WWIIwas the largest event of the 20th Century. The individual is erased as the Stromtroopers stand in perfect formations to the sound of marching music, reminiscent of the Third Reich. Even their marching was completely unified. If fascism came to America, the American way of life would disappear. I find it interesting how the media portrays the villains in ways similar to the Nazi aesthetic, thus presenting to the audience that they should be against such movements in real life. For most Americans, the 1950s saw a return to normalcy after the crazy war years. They are more than a passing nod to the Nazis. The 1950s are most often remembered as a quiet decade, a decade of conformity, stability, and normalcy. Transcendentalism has helped shape the American dream in many ways. If you want the entire politics of the SW saga explained, watch the entire The Clone Wars animated series where it is all laid out along with the mysteries of The Force that are not answered in the movies. While performers, like Rihanna, went on before him with a number of other people for back up vocalists and dancers, Kanye made a point of going on stage alone. Can you imagine all the music she might have made? In this way, the Warner Brothers were making a statement about white supremacist overlords at home who fear people who are different and dont allow free thought within their ranks. He was forced to disavow his views on the nature of the universe and died under house arrest nine years later. Mufasa. U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy (19091957) of Wisconsin led an anticommunist witchhunt that eventually led to blacklists in the movie industry. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed. Excellent work! People smoke for a momentary euphoria, but Snoop Lion has found something in life that can give him a constant euphoria, and I think that that is what we should all strive to find. They have their storm-troopers and commanders coal scuttle helmets and clicking big boots. Watch the video below to learn about his life, work, and legacy. Perhaps one of the most present of these examples in popular culture in recent years is the Harry Potter series in which the villain Voldemort seeks to wipe out or enslave wizards who arent pure-blooded. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Is it the haunting breathing? Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century America. Major Non-conformance - this is a significant failure to meet quality requirements and major standards such as ISO 9001. Billie Holiday. Some people see him as cocky and view his self-reliance and self-confidence as a flaw, while other people see it and are inspired by it. Things like surveillance,censorship, paternalism, or secret police forces are common threads used to maintain order and repress individual freedoms in stories with authoritarian overlords. 4 One of the more potent aspects of V for Vendetta in popular culture is the fact that the political activist/hacktivist group Anonymous has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask from the lead resister of the story as their symbol. One of the main focuses of transcendentalism is noncomformity. The author (Guy Walter, I think) talked in an interesting way about hay Nazism had a cultural momentin the 70s. From a more social conservative/religious point of view, nonconformity has Biblical origins. Escape or hilarious musicals like The Producersportray Nazis as mindless oafs. https://neonhero.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/mainstream-commercial-nihilism-cant-be-trusted/. This exists at the level of nations and often transcends nationality such that it can be considered global. and the Nazis in many of those films are compelling and essential villains (yes, in great uniforms). However, both sides, in fighting for their right to nonconform can be equally assertivein the protection of this right. He was a pioneering figure in the world of medicine and wrote prolifically on subjects including alchemy, philosophy, and astronomy. You watch those films, and you know that we fought and won a just war (with the odd honourable exception like Cross of Iron that tried to show a more nuanced version of the war). Incredible article. A third example is when there was a ticking bomb inside of one of the patients and a doctor had her hand in the wound to try to suppress the bleeding, but once she found out there was a bomb in the wound and any movement she made could make it go off she panicked and removed her hand and ran away, but Doctor Meredith Grey quickly reacted and put her hand in the wound. Another example of Kanye's self reliance was his 2008 performance at the Nokia Theatre. I wonder how much of our obsession with the Nazis comes from the simple fact that the immediate post-war period saw the spread of accessible media, particularly the television. Bomb sheltersconcrete bunkerssprouted in backyards. Learn to not take offence from Kanye's open belief that he is better than everyone else, learn from it, see his success and realize that maybe being self-reliant and believing you can accomplish all things if you work for it is the way to live your life. School districts raced to build schools for the baby-boom students who were heading their way. This was a tactic that Hitler famously used: taking advantage of financial woes in the Weimar Republic and combined them with fear and frustration. For example, the American belief in equality leads many members