Tim over at The U.S. Bureau of Fabulous Bitches wrote a really great post about the “cyloning” of tv villains… i.e. the movement of conflict from the external to the internal. Read it. As often happens with Tim’s posts, I found myself having a lot to say about it. Particularly, Tim sez:
“The timing of it [the “cyloning” of tv villainry] is tempting to pin on 9-11 and the War on Terror, since the political narrative of “enemies among us” joined with the human failures in business and government during the period seem to focus attention more on the enemy as ourselves than from the outside. (Note the distinction in these narratives from some Cold War dramas like Invasion of the Body Snatchers — where the enemy also looks like us, but doesn’t reflect on us as people. The enemy is alien, we are human).”
Well, actually, I think the War on Terror is much much much more Body Snatchers than Cylons. In fact I think the spin on terrorism actively resists “cyloning” pretty heavily. Terrorists are not us, they’re trained by al Quaida, they’re “Islamist funamentalists”, they’re from Far Away In the Mists of the Orient.
Business, though, that’s another matter. I think Tim may have hit the nail on the head there. Because what we’re seeing with corporate abuses of power and Enron, Etc. is “the best of the best” getting cyloned, actually, which explains the transition nicely. Now, I’m not totally sure I endorse this read, but I’m gonna run with it for a sec:
Commentator Barbie sez: as NPR reminded me a couple months ago, since the Reagan administration, this country has been operating on a Gordon Gekko model of ‘success.’ What it means to be the best of the best in the recent past is not to be Trekkishly noble, Houseishly smart, or Law&Orderly baddass, but to be Trumpishly good at making money hand over fist… or to be willing, a la Gekko, to do anything to get to the top (whatever your field).
Needless to say (at least if you’re a good little Semi-Commie Commentator Barbie like me or Bill Moyer), this model is not only icky but also unsustainable: please see the villainish development of CEOs in the last ten or so years. Part of being unscrupulous is to do “bad” things. Bad things like screwing other people out of their money. Bad things that cost people their jobs. Bad things that compeltely fuck up the domestic and, to some extent, the global economy. Bad things, in other words, that create internal conflict.
However, another part of being unscrupulous is to make deals with “bad” people —- bring the enemy into the fold of your bank account, provided their rates are the most competitive. Now the enemies aren’t enemies any more —- they’re business partners! Thus short-circuiting the external-conflict generator.
And so you have this dual move in which the best of our best become bad, and also assimilate our past enemies into their ranks. Is there any narrative option, in this day and age, besides cyloning? Commentator Barbie thinks not.
Commentator Barbie over and out.
thoughts? thanks tim!
