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Yes, We Should Absolutely Talk About Cultural Events

(Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)

We live in a society.

It’s a pretty absurd place filled with nonsensical events, often undertaken by people with ridiculous ambitions. It’s dumb, it’s chaotic, and it’s absolutely beautiful…at least most of the time.

Some of my favorite moments birthed forth by humanity don’t come from moments that would be considered beautiful such as a child reunited with his father after a tour of duty or a community banding together to help out one of their least fortunate. To be sure, these are precious moments that are enjoyable to watch, but humanity is also beautiful when it’s attempting to find ways to amuse itself or scratch its own itches. Every generation has its greatest hits in terms of contributions to the overall tale of humanity. Even on a micro-scale, there are things that just seem silly that we’ll remember forever.

Remember that Quizno’s commercial with the weird creature playing the guitar and wearing a pirate hat? I do.

After this ad, I went to Quiznos to try their sandwiches and it became my favorite place to get one. The sandwiches were tasty and solidified it as my favorite place to get a peppercorn roast beef piece of heaven.

It’s amazing how little things can invade the mind and drive you to make many decisions in the future. Quiznos made me want to try a sandwich with just a couple of horribly animated gerbils and a sloppy song that didn’t take more than five minutes to record. After that, I was there more often, choosing it for lunch over other places.

That’s just a choice around food. Zoom out and you’d be pretty alarmed how easily we are tilted one way or another and how that tilt makes one decide on what actions to take, what thoughts to think, and how we conduct our lives going forward.

That ad was just part of a larger cultural machine that cranks out suggestions all the time, and I don’t just mean in the ad world. Every television show you watch, every movie you see, every book you crack, every concert you attend, every video game you press the start button on is attempting to convey a message to you of some kind. This is because every creation has some person behind it with thoughts and feelings and opinions they would like you to understand or, more often than not, share.

At the time of this writing, we live in a society where the cultural tastemakers and elite understand very well that they can utilize the big stage to tilt people’s opinions to one side or another in terms of moral standing or political opinion. They abuse it recklessly, but they do so with purpose. For a very, very long time, this abuse worked in convincing people to think the way they did by the millions. It wasn’t helped by the fact that they had no opposition. Those who would oppose them were content to complain about it from a distance.

Thankfully, with the creation of the internet, the gatekeepers can only do so much and the space is being infiltrated by the opposition. Still, we have a long way to go and a lot of damage to undo.

Part of undoing this damage is pointing out when the emperors show up wearing nothing but their metaphoric birthday suits. Culture critics are a bit part of the war against cultural despots.

Looking at my own writing here on RedState it’s clear that people want to hear and read about the culture. Why shouldn’t they? They know that people decide what their politics should be long before they ever hear them from a politician. Their minds are made up about who they’re going to pull the lever for ages before they even have the option to do so. Many who have been on the business end of the shellacking dealt out by the cultural elite feel as if they’ve been isolated for so long and, thanks to the internet, are now receiving confirmation that they aren’t alone. They’re hearing that their takes are shared by millions.

It gives them more confidence to speak out and share their own opinions, and thanks to the voices added to more voices more people are reached. These people finally receive an opinion contrary to that of the mainstream. Conversations start. Minds are changed.

If you’re wondering why RedState oftentimes covers cultural matters, this is one of the reasons why. Yes, we are a political site to be sure, but politics is a symptom of a much larger cultural disease, and curing it means wading into cultural events. You may think it’s silly, but even events that you might think are overtly ridiculous play a role in the overall cultural narrative.

If a ridiculous commercial can make people want to try a sandwich then something larger and far more ridiculous may be able to sway the minds of hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions. Commenting and participating in the culture, even the ridiculous parts, are necessary.

Absolutely. Necessary.

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