of this culture to be very casual, even with those in a position of authority. I touch on marginalization in this article especially with regard to foreigners in this country and how Disney and Warner Bros. especially use the Nazi motif to address issues of otherness and difference in American culture. Though the First World War was close: it lead to increased nationalism, fascism, the carving up of the Middle East, and introduced to the battlefield radio communications, airplanes, bombing, poison gas (more or less), the tank, machine guns (on a mass scale, though they were there in the Boer War too), and the use of trucks and the railway to move masses of troops. And from the fact that we live in a highly narcissistic society where people tend to disparage things that dont directly affect their egos. Bear Grylls. When Curie, neSkodowska,was a girl in Poland, she excelled at scientific studies, but was prevented from attending a traditional university by the restrictive, sexist educationalpolicies of the occupying Russian Empire. The reanimation of marginalization (Gay, Black, Muslim, Women, and indigenous peoples, Zombies or Nazis) of the other carries conflict and continues the unfounded fears without resolution. The ability to conform to norms when you intend to conform is a talent and skill that can be refined with experience and effort. Struggle between the Western democracies and the Eastern Communist nations was probably inevitable from the first shot fired in the Russian Revolutio, The 1920s, also known as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age, were years of change as America recovered from World War I (191418) and embraced new, Circus Thank you for your feedback. Great article, not sure if it all holds water or not but well reasoned. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Im talking about the way that anti-Nazism is portrayed in film. And I think the busyness and responsibilities of life is what gets in the way from adults. In such categories, not everyone is included and entitled to this freedom, although the Bill of Rights or Constitution states this. This idea is present in Star Wars in the fact that Storm Troopers are seen as so weak minded that they are susceptible to Jedi mind tricks. 1940) Smithsonian National Museum of African American . //]]>. This is what I always hated about the prequels too: Its never really explained how seductive and possibly even right the dark force was: Instead they just turn into evil any character that falls to the dark side, or portray them as delusional (Anakin Skywalker). Freely? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Unless we remember and continue to tell the truth of the atrocities of the Nazis, history will repeat itself, because as many here have said, we all have the potential to be Nazis under the right circumstances. Unintentional / Involuntary Nonconformity. Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century America. The next large-scale threat to American liberty in the eyes of the Americans of the late nineteenth century was the spread of Communism: a political/economic philosophy, based on the ideas of Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, which called for forced economic equality through violent revolution. No need to slip into relativism. This was an entire park which celebrated the power of film in teaching Americans how to think outside the box and imagine worlds past the confines of everyday monotony. The definition of nonconformity is when an individual deliberately acts in ways that are oppositional to accepted social norms. WWII was a world war, meaning that it affected most of the world. Topping the list was the birth of rock and roll, a new form of music that combined black and white musical forms into a powerful new kind of music that thrilled American youth. Well done! The answer is simple: because villains, especially Nazi-like villains, give Americans a clear sense of what we stand for by presenting them which what humans are supposed to stand against. Some of those more personally affected are still alive today. Another wonderful and insightful article. Credit: Studio Ghibli. This idea of transcendentalism was started in 1836, in New England and was carried out to the foundation of America. the movement or principles of English Protestant dissent. . One of the most poignant visual moments, seen in the screen capture below, shows the protagonists refusing to heil in a room full of Nazis; something that was very dangerous, but encouraged nonconformity. I was really interested in this particularlly, mainly because its all around us, and most of us are looked down at for being different. Worse things have happened before and since, time to get over it. They exist to meet their baser needs; similar to a number of societies members who are passive, inert, awake half, numb to existence when going to work or school. The Transcendentalist belief of the Importance of Nature is shown throughout the media. Often, there is a temptation to gloss over these facts, or even laugh at Nazis. And I can't be controlled. You can really see this myth at work in other works of American pop culture in the terrible film The Patriot, in the much better though ideologically muddled TV series Sleepy Hollow, in the many Hollywood films where British actors play straw-men villains while out-acting their American counterparts (e.g. Nonconformity by definition is the failure or refusal to conform to a prevailing rule or practice. It could be said that the Amish are not practicing non-conformity, but just conforming to a non-mainstream group, but a counter-point to this could be that the hippies arent really embracing individualism either, but just conforming to their group. Dont get me wrong, I think your article is well written and I find the Nazi trope in fiction very interesting, but I disagree with the message of conformity. Great links between sci-fi movie and contemporary politics. No, it WAS the most important event in the 20th century. WWII saw the USA overtake Britain as the worlds dominant power and the aftermath saw Britain relinquish most of its empire. Hmm. That sound takes her straight back to 1941 and she becomes a scared 10 year old girl, cowering under a table under the stairs and then being dug out of the rubble of her home by neighbours. failure or refusal to conform to a prevailing rule or practice. Two lines of research have had a great impact on views of conformity. National Archives. Gender Nonconformity in Pop Culture: Asked to create a timeline on a humanities-related topic of our choosing for a Fall 2020 Digital Humanities course, I selected gender nonconformity in pop culture, a somewhat broad and tricky topic as the terminology and understanding of gender identity outside the binary is an evolving one, especially as it concerns culture and media. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Even in the 21st Century Americans still react strongly to information or themes regarding this topic. Tyler wears what he wants, no matter how weird it seems to other people or how much he gets criticized for it. Ever since Americans gained their freedom from the British Empire, there seems to beone large fear ingrained in American culture: that freedom will somehow be taken away. When you think of nonconformity, you think of a person who's lazy or just doesn't care what other people think. Another way non-conformity is shown in today's pop culture is motivational music. Today, as the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize (and the first person to win two of the coveted awards), Marie Curie is a household name, but the odds werent stacked in her favor. In A New Hope, Governor Tarkin appears to be the ultimate Nazi callously destroying Leias planet, presumably home to billions of beings, without a second thought, just to make a point. Im not sure if all this can stand, Im not even surprised to know Disney did such cartoons. The Artifice is an online magazine that covers a wide spectrum of art forms. I do think it is true that every generation has a different way of thinking about how to resolve issues affecting our way of life. Thats just the thing. The Star Wars Storm Troopers look similar to the SS because they were the direct model (SS is the acronym for the German, Schutzstaffel, which literally translates to Protection Staff, which is the role that they serve in Star Wars). Thats the whole thing about peer pressure, really, and the desire to conform to society and to the wider culture as a whole. Star Wars is not the only film that does this. He has figured out that money can't buy happiness, but its the simple things in life that give you joy. This 1989 Studio Ghibli animated movie about a young witch learning to live on her own is beautiful: the Miyazaki hand-painted . The Cold War had its dark side as well. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Nonconformism as defined in the Mirriam Webster dictionary is the " refusal to conform to an established or conventional creed, rule or practice.". Conformity has important social implications and continues to be actively researched. But what makes this show a perfect example of Favoring Intuition over Reason is how often these doctors go against the rules to save some of their patients. and that so much of what we were seeing was informed by the war, either directly with the slew of war films that were produced, or indirectly in that the people making this stuff were personally affected in some way by the experience of the war. He doesnt even consider sending an evacuation warning to Imperial staff at Alderanns Galactic Embassy, hes that bad. After the tumult of the 1930s and 1940swith their sustained economic depression (1929-41) and world war (1939-45)the 1950s did seem quiet. Im thinking of the attempt to conquer Canada in the War of 1812, the Civil War, the conquest of the West during the Indian Wars of the 19th century, the presence of slavery in the US as late as 1865 even though the supposedly Evil (British) Empire outlawed the slave trade in 1817, etc. Their music blared from the radios of hot rod cars parked at drive-in diners throughout America. It is most likely a combination of all of these plus the fact that he represents an evil Empire which is not only ruthless, but encompasses a deeply seeded American fear: conformity, the death of the individual. Noncomformity shown through Disney. It sparks something when I say it. The choice to cast Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort is also important because he had been so well known as the Nazi commandant Amon Goeth in the Holocaust film Schindlers List. Everybody seemed perfectly happy until Leia started causing trouble. There was a problem submitting your report. Well youre talking about real people. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1959. The dictator Adam Sutler in the graphic novel V for Vendetta is a good example as are other overlords from other dystopian futuristic fiction such as President Snow from The Hunger Games. ." Says nothing but what the Party wants him to say. The end of this cartoon short shows Hans as an adult marching in perfect conformity alongside his fellow Nazis while the narrator proclaims,He sees no more than the party wants him to. 2013. Above is a picture of the quarter quell arena where Katniss defies everything that the games stand for just like in her first hunger games. They were this absolute evil that we had a decisive part in destroying. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"Aj6DzxECF_9gKHy0syAwpg6xMRYsIjUO6JmlYsxa_Z4-86400-0"}; I always though the Empire of the first film was quite a lot how I imagined the British Empire was, a sort of bunch of dull bureaucrats who ruled the wold via a mix of efficiency and entitlement. W. E. B. Elvis Presley (19351977) was the king of rock 'n' roll, but there were also a dozen princesincluding Chuck Berry (1926), Little Richard (1932), Jerry Lee Lewis (1935), and many others. This idea was applied to the Protestant Reformation as well when Reformed Christian denominations such as Presbyterians, Methodists, Puritans, and Baptists separated from the Church of England (believed to be too culturally Catholic) in the 16th Century; some groups eventually moving to the American continent to practice their non-conformity. How many chicken farms have you seen which have guard towers? Al-Razi was a Renaissance man of the Islamic Golden Age who lived from 854 until 925 CE. Some of the more interesting uses of Nazi imagery is when a piece of popular culture traces the rise of extremism and how totalitarian regimes emerge. A large part of the aesthetic and focus of the park is the Golden Age of Hollywood and the films from this era (many of which pertain to WWII). Rigby is a perfect example of nonconformity. If I experienced them as a full grown adult for the first time, aware of the marketing machine behind the enterprise, would the message have meant the same thing to me? I am Divergent. I dont know, Ill probably figure it out when I am older. He is unique, and openly shares his views with the world. Modern children stepping into Al-Razi's laboratory, imaginary sceneOriginal Source: 1001 Inventions. As soon as you see an iron cross, swastika or golden eagle you know who the villains are without too much time wasted, this moves the plot forward with ease. . As the next section outlines, winning Independence from the British was just the beginning of Americans fighting for their right to nonconform and just the beginning of the fear that this right will be taken away. Tyler the Creator is worth listening to because he pushes boundaries, even more than Eminem does, get past the cursing and really listen to what he is saying because his music will get you thinking about some pretty big subjects.. Tyler the Creator is a perfect example of a nonconformist musician because he doesn't need money, women, and expensive cars to be heard and satisfied with his music. The world is very grateful for him following his dreams. The rest, as they say, is history. There is also some foreshadowing in the form of Darth Vader (another German phrase, literally Dark Father, which serves as an allusion to a darker past). Animatronicversions of Humphrey Bogart give speeches about why we have to keep fighting (a la Casa Blanca) on the Great Movie Ride. His quotes and your analysis have actually made me appreciate the Prequels a little bit more. To many, author and civil rights leader W. E. B. Without Holidays cultural contributions, American music wouldnt be what it is today. Bear Grylls has a show called man vs wild were he goes on adventures and survives on his own. The Rebels arent as homogenized as Storm Troopers, but they are still uniformed combatants. This quote shows how he uses his self confidence to be self-reliant. Therefore, with the rise of Communism, even ones own neighbors can be seen as potential overlords who must be feared. This was reflected in his propaganda films. Tyler the Creator is a hip hop artists who often shows the transcendentalist characteristic of non conformity. He didn't need all of that extra help to make his performance seem incredible, he knew he would make it extraordinary all on his own. The Warners film Black Legion (1937) featured home-grown fascists and associated them with both the Nazis and the American Ku Klux Klan. The Empires uniforms also clearly emphasize the theme of oppression. A guy, or in this case a raccoon, that could slack off of work because he "doesn't feel like it" and gets away with it each and every day. When Katniss went to her first hunger games she defied the capital by almost making it so that they didn't have a winner because her and Petta were going to kill themsleves so that they didn't have to live without eachother when the entire point of the hunger games is to have a winner and keep everyone in line. These are just a few examples of the doctors in Grey's Anatomy favoring their intuition over their reason. The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content. Also, the older rooster. I think that historical ignorance often comes from people who are too lazy to learn a few facts. Much of what we say, do, and feel is a result of social norms . What is more simple than that? However, Im not sure that the Star Wars narrative is sufficiently subtle to yield up much of real value.
examples of nonconformity in pop culture