How is it that we went from the Civil Rights 60s to the anti-war, "Free to be You and Me" 70s to the "War Games" 80s? And how has that transition impacted our current culture and political landscape? These are among the questions David Sirota sets out to explore and answer in this book.
Sirota opens by describing his own experience of the 80s - how the decade had its own feel and style and even language, which language he still finds himself thinking in. He grew up believing that the movies, television and other cultural accoutrements which formed the basis of his formative years were just good, clean, exuberant fun. Yet as the 80s shows, images and themes have resurfaced in the last few years, Sirota has come to believe that there was something much more powerful - subversive even - about the 80s. He argues that there was a deliberate, conscious, propagandistic re-working of previous generations to create a new 80s' mass mindset of materialism and martial/military dominance.
Sirota argues that 80s propaganda deliberately re-worked previous generations to create the twin myths of "The 50s" and "The 60s". The 60s were portrayed as a period of radical upheaval and violent instability - a "bad" time in our history (the gains of the Civil Rights Movement thereby getting swept under the rug). The 50s, meanwhile, were portrayed as the antidote - a stable, peaceful time when children were respectful, father knew best and America had "values". If we want to "return" society to its pre-1960 "good", we need to throw out the hippies and return to the clean-cut, all-American 50s.
Sirota next explores the 80s generation's heroification of certain individuals (mainly sports and movie stars, personified by Michael Jordan) and the companion message, "Just Do It." It was, Sirota argues, the ultimate in "rugged individualism", the height of Ayn Rand's "Objectivism". You can be a star or an idol. You can be all you can be. You are the most important person. Sirota explores how this has led to the phenomenon of "reality TV" and being famous for being famous.
Sirota then explores the generation's impact on America's opinion of the military. Public opinion of and faith in the military bottomed out in the 70s with the failure of Vietnam. Sirota argues that 80s propaganda - namely Hollywood movies produced in conjunction with the Pentagon - reversed that trend. The myth of the "Spat Upon Veteran" was spawned and the failure of Vietnam was explained as a failure of will - the American people gave up when the going got tough and the military wasn't "allowed" to win. In order to achieve military dominance and unwavering American support for the American military, Hollywood (and the Pentagon) cranked out heroic movies like "Top Gun" and "Red Dawn".
Finally, Sirota explores the impact of 80s culture on race relations and recognition. In the 60s and 70s, blacks were struggling - often violently - for their place in society. As blacks appeared in more media roles, TV shows began exploring racial issues and depicting black struggles in ways which confronted and challenged white viewers with their own racism. But in the 80s, however, racism was declared dead. Bill Cosby's Huxtable family "proved" that, with the "right" attitudes, blacks could be just as economically and socially successful as whites (which, of course, in the reverse means that any failure of blacks to achieve such success must be their own fault). Never mind that the 80s actually saw a widening of the gap between whites and blacks (along with the propagation of the "welfare queen myth). The bargain that blacks had to buy into in exchange for representation in the media was the acceptance of the "post-racial world" myth that never confronts whites with the reality of racism.
Sirota makes a number of good points and its hard to argue with the fact that the 80s marked a radical shift in many ways. However, I think Sirota over-argues his point and greatly over-generalizes. He plays fast and loose with dates and concepts to fit the data into his theory and he ignores data which doesn't fit. For example, "the 80s" seems to encompass everything from Carter through the first Gulf War, which Sirota argues "capped off" the 80s. Except that the Gulf War didn't even start until 1991.
Also, Sirota seems to believe that because he was immersed in 80s culture, that everyone else was too, and that it was the sole, or at least main, defining force in the 80s. However, I'm six years older than Sirota and I never saw half of the movies (let alone the TV shows) that Sirota lists off. Seems to me that someone's parents let him watch a tad too much TV and too many movies. For evidence of just how obsessed Sirota is with 80s culture, read the footnotes on page 90 (which ruminates in obsessive detail about the movie "Ghostbusters II) and page 96 (which challenges readers to match a number of 80s TV/movie "heroes" with their shows). The reality is that the 80s, like every other decade, was much more heterogeneous. There were still plenty of liberals, anti-war types, feminists, civil rights advocates, etc. - not all of us were holing up in our basements playing war games.
Second, Sirota seems to believe that time started and ended in the 80s. Michael Jordan was the first made-to-order "hero". The militarism and materialism of the 80s were unique in history. And, furthermore, the 80s were the beginning of a linear course which has led straight to the economic collapse and three concurrent wars of recent history.
But, of course, Jordan wasn't the first "hero". Arguably, Jesus gets that honor (or perhaps Buddha). But even in more recent decades there was Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed Ali, Elvis Presley, Bruce Lee, etc. And, of course, 80s materialism isn't significantly different that what could be found in the "Gay [18]90s" or the "Roaring 20s". And our country has been involved in an endless round-about of wars ever since its founding.
Furthermore, Sirota neglects trends that have arisen since the 80s. The 80s may have been the decade of the Power Rangers, but since that time the two most beloved children's characters ever created - Barney and Elmo - have arisen and both are still going strong, preaching their messages of sharing and caring and getting along with polite manners. In the 90s America enjoyed a relatively peaceful decade with few external military conflicts (that we knew about, anyway), and we seemed to like it that way. When George Bush launched the war on Iraq, tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets for weeks at a time - not the kind of behavior you might expect from pro-military 80s kids.
Finally, there are a number of ways in which Sirota really makes it hard to take him seriously as a writer at all. First, he insists on trash-talking in a way that not even the worst 80s movies ever did. Most of it can't be printed in a review, but for one rather mild example, on page 129, Sirota tells us: "The press release went on to list Bush's most slobbery kisses of the Pentagon [arse]" (except that "arse" isn't quite the word Sirota used). Was such graphic language really necessary? Interestingly enough, on page 137, Sirota writes, "...the White House was "[expletive] with the wrong guy." So a-words and s-bombs are okay, but he draws the line with the f-bomb?
Second, he repeatedly refers to the middle of the country as "flyover country". I certainly have no respect for Sarah Palin, but Sirota plays right into her hands when he dismisses the area where tens of millions of people (including myself) live and work as not worthy of anything other than flying over. Middle America might not be any more "real" than coastal America, but it still is real America.
And finally, Sirota makes some ridiculous comparisons. On page 48, he opines, "Sure, many Americans ended up hating Bush for what he did with his authority, just as many Bulls fans hated Jordan for opting to end his career on the Washington Wizards." Yeah, I hate Michael Jordan the same way I hate George W. Bush, what about you? And on page 79 he writes, "Conservatives cheer when politicians sell off Eisenhower-era public infrastructure (highways, bridges, etc.) to foreign private firms. Liberals demand those same politicians "get the government out of our bedrooms."" Sure, politicians have just as much rights managing our bedrooms as they do managing public infrastructure.
With a whole lot of rigorous application of scholarship and intellectual consistency (and writing like an adult), Sirota could have written a serious book that could make a significant impact on the way we think about the impact of cultural forces over the course of the last several decades. But the reality of this book is just a bit of light food for thought that is a lot like celery: not really digestable and easily eliminated. 2.5 stars
