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Rise of the Independents

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  • Description

    Author Nick Gillespie and anthropologist Grant McCracken discuss the fall of stereotypes.

  • Duration 6:54
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This transcript is automatically generated

-- specialty.

Special.

-- I don't.

I must be controls.

Good luck with that.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Lose control and the -- at this -- OK and real life we don't have real mutants with superhero powers but increasingly we can create our own personas express.

More independence and how we dress -- entertain ourselves even have sex.

Anthropologist grant McCracken calls it planet to.

The LS because this trend or reprise of the mutant cell.

-- -- mean a rise in the -- Well it did goes in with the themes -- the declaration of independence in many parts were alive for a global personalize.

Our lives and and you know you get different types of personal service -- able to change certain aspects of yourself.

When you think of if you think back to very early fifties or something.

You know there were blacks and whites then you have somebody like Tiger Woods who will put aside the sex addiction for now but he.

When he rose to prominence he called himself a -- -- nation that he was.

A hybrid of caucasians.

Of blacks of Indians and of Asians.

And that's more what we are were Hmong relies were hybrid -- -- -- -- experimenting and trying out new ways to express ourselves or to show ourselves.

And I think that that's part of why the X-Men franchise is so popular -- speaking to what we're doing and our real lives were.

Trying to express -- individuality we're trying to play around with different ways of kind of muddling through our lives.

And grant you call this planet to.

-- It's a sudden kind of explosion of expressive possibility if you want me think about people in the nineteenth century Victorian say.

A living lives where identities were largely -- assumed for a assigned by class and age and gender and so on the exercise of -- traditional American liberty took the form.

People pursuing the right to express themselves in a variety of ways and breaking out of those assigned identities and fashion now.

-- use the phrase planet he did it to mean.

-- -- -- for natural purposes that's one of the things that pre occupied the ancient -- was just how many creatures there -- in the world.

And he said every time you get a space between two natural species -- have a third one appearing.

And he talked about nineteenth century there you were either of peasants or do warn you did what your parents did.

All it was just except that you would do what your parents did.

You know one of the actors from Greece died recently and you no longer are -- -- high school that only has jocks nerds and you know -- hoods.

You now have been a grant has written about this where you.

Go to a high school now and there are thousands of different possibilities or are you don't -- punks who are -- Christian and skaters who do this and that and -- girls were really boys I mean it's just exploding all over the place.

And why is this -- a lot of people would say -- this is evil yeah no I mean people people -- that all the time the reason why it's good is because it allows.

Us as individuals to do things that we want to do what we wouldn't say.

It's bad to experiment with business practices.

Because we might get things that are cheaper and better -- more efficient and more widely available.

Why would it be bad to say as long as I'm not hurting somebody else and I'm not forcing them to do something that's.

Wrong or or painful for them why is that a bad thing to explore all of our possibilities.

Turns -- the sky isn't falling of course the intellectuals.

How are quick to accuse us of having created a world in which chaos can only be around the corner.

But in point of fact we've been exercising this personal liberties since -- certainly since the eighteen -- -- home.

And the sky doesn't fall and when people of all was said it's gonna be the end of civilization.

Well and this is or one of the things that's fascinating is that people say oh my god you know you look at Lady Gaga -- And you compare go back to Madonna who was this great person who blew up the virgin whore complex -- was called you have -- women could either be virgins -- words -- never the Twain shall meet.

Lady Gaga is the third or fourth federation of Madonna and we don't even care about her sexuality it's not an issue I think about pop tarts.

Pop tarts were created in the mid sixties and they originally came in three forms -- Berry strawberry and brown sugar cinnamon.

They looked identical.

And that's kind of where we were as a society there weren't that many options of the flavors were somewhat muted.

Now when you go to a supermarket you can -- about two dozen or three dozen types of pop -- That range from those three original ones to all of these brightly colored ones with things stuck on them and occasional brands -- the or sponge barber of the -- man or whatever.

I think it's a better world -- more interest in world that's more innovative world and when you take this back to human society.

You know the fact is is over the past thirty years crime rates have gone down sex crime rates have gone -- You know nobody because there are -- Lotto has to feel somehow inferior or disenfranchised.

From our society.

We are more accepting more tolerant we are more peaceful.

And we get to do things that are really interest -- I get to wear a leather jacket to work.

But would have been impossible.

You know thirty years -- Greg gets to dress as an anthropology issue should be wearing like a pistol with Panama and I didn't have one on just outside the Delaware -- we might you know so we get to we we get to express ourselves and that's generally a good thing.

Generally I can see people only audience saying I -- for pop tarts nice and more choice but grant for.

People than it to break all these traditions.

That have stood up over time.

Business.

He's gonna eventually.

Mean cause the unwed pregnancy the breakdown of the family and beginning of people being less kind to China.

And and did I think it feels more like a kind of generosity was sort of accepting of people whoever they are whatever they wish to be.

The something slavish and kind of grim about a society in which people take there.

Their cue from stereotypes -- one hand or the elites the -- shirts to whom you were referring.

In the last segment and and kind of wait to hear how they ought to live their lives and that's.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- then now the kids are anxious they don't know what to do with themselves they don't have clear role models.

Well I guess the new role models Lady Gaga who says you know find your inner monster and a point of fact that -- -- -- -- monster never creates a very rarely does it create.

Genuine monsters that turns out there's an expressive round here in -- exploration and which doesn't create social.

Pathology.

Is that a Lady Gