I've written some on occult/religious influences on art history, i.e. cinema. Using critical theory I trace the character of our Western mythological moralism to the patriarchal notion of "The Light Bringer" (ex. Horus, Saturn, Lucifer, Christ) to tame a black chaotic (female) universe. The Far Right find this fact threatening because it unwinds their notion of Manifest Destiny & White Man's Burden. Its a great power trip narrative supported by an edited version of facts.
Resistance to change is to be expected, especially when surrendering illegally, immorally accrued power, but its inevitable that what is in the dark must eventually come to light. "Cultural Marxism" is a misnomer for the progressive movement in art media to reform culture with these newly discovered or rediscovered conceptions towards an evolved mutual understanding.
Its time that representation of binaries like light & dark, good & evil, masculine & feminine be analyzed and their myths dispelled. Cinema is the biggest propaganda machine on Earth and its symbolism is taken to heart by the working class public who can't get philosophy elsewhere.
I'm mostly concerned with this long standing Hollywood archetype of The White Male Savior. The Light Bringer is a positive figure, right? Prometheus bringing knowledge of fire to the dirty apes! But to prop up this commercialized image, it takes a concentrated industrial effort. The White Male Savior's dominance comes from a never-ending supply of less valued but equally important "apes" to be saved, browbeaten and worshiping. This is the moral failure of cowboy movies, superhero films, cop films, anything that boils heroism down to a kind of "selfish altruism" built on money and egomania.
Hollywood's modern Left have made efforts to leave this archetype built on racist dogma, but have they been successful? "The Force Awakens" casts a white woman & black male as protagonists who are less original characters than white male cliches given to thin racial/gender stereotypes. Finn & Rey are still second banana to Kylo Ren, Han Solo & Luke Skywalker. Don't let Disney fool you.
Western society spent 8 years politely ignoring the fact their "black" president had a white mother & black father but rejoices as the future King of England finds a biracial wife. In fact, throughout Obama's term, media (especially commercials) pumped up images of dominant white men with black female partners. There was little representation of the opposite interracial relationship because it is unwanted by the power elite. "Work for us, we won't work for you." Get Out is the only major film to show a black male with a white woman and it was accepted because it was shown as a White Male power fantasy where black men are rejected by white women. It played safe by showing what they want to see and only waking them up to reality in distorted and minimized terms (genre theatrics). Its mission is guilting white people to see black men as "damsels", a postmodernist exercise in reversing racist roles, but is it really interested in dismantling white patriarchy and exposing its real goals (pure exploitation and superiority)?
But if humans are going to transcend this ill spirit, they must have a reversal of the status quo that has grown conservative & evil by embracing the reversal. This does NOT mean destroying the union between white men & women or dark men & women. It means a fair power balance between all relationships. Just analyze the representation of the different interracial relationships. They are based on statistics or historical fact, but also stereotypes and dated power hierarchies. And it extends to the images of Jewish men & white women, Asian men & non-Asian women, Asian women & white men. The white woman is a trophy, a power symbol & object, to reflect the white man. The goal is not preservation of the white race as much as "white = masculine". The concept of a white = feminine undermines white masculinity. Black = feminine aka weaker, subservient, emotional, less competant. They need darkness to be defined by light out of a fear of the dark. Keeping darkness as scary and evil distracts from light's own failures, weaknesses and evils.
So much propaganda. So much objectification. All in the interests of a racist, sexist infrastructure for the elite's demographic. I would enjoy (and I think we all would benefit from) seeing dark skinned people as romantics capable of love without white male permission. I mean thats what this is all about.
So what is the antidote? Presenting the facts correctly. White men have brought as much darkness as light. The "minority" are not a minority at all and have brought as much light as the darkness they are assumed to live in. These notions of a white Heaven and dark Hell, a white Jesus and a black Satan, the fetishizing of feminized black men, masculine white women, the "wigger" white male, the white-lusting "tragic negro" woman... These are all symptoms of an outdated and evil structuralism that must be deconstructed and reformed to create a fair and tolerant communion NOT to serve one, but all. A cinema beyond gender, race, class, age. These are characterizations that are subjectively important but not objectively testament to anything outside of identity politics. You can't create a morality from collective traits. You can't claim superiority from something that was handed to you genetically. I think this is elementary but we are so programmed and barred from deprogramming, that this has to be spelled out in culture. So don't support bullshit racist, sexist movies anymore, 'k?
Lets present good vs evil in terms of actuality
No comments:
Post a Comment