Conservative Cultural Critiques

Often, when conservatives discuss pop culture, it's with a tin ear. This is because they are (or think they are) outsiders, and simply don't "get" what's going on. They're trying to interpret what's foreign to them, so something gets lost in the translation.

This is what hit me when I was reading Thomas Hibbs years ago on Seinfeld. I bring this up now since AnnArborGuy recently posted about Hibbs. A-Squared-Guy said (in response to my noting Hibbs called Seinfeld nihilistic) "Admittedly I know nothing about Hibbs, but wasn't the point of Seinfeld that it was about nothing. The creators? Didn't they claim it was 'a show about nothing'?"

Well, a show about nothing is a far cry from nihilism. When they said it's a show about nothing, here's what they essentially meant: Most shows, even good ones (like, say, M*A*S*H), for all the laughs they provide, generally have a moment (often called the MOS) where someone in the cast learns an important lesson (usually "be true to yourself"), and where two or more cast members forgive each other and hug. Seinfeld's creators, Jerry himself and Larry David, had a "no hugs, no lessons" ethos. In other words, the shows would be about "nothing"--except making people laugh.

And since that was their sole purpose, I think it turned out the show was more life-affirming than countless other sitcoms weighted down with the pat moral lessons learned by their paper-thin characters suffering from TV problems. In fact, with Seinfeld's finely detailed and often surprisingly realistic concentration on the small things, one might even go so far to say the show is a joyous celebration of everyday life.

Hibbs would do well to recall H. L. Mencken: "One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent."

I'm not saying Hibbs is stupid. At least he recognizes Seinfeld is funny. Much worse is someone like Martha Bayles, who writes off wide swaths of modern music in Hole In Our Soul, thus shutting herself off from almost limitless amounts of beauty and power.

If you want to read a conservative critique of popular art (I think it's conservative, anyway) that's quite brilliant, check out Gilligan Unbound by Paul Cantor.