The Simpsons: The Signs of Degraded Humanity and Declining Culture - Essay Example

21 February The Simpsons: The Signs of Degraded Humanity and Declining Culture “A boy can learn more in an airport than he can in any school,” Homer reassuringly says to Bart. The impact is the humorous condition of how father and son bond due to similar levels of intellectual, social, and psychological immaturities. The Simpsons is of the one the funniest and controversial cartoons of all times, because of its ability to undercut issues and even irony itself (Matheson 293). This essay focuses on analyzing its episode, “The Joy of the Sect.” This episode depicts how one religious sect, the Movementarians, influences the whole community, even mindless human beings like Homer. Through complex and often contradictory signs, this episode shows that people cannot change their economic, political, cultural, religious, social, and gender conditions, because they subscribe to implied stereotyped myths that simplify their lives and renders complex issues of degraded humanity and declining culture as invisible. The episode depicts the complicated signs of myths in direct and indirect manners, especially those pertaining to teaching and religious signs. People accept myths, where they are “more than true” (Seger 347). Myths “connect and speak” with many people. One of the myths in the Simpson’s episode is the myth of a great teacher (Moore 404). This myth argues that a funny and creative teacher can change his/her students’ lackadaisical attitudes and behaviors toward learning and life (Moore 404). Lisa’s teacher aims to change them to model students, but in a bad way, because she has been recruited by the Movementarian sect already. The “sign” in the episode can also be indirect and contains conflicts, because Lisa struggles with her grade-sensitive personality and the need to assert her independence against social brainwashing tactics. When she falls into the brainwashing of society, the episode underscores the futility of fighting powerful institutions. Myths are better, because they make life simple and easier to understand. Another myth being dismantled in this episode is the myth of faith in God. The episode shows signs that directly attack sects like the Movementarian that takes advantage of the weak-willed and weak-minded. It, however, draws parallel with the Catholic Church, because the latter also takes money from its members in form of donation and promotes “truths” about life and how it should be lived. The Church also uses seemingly hypnotizing, repetitive chants. The main argument of this episode is that God has been turned into a lucrative business. The hero symbol is also present when people idolize God, because “glamour is always vulnerable to those who love it” (Postrel 354). People want a savior, someone who is more than themselves and yet seemingly similar to themselves. The episode cautions people who easily fall into the trap of blind faith, such as when people do not even check who that man waving inside the Rolls Royce car is and if there actually is a spaceship inside the barn. With the myth of faith and the superhuman God, people are lambs that can be led astray to their misfortune and death. The Simpsons also perpetuates and questions gender roles and stereotypes. Neuhaus argues that The Simpsons presents a comparatively placid appraisal of domestic gender roles (762). On the one hand, it “playfully and humorously questions the function of the nuclear family in American society” (Neuhaus 762). Marge always forgives Homer, no matter how insensitive and irresponsible he can be as a husband and father. On the other hand, the episode also imbibes the “centrality of female domesticity to the very definition of ‘a family’ ” (Neuhaus 762). Marge follows her husband’s decision, although she feels wary about it. She is still under the male grasp. The episode, however, portrays a conflicting role, when Marge escapes the Movementarian’s community and seeks help from Reverend Timothy Lovejoy. She and the Reverend save Homer and the kids. This shows the proactive and motherly nature of Marge that both fits and destroys the image of a timid wife. The episode, however, underscores the odds of being more than the domesticated female. Domestic duties alone can seep a woman’s wisdom and energy, and it will be hard for women to change gender inequality. For example, Homer still decides to sell their house and give their savings to a stranger and he does this without Marge’s consent and signature. The pessimistic argument of the episode is that society remains patriarchal in nature and women can hardly dent its surface, even if they manage to save the world. Economic conditions and related power structures are also exhibited in this episode. A business owner tells an airport store clerk: “Look at the outrageous mark-up. You magnificent bastard, I salute you.” This statement satirizes the idea of businessmen in general as duly capable of exploiting consumers. The capitalist system is also shown to use signs of power and wealth to control workers. Charles Burns is a typecasted as the maniac capitalist, who says that by paying $3 of taxes, he is already being swindled by the government. He is also bent on gaining more profits, even while he underpays taxes and worker wages. The signs are more direct in this economic argument, where the rich stay in power, because their money can influence politicians and buy people’s loyalty. The cultural power of the media is also brought to centerstage in this episode too, where it is a harbinger of deception and manipulation of the masses. Media’s duplicity to truth is shown when one moment the TV anchor reports about the negative effects of the Movementarians and makes of fun of it and in the next moment, he changes skin, because the Movementarian has taken over the network. He shouts “I love you leader” too. Apparently, the media is not loyal to the truth, as it often claims in real life, because it is a chameleon that serves its own interests. This episode also aims to “ridicule the seductive and manipulative power of television” (Colletta 857). People listen to the media, as if it is the only source of truth. This episode debunks the reliability of media as a decent social institution. Barney is also a media arm that brainwashes children through “mindless children entertainment” (Mittell 20). It is part of the economic partnership between the media and economic rulers. In the end, the episode sends the message that people can continue being slaves to media through passive media consumption and say “We are watching Fox,” or they can be critical of the information and symbols that media serves them. The episode also underlines the declining culture of humanity. The decline is so sharp that “class, gender and ethnicity, decline in social significance’’ (Crook etal. 35 qtd. in Ott 57), “while the active consumption of images and styles grows in importance” (Kellner 231–62 qtd. in Ott 57). An example is the group of disaffected violence, these violent youth who are stealing and punching an airport employee. The cruelty of human beings is depicted in the loss of culture and respect for life. One of the gangsta youth breaks beautifully handcrafted eggs, while another throws away a liver organ that should have been used for an organ transplant. Barney takes the liver and puts it under his shirt. As an alcoholic who does not deserve any transplant, he also violates the importance of valuing one’s health and taking care of one’s life. These actions signify an overwhelming disrespect of human life. Violence also depicts loss of collectivist culture. The competitive nature of American culture manifests, when a losing football team arrives to an angry mob. The mob throws stones, picks up players they intend to hurt, and overturns their plane. Thus, people lose their culture when they fail to appreciate hard work and sincerity. The degradation of humanity due to the rise of mere materialistic consumers is a scathing criticism in the episode. Ray calls the portrayal of characters with “diametrically opposing traits” as a way of media’s responding to “a collective American imagination steeped in myths of inclusiveness” (342). On the one hand, people consume stories that resist one-dimension characters. On the other hand, they fail to see what The Simpsons truly is. It is a product of the maxim that “all comedy is fundamentally cruel” (Matheson 286). People are afraid of embarrassment in the episode. They cannot leave because they are lighted up and asked for an explanation. They would rather stay for what they do not support than leave and fight for their independent decisions. Comedy is cruel, because it is so real. The attraction of people to sects instead of to the “Word of God” further suggests the commercialism that has etched out people’s souls. The myth of other life in another planet is something that these people would rather believe. Exclusivity also attracts them. It shows the culture that satirizes “America’s exclusionary practices” (Henry 273). These people are, furthermore, prone to hypnosis and ideals of superficial “loving serenity” (The Simpsons). The serenity is superficial, because it calls for people to attack one another. The episode also shows the irony that “the most powerful mind” is weakest. The members of the Movementarian grapple with the difficulties of conditioning Homer’s weak mind that has weak learning abilities. In the end, almost the whole society is brainwashed, and it depicts the “disorganized, chaotic, seemingly at the brink of disaster” feature of modern civilization (Kutnowski 606). Consumerist attitude is another form of “gluttony” for material things that has further disorganized cultured thinking and action (Frank 102). The Simpsons has shown an episode that argues for the loss of humanity and culture in modern civilization. With evident and implicit signs, it describes the economic, political, cultural, religious, social, and gender conditions of the modern world. The Movementarian intersects political, economic, social, cultural, gender, and religious issues. The society escapes its grasp, though barely. The episode remains cruel, nevertheless, because it shows that when people subscribe to implied stereotyped myths, they oversimplify their lives and render complex issues invisible. The episode leaves a dystopian message: the decline of humanity to inhumanity is inevitable and hardly reversible, because people believe in everyday malicious and exploitative symbolic sects that they themselves built and support. Works Cited Colletta, Lisa. “Political Satire and Postmodern Irony in the Age of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.” Journal of Popular Culture 42.5 (2009): 856-874. Print. Frank, Lisa. “The Evolution of the Seven Deadly Sins: From God to the Simpsons.” Journal of Popular Culture 35.1 (2001): 95-105. Print. Henry, Matthew. “’Don't Ask me, I'm Just a Girl’: Feminism, Female Identity, and The Simpsons.” Journal of Popular Culture 40.2 (2007): 272-303. Print. Kutnowski, Martin. “Trope and Irony in the Simpsons' Overture.” Popular Music & Society 31.5 (2008): 599-616. Print. Matheson, Carl. The Simpsons, Hyperirony, and the Meaning of Life. Print. Mittell, Jason. “Cartoon Realism: Genre Mixing and the Cultural Life of The Simpsons.” Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television 47 (2001): 15-28. Print. Moore, Tom. Movie Fantasy vs. Classroom Reality. Print. Neuhaus, Jessamyn. “Marge Simpson, Blue-Haired Housewife: Defining Domesticity on The Simpsons.” Journal of Popular Culture 43.4 (2010): 761-781. Print. Ott, Brian L. ““I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?” A Study in Postmodern Identity (Re)Construction.” Journal of Popular Culture 37.1 (2003): 56-82. Print. Postrel, Virginia. Superhero Worship. Print. Ray, Robert B. The Thematic Paradigm. Print. Seger, Linda. Creating the Myth. Print. The Simpsons. Joy of Sect. Read More