Commentary: Superheroes as American Propaganda

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Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• commentary
• superheroes
• comics
• captain america
• superman
• liberalism
• john locke
• capitalism
• marketing
• propaganda
• zipblockgory

[entertainmentunivers]

When Superman was created in the late 1930's, it was during a time when America was hurting during it's great depression and there was uncertainty of war for America. Everyone wanted a hero to look up to and Siegal and Shuster provided that with their comic book hero. In 1941 during the war, Simon and Kirby created Captain America. Both characters were propaganda tools during that time, but not today.

[edward2962]

I would really really be interested in hearing/reading your paper on Captain America. Any thought to either making it into a You Tube vid or else just uploading it somewhere?

[PopCultureDiva42]

@uberhikari Thanks for the recommendation. I'll definitely look it up!

[uberhikari]

@PopCultureDiva42 This is so fascinating to me, but also very awkward. If you want something a little bit more diverse I can recommend a book: The World Turned Inside Out by James Livingston. Probably the best exploration of American culture in the 20th century. He also recently wrote a book on the current economic crisis called, Against Thrift.

[PopCultureDiva42]

@uberhikari You are SO right. Don't even get me started on the literature we do. None of it has any relevance to what is going on in the US today. We did a course last year called "Cultural diversity" or something to that effect. And all we analysed was jewish-american literature! Now I got nothing against jewish people. but if you're gonna call a class Cultural Diversity, I would imagine that you'd like to focus on more than ONE minority.

[uberhikari]

@PopCultureDiva42 You're right, that mostly sucks. They probably wouldn't teach Nietzsche, Kierkagard, or Heideger in an American studies course anyway, because they don't constitute the philosophical foundations of American politics. And they combined this with cultural studies? I don't think a person could have designed a worse class, lol.

[PopCultureDiva42]

@uberhikari In the context where I brought it up, I meant some cultures are more resistant to change than others. It's like people really. The older you get, the less inclined you are to accept new things. US is a young civilisation compared to most countries in Europe, including my own.

[PopCultureDiva42]

@uberhikari Political philosophy mostly. Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Mill. We don't really go into heavy stuff like Kierkagard, Heideger or even Nitezsche. It's more about the philosophical foundations of American politics.

[uberhikari]

@PopCultureDiva42 What do you mean by stability?

[uberhikari]

@CapesandCloaks Sure there is; like the myth that we support democracy. At best, that myth is a very complicated lie.