From the issue dated September 28, 2001
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Danger in the New SolemnityBy MARK CRISPIN MILLER
This facile irony is the product of a commercial enterprise that is always working to disarm skepticism, and does so most effectively by constantly inviting all of us to share in the illusion of superior sophistication. (This tactic has been with us for quite some time. It was evident as early as the 1930s, when large business corporations used it to dispel the working-class suspicions that rose out of the Depression.) While it has often worked like magic in peacetime, at times of national catastrophe, this derisive posture seems entirely inappropriate. Such colossal violence necessarily imposes a new mood of solemnity, which the entertainment industries must honor. This is not necessarily all to the good. Certainly, the disappearance of that reflexive jeering is going to be refreshing, to say the least. The new solemnity, however, can also work against the public welfare because it, too, can be used to inhibit certain kinds of thinking and discussion. For example, we are now obliged to question all the myths that tend to re-emerge in time of war. Such skepticism will offend the reverent patriot who is often dangerously impatient with anyone who makes iconoclastic noises. Thus the new solemnity can end up shutting down the necessary critical debate just as effectively as all that sneering ridicule. Mark Crispin Miller is a professor of media studies at New York University. http://chronicle.com Section: The Chronicle Review Page: B9
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Copyright © 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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Reflections on the Fractured Landscape |
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