--- Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Does the (deeply tedious) myth of the cowboy really have that much
> of a
> death grip on the national consciousness?
<snip>
> I think (hope) that cultural archetypes burn out after awhile. If
> they
> didn't, Scandinavians would still dream about launching Viking
> raids instead
> of being preoccupied with keeping the welfare state alive.
Or perhaps, sadly in this case, they just morph. In her op-ed, Smith quotes:
"Richard Slotkin, the author of "Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in 20th-Century America," explained to me how the cowboy gunslinger myth might fit with this political campaign.
"The thing that the cowboy knows, he knows instinctively," Mr. Slotkin said. "And everybody in the audience knows what it is. It's 'a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.' You are pitted against an enemy that is so merciless that it's kill or be killed."
This isn't a new American archetype, but after stewing in the collective consciousness for decades, perhaps it stewed a little too long, morphing into something more jaded. For example, the idea of "cowboy," even the term "cowboy," is just as glorified in hip-hop as it ever was on the TV of our youth, but it's not the rugged natural man and perceived wholesomeness (pre-anti-smoking, of course) of the Marlboro Man; it's an anti-hero outlaw who, as Slotkin points out, just does what "a man's gotta do." He's raw, he's ugly, he curses if he wants to and doesn't apologize for it and really doesn't apologize for anything at all. The HBO series Deadwood may not be very popular, but it certainly portrays a more modern perception of cowboy, stripped of the mythical halo and instead presented as a more primal, basic figure.
And at a time when the American dream of impenetrablity and superhuman (or supersized?) stature has been burst by both real and perceived threats of terrorism, that kind of revised archetype is going to provide false comfort to some and sway others who succumb to the GOP's campaign of fear.
- Deborah
=====
" How come people always flip and think they're Jesus? Why not Buddha? Particularly in America, where more people resemble Buddha than Jesus. 'Ah'm BUDDHA!' 'You're Bubba!' 'Ah'm Buddha now..All I gotta do is change 3 letters on ma belt...' " - Bill Hicks