I came across the book again recently. And when I glanced at the cover, I felt my knees go weak. There, from 1977, was a description of the US in 2016 and later. No, not prophecy. Worse. It was a description of our paradigm, our way of thinking about our civic life. And it's making us vulnerable.
We own a copy of The American Monomyth because one of the authors, Bob Jewett, was my wife's advisor at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. But the insights were amazing. They explained the interaction between popular culture and civic / political life in a way that that made sense out of the Reagan era and beyond. Yet as we moved beyond, I forgot much of this book.
And now we're back. Bigger, more dangerous than before.
Jewett and Lawrence looked at comic books, TV, and movies and they saw that, far from being meaningless "bubblegum," a central narrative was shaping American ways of looking at life. They called this the monomyth. And while not every show or movie followed every element, there were fewer exceptions than agreements. Boiled down:
- Paradise is under threat, often from outsiders, but there are also insiders who go along.
- The innocent residents are too weak to care for themselves.
- A superhero comes from the outside to rescue the innocent bystanders.
- The superhero is superior to the residents. Only he can save them.
- The superhero is "sexually segmented." That is, while there is an image of chaste purity, jokes and "locker room talk" reveal that the hero is entitled to sex and not to be refused.
- Salvation can only come through "redemptive violence." Peaceful actions are stated, but always violated. (How many times does the Prime Directive get broken, Captain Kirk?) Cooperation and negotiations are counted as ineffective or "corrupt."
- The superhero alone violently destroys the enemy. Residents may serve as sidekicks to the superhero, but their efforts are only in support and their (in)decisions do not bear fruit.
- The superhero then leaves. Paradise is restored, although the residents are still weak and inferior. They may need another superhero in the future or may call on this one to return.
Does any of this sound familiar?
MAGA taps into this mythology. We're weak but you alone can save us. We're helpless before the enemy, but you will crush them. You are above us, so you can grab whatever and whomever you need.
And notice how the history of presidents works. Carter was a negotiator, hence weak. Reagan was tough, so he saved us. (Ignore Iran-Contra.) Bush I was supposedly weak (he didn't topple Iraq!), but Clinton with his weird sexual coolness would rescue us. When we still had problems Bush II would stand on the rubble and smite the foe. On the left, Obama would rescue us, but the (white) right saw this as weakness and "replacement." So the Don would make us Great Again. Biden was one who believed in civic engagement--weak, weak, weak. So we bring the orange guy back to... do what? Oh yeah, crush our enemies within.
And in all that time we build cinematic universes built around superior beings who are entitled to violence and sex in order to pull our sorry asses from the fire once again. We have networks and now internet connection to sustain this narrative. Fox News and Infowars keep blowing on the coals of this myth.
But we do this too. We buy into the idea that we have to have a superhero to save us.
The bitter reality is this: America is divided. The divisions are pretty even, with weird consistency. Whatever problems we have can really only be solved by someone giving up something. Compromise may be possible. But that will require a belief that the residents of this "paradise" are capable of saving ourselves. Or at least of working together.
The monomyth prevents exactly that thought.
50 years ago, in a small college in Iowa, two very professor-looking professors saw where our stories were headed. So far, they've been right.