Rubio’s Pop Culture Pessimism
Rubio’s Pop Culture Pessimism
So, what’s Senator Marco Rubio’s problem with pop culture? Did he not like the empowering message of Black Panther? Was he just freaked out by Bird Box? Did he get offended by the clever play on stereotypes in Crazy Rich Asians? Or did he simply not get the jokes in The Marvelous Miss Maisel? Whatever it was, the senator from Florida felt the need to diss the study of pop culture recently while making a completely unrelated claim about the value of skilled labor. Sadly, Rubio fails to understand that popular culture is culture, and the study of culture is anything but ridiculous.
Senator Rubio couldn’t help himself in the midst of an important argument published by The Atlantic about the need for greater support of Career & Technical Education, and he had to take a shot at pop culture studies as a waste of time. It was a standard page from the Republican Party’s playbook in its ongoing battle with the liberal arts. While noting that “we praise four-year college degrees but look down on technical certifications,” he took time to extend the argument further to demean how “we count ridiculous classes on pop culture as credits toward college degrees, but not wood shop.” Looking past his use of the archaic term wood shop, and the irrelevance of a college degree in carpentry work, Rubio’s comments are part of a bizarre contempt for the arts and a true ignorance of both the value of pop culture and the importance of studying it.
Granted, the Florida senator didn’t actually criticize popular culture, but instead the study of it at the college level. The argument Senator Rubio is trying to make — actually making — is well served without the need to disparage subjects that he doesn’t understand, especially when it’s simply an aside to score cheap political points. Much of what Senator Rubio implies about career training is linked to the belief education is primarily utilitarian and that we only study a subject that will prepare us directly for a job. But that defies the entire concept of the liberal arts education so cherished by the Enlightenment thinkers from John Locke to Thomas Jefferson to Friedrich Nietzsche. Academic study, especially in the arts and humanities, is about becoming fully actualized human beings. Henry James described it as being “people on whom nothing is lost.” In a classic piece of education pop culture, Professor Keating, played brilliantly by Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society, reminds us (and junior senators) that “medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
The study of the arts and humanities, which includes pop culture, is the foundation of the liberal arts, and despite what Marco likes to think about the value of the arts, it plays a key role in preparing people for jobs and for life. In fact, the lives of many CEOs are proof that the study of the humanities, including that pop culture class he dismisses, may just be a key to business success. For example, the interest that Steve Jobs showed in arts classes has been a well-documented story of how his artistic eye and design-thinking was integral to his art-oriented vision of Apple’s success. Additionally, there’s a clear correlation between popular culture and the economic goals of people like Senator Rubio. Popular culture is a huge driver of the economy, as evidenced by all the people working on all the Marvel movie sets. As pop culture fans sit through the closing credits of of The Avengers waiting for another teaser clue about the story arc, they must marvel at the thousands of people employed by the entertainment industry. Appreciation of pop culture fuels that economic engine.
The problem with Rubio’s myopic view of the study of the arts and its fundamental role in the thinking behind classical liberalism is that education goes far beyond the economic arguments he’s making about job training and career education. Granted, there may very well be some arts, humanities, and pop culture classes that the average American, as well as GOP congressmen, find ridiculous. I was certainly surprised to learn that student could pursue classes in the field of “Buffy Studies” — though as a Scooby Gang wannabe, I’m also a little jealous I’m not still in school. However, classes must ultimately be seen in context of the entire education, and the job prospects for people with humanities degrees is not so pathetic as Republican senators might have us believe. The more significant issue is how we as a society think about art and culture, and how the movies we see and the books we read and the songs we listen to are reflection of the human experience. For, as Todd VanDerWerff recently pointed out in Vox, “The world needs cultural criticism.”
The value of storytelling in our culture is that our stories are how we come to care about a subject. Thus, it’s often the stories — even the pop culture version — that engage people in issues that should matter to them. Black Panther is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Beyond being a masterful action thriller, the social criticism inherent in the movie can generate some genuine soul searching. No doubt the contempt Erik Killmonger had for T’Challa and the nation of Wakanda for keeping their wealth and power secret is a valid argument about social responsibility. And, there may be no more powerful line of dialogue in 2019 than his “bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from the ships because they knew death was better than bondage.” I doubt Senator Rubio would publicly dismiss discussion of the cultural issues in Black Panther or challenge the significance it has for Black youth in this country to see a superhero who looks like them. Nor should he. His problem is his judgment of what pop culture is deserving of discussion and study.
Pop culture is art, and art connects us to history and values and our sense of self. We are what we consume, and that holds true for our art and entertainment. Thus, if we want to get a temperature for how people are feeling, it’s important to pay attention to what they are watching — what makes them laugh, cry, and think. Popular culture can represent that which “brings us together,” and we go astray when we believe that issues which divide us (politics, immigration, etc.) are serious whereas the things that connect us are “trivial.” The common language of our stories — both classic and popular — is integral to our sense of community. Popular culture lays bare the feelings we have especially at moments we can’t articulate the reality. And that power is anything but absurd.
