Our Napoleons

Creative people like Seth MacFarlane and Quentin Tarantino do whatever the hell they want, and we love them in spite of – or because of – it. MacFalane can flirt with topics like incest and bestiality and get away scot-free. Tarantino can shamelessly steal every movie made in the last hundred years, and still be called one of the most original filmmakers in the past few decades. Tim Burton can make a film like Sweeney Todd – a largely necrophiliac musical dedicated to blood, razors, and cannibalism – against all societal taboos about death, with a massive budget and complete creative control.

I like to call these people cultural fascists. They bend and break every rule in the book (except for the ones they like), behave as though even basic tenets of coherent storytelling is beneath them, do whatever they feel like, make a farce out of human existence – and we clap for them and laugh at all their sick jokes until our stomachs hurt. We cheer them on by staying on their channel and buying their tickets.

In this way, their creativity is fascistic. They are the most boisterous harbingers of pop culture and postmodernity in the 21st century, because they have the guts to lead the chaos. They steal blatantly, make obnoxious references to the current and past events, insult people, while remaining highly conscious of itself (they know better than anyone else that they are stealing and cheating and insulting) – and they don’t apologize for any of it.

They are fearless in their creativity. They “know absolutely” that what they are creating is awesome and argue that those who disagree with this “absolute truth” are just idiots who “do not get it”. They are funny, smart, interesting, challenging, culturally remarkable – and they certainly know it. They are unafraid of making mountains of enemies. They welcome hatred and don’t seem to care to be loved, so long as they are feared. And they indeed are feared, because there is nothing that frightens us more than tyrants with a massive and evangelical fanbase.

These cultural fascists have massive fanbases because no one can do what they do. Nobody can imitate their work and satisfy their passionate, intelligent, and exacting audience (i.e. fanatics and all of their friends), because a Tarantino fan cares about the difference between original Tarantino and a watered-down imitation. They notice the difference and will settle for nothing less. If the TV audience decides that they want MacFarlane’s million inappropriate jokes about pedophilia, the old farts in the conference room without a sense of humour (precisely the people MacFarlane ignores and mocks in the same breath with his jokes) have no choice but to give in to the demand – because they are first and foremost a business.

Case in point, Seth MacFarlane signed a deal last year with 20th Century Fox TV worth $100 million dollars. Now with the biggest paycheck in TV writing and producing history, he gets to make jokes about penis and boobs – and this is only possible because we the public are willing to watch absolutely anything the guy makes. It is interesting to note also that only a few years back, his main show Family Guy was canceled by the same company. Fox certainly tried to resist giving into the dirty fascist and put a stop to the man – but they never had a chance against his army of fans and enemies, ready and willing to watch absolutely anything he spews out.

I think it is important to recognize that these cultural fascists (I am hoping my repetition of the words will help the notion catch on) dictate to the public, but they are also nothing without the public. They are some of the most powerful people of the current zeitgeist – and we made them.

(Originally posted at Film240: Media and Pop Culture)