Pop Culture and September 11th
It seems appropriate to spend a few minutes discussing 9/11. Since my job in this blog is to discuss entertainment, I will look at this from that perspective.
Over the last two years I have been, at many times, disturbed by the way the events of 9/11 have been turned into profit-making pop culture products: T-shirts, posters, picture books, and American Flag decals, pins, bumper stickers, etc. Of course, many of these products purport to donate proceeds to the victims' funds, but many are just opportunistic. A large part of me is disgusted by capitalization on our national post-traumatic stress disorder and the morbid curiosity that causes us to watch the tapes of the towers collapsing over and over again on CNN, but a small part of me rejoices in it. Why? The attacks of 9/11 were aimed not only at the government and people of the United States, but at our culture. The terrorists hate the American way of life. Our culture is perceived as materialistic and superficial (which it is, let's face it) but it is also liberating, resilient and flexible.
I've never been much of a flag waver - my style has been to criticize our government as unwieldy, unresponsive and imperialistic. These events, however, force me to realize that I love this country and the fact that we are allowed to be as tacky and insensitive as we want to be.
It seems appropriate to spend a few minutes discussing 9/11. Since my job in this blog is to discuss entertainment, I will look at this from that perspective.
Over the last two years I have been, at many times, disturbed by the way the events of 9/11 have been turned into profit-making pop culture products: T-shirts, posters, picture books, and American Flag decals, pins, bumper stickers, etc. Of course, many of these products purport to donate proceeds to the victims' funds, but many are just opportunistic. A large part of me is disgusted by capitalization on our national post-traumatic stress disorder and the morbid curiosity that causes us to watch the tapes of the towers collapsing over and over again on CNN, but a small part of me rejoices in it. Why? The attacks of 9/11 were aimed not only at the government and people of the United States, but at our culture. The terrorists hate the American way of life. Our culture is perceived as materialistic and superficial (which it is, let's face it) but it is also liberating, resilient and flexible.
I've never been much of a flag waver - my style has been to criticize our government as unwieldy, unresponsive and imperialistic. These events, however, force me to realize that I love this country and the fact that we are allowed to be as tacky and insensitive as we want to be.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home