually referring to
> Lasik eye surgery.
>
> There is little sign any of this is about to end. Last week, ABC drew 9
> million viewers to "The Outsiders," a prime time program about a group
> of Arizona polygamists. Commenting on the appeal of such a show,
> correspondent John Quinones said, "I guess (it's) the voyeuristic
> appeal." It's true - we are a nation of gawkers.
>
> To some extent this has always been so, but television has made gawking
> easier and the objects of gawking more accessible. This indulgence in
> the base and banal has had a corrosive effect on our collective spirit.
> It also lowers our defenses against those who would destroy us.
>
> It isn't as if we haven't been warned about self-indulgence in secular
> and sacred writings. In his "Republic," Plato has Socrates describe the
> effect on the soul of grace and gracelessness in the material culture:
> "Our aim is to prevent our Guards being reared among images of vice - as
> it were in a pasturage of poisonous herbs where, cropping and grazing in
> abundance every day, they little by little and all unawares build up one
> huge accumulation of evil in their soul. Rather, we must seek out
> craftsmen with a talent for capturing what is lovely and graceful, so
> that our young, dwelling as it were in a salubrious region, will receive
> benefit from everything about them. Like a breeze bringing health from
> wholesome places, the impact of works of beauty on eye or ear will
> imperceptibly from childhood on, guide them to likeness, to friendship,
> to concord with the beauty of reason."
>
> You won't find such "craftsmen" on television. Better to turn it off, or
> get rid of this unfriendly guest, than to allow for the creation of
> another generation of anti-heroes and gawkers.
>
> Cal Thomas is America's most widely syndicated op-ed columnist and
> co-author of Blinded by Might.
