It amazes me how much Americans praise authoritarian rule. And most people don’t even notice.
Look at all the children’s books, TV shows and movies that feature kings, queens, princess, etc. Even Mr Rogers had a king in make believe.
The entire plot of the Black Panther movie was due to an advanced society having a hereditary authoritarian government FFS. And the solution is a civil war where the “good king” wins.
We grow up with the idea of the *benevolent dictator" being hammered into us.
I think it’s just playing into people’s fantasies of power. Look at how much of.our entertainment is about ultra wealthy people (the romcom billionaire who falls for a humble working class woman, the rappers who brag about getting bags, etc.) despite most Americans living humbly or struggling. It may also be because most people in the US grew up on fairy tales and Disney movies involving royalty (ETA: Now that i think about it these children’s entertainments sound like propaganda).
I think you can also throw a bit of the romantic notions of knighthood, King Arthur, shit I don’t like to throw Tolkien under the bus but he probably bears some blame here too
Tolkein wrote the greatest threat to not-Britain being a race of uncivilized fundamentally evil monsters led by basically Satan.
I love The Hobbit and LOTR (and firmly believe that anyone who claims to like the Silmarillion has someone locked up in their basement…) but there was a LOT of problematic shit in there. Nothing compared to HP “Ask Me What My Cat Was Named” Lovecraft (which, ironically, has resulted in some AMAZING queer twists on the stories) but a lot of the fucked up shit that is currently being done away with in fantasy can be tied to Tolkein.
It amazes me how much Americans praise authoritarian rule. And most people don’t even notice.
Look at all the children’s books, TV shows and movies that feature kings, queens, princess, etc. Even Mr Rogers had a king in make believe.
The entire plot of the Black Panther movie was due to an advanced society having a hereditary authoritarian government FFS. And the solution is a civil war where the “good king” wins.
We grow up with the idea of the *benevolent dictator" being hammered into us.
I think it’s just playing into people’s fantasies of power. Look at how much of.our entertainment is about ultra wealthy people (the romcom billionaire who falls for a humble working class woman, the rappers who brag about getting bags, etc.) despite most Americans living humbly or struggling. It may also be because most people in the US grew up on fairy tales and Disney movies involving royalty (ETA: Now that i think about it these children’s entertainments sound like propaganda).
I think you can also throw a bit of the romantic notions of knighthood, King Arthur, shit I don’t like to throw Tolkien under the bus but he probably bears some blame here too
Tolkein wrote the greatest threat to not-Britain being a race of uncivilized fundamentally evil monsters led by basically Satan.
I love The Hobbit and LOTR (and firmly believe that anyone who claims to like the Silmarillion has someone locked up in their basement…) but there was a LOT of problematic shit in there. Nothing compared to HP “Ask Me What My Cat Was Named” Lovecraft (which, ironically, has resulted in some AMAZING queer twists on the stories) but a lot of the fucked up shit that is currently being done away with in fantasy can be tied to Tolkein.