How did we get here?
In the podcast The Storyteller's Mission, host and film industry veteran Zena Dell Lowe gives a poignant description of a child with no heroes (S2, E2, 5:28). He is suspicious, depressed, moody, hopeless, unteachable, cynical, and closed-off. In her words, "If we don't have heroes, [that world] takes a wonderfully enthusiastic, eager, hopeful child and turns him into a skeptic."
The description is not only vivid, but sadly accurate for the lives of many children and young adults today.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE COWBOYS GONE?
Waiting for Superman, the 2010 documentary about America's public education system, was so titled for Geoffrey Canada's profound disappointment as a child when he realized that not only was Superman not real, but no one was coming to save the day. In short, he felt hopeless, because when children perceive that the deck is stacked against them, they realize they need the help of a stronger, outside force to pull them out of dire straits. Children recognize their own need for a hero, but are bound for cynicism and depression when none is found.
The erosion of trust in leaders and instutitons has lead to a breakdown of culture, but that breakdown has not been due to a lack of storytelling. On the contrary, it has been created by very masterful storytelling in the form of marketing.
Whether it's narrative, angle, hype, or straight-up propaganda, marketing has become a way of life in the last 100 years. Early in the twentieth century, radio soap operas were literally sponsored by soap companies. In the absence of real patronage, most entertainment since then has made its money through advertisements by corporations. In centuries past, wearing an advertisement on one's clothing would have been seen as strange and demeaning. Today, it's a common occurrence in any station of life, and has extended from the sides of barns to the trunks of minivans.
Consider the modern soap opera Mad Men, which takes the world of New York advertising firms as its own, shall we say, "General Hospital". The long-running series (2007-2015) spun tales around the sordid lives of its lead characters while simultaneously examining the importance of marketing in the post-crisis world of the 1960s. What does this fascination with advertising really mean? It means that story matters, because story communicates values, values shape culture, culture determines action, and action creates reality.
But what happens when the values are hollow?
THE EMPTY WELL
Zena Dell Lowe accurately identifies the absence of true modern heroes as an issue of morality. What is right and what is wrong? A true hero knows the difference, and chooses accordingly. But the Second Turning, the Awakening cycle of the the Millennial Saeculum, was the 1960s-- the "Consciousness Revolution" era of the Mad Men. This Awakening was not a religious revival like the ones before it, but rather a spiritual awakening of self. The ideology of selfishness, an absolutely unheroic and immoral trait, has been the underlying value in popular stories, marketing, and entertainment in this Saeculum.
In government, it led to the dissolution of once-trustworthy institutions. Author Helen Andrews outlines several important legal cases that eroded moral governance in the United States in Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom But Delivered Disaster, (review forthcoming). There are the Charles Rembar cases from 1959 to 1966, which turned traditional ideas of obscenity into a persmissive cultural attitude toward pornography (p. 106-110). New York Times v. Sullivan reduced feasible libel actions in 1964 (p. 178). Abington School District v. Schempp struck down Bible reading and the Lord's Prayer in 1963 (p. 179). As Founding Father John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Should we really expect our government to function properly in the absence of morality? Or religion?
In churches, sadly, there is more fault to be found. Early in the First Turning of the Millennial Saeculum, television proved a place to turn a profit for pastors, not just products. The Prosperity Gospel, a marketing ploy in which believers are encouraged to "invest" their money in a ministry in order to ensure a karma-like return in their personal finances has proved one of the most stubborn and insidious ideologies of the modern day church. Reminiscent of the selling of indulgences and relics by the Catholic Church in Martin Luther's day, the immorality of televangelist leaders who peddle these schemes, much like their papal predecessors, has been known but mostly ignored. Meanwhile, more conservative churches have also turned to marketing as part of the seeker-sensitive movement. What if gospel truth means you can't fill seats in your megachurch? When forced to choose, many churches have picked a watery, feel-good, gospel-light message over hard messages of suffering, sin, and moral struggle.
In gender, Third Wave Feminism has resulted in an anti-male culture. Dr. Helen Smith examines the resulting change in male behavior in her book Men on Strike, and describes the phenomenon as "going Galt". In her observation, men are logical beings who are responding to the economic principle of incentives. They accurately perceive that manly behavior, heroism, provision, and protection are demeaned and punished in current society. Therefore, men increasingly opt out of marriage (their wives can cheat and take the house anyway), fatherhood (the children may not be theirs but they'll still have to pay for years), and career ambition (their wages have become diluted, their opportunities for career and education diminished). To modern men, opting out of these roles is not even a moral issue; it's a survival issue. One false accusation can mean the loss of their finances, their freedom, and their future.
With this history in mind, it's not surprising that our present-day culture is cynical and depressed. It's not surprising that people don't know what a real hero is. And it's not surprising that we're starving to death for truth, after a near-century of postmodern privation.
DUM SPIRO SPERO (WHILE I BREATHE, I HOPE)
So if this is how we got here, how do we get out?
Storytelling may be the key.
Every Crisis Era provides an opportunity to reset the value system of a culture. Even as we experience the current moral void, we have the chance to sow seeds of change for the next Turning. As I said before, story communicates values, values shape culture, culture determines action, and action creates reality. Therefore, it follows that those of us who adhere to Judeo-Christian values can use storytelling to alter the very fabric of reality along the causal chain of time.
Consider The Matrix: Resurrections. Film Theory host and YouTube star MatPat proposes that the new film will feature a uniquely meta twist: the hero Neo as a film-industry veteran who unwittingly uses storytelling to weave himself into the Matrix, since his existence, both perpetual and legendary, is essential to the functioning of the Matrix itself. In a way, MatPat proposes, this movie is a vehicle for the film industry, in all its storytelling and marketing glory, to examine the purpose of its own existence.
Why? is a great starting point for moral questions.
Another great place to start is The Quest.
The rise of fantasy role-play, in the form of Dungeons & Dragons and other games, is one way to wrestle with moral questions, because in its ideal form it forces people to make choices based on their character's point of view and then experience the consequences of these choices-- not in isolation, but as part of a communal group. This quest, with all its implications and moral questions, is also reflected in the rise of fantasy epics in film and television. Dune, Foundation, and The Wheel of Time all center on the quest, not as simple fulfillment of self, but as weighty, morally-fraught and physically demanding gauntlets whose outcomes affect civilization itself. I take it as an encouraging sign that our culture is ready to wrestle with deeper, more meaningful truths, and that there is some hope, some optimism among the audience ready to receive them.
Any hero knows that it's always darkest before the dawn. Like Vitruvius told Emmet, "Believe. I know that sounds like a cat poster, but it's true." Storytellers, the hour is yours. Find the truth, and tell it well.
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As always, this blog is not a wholesale recommendation of all content or creators (see my FAQ for details), but rather an observation of their existence. Do your research on ratings and content to decide what you're comfortable watching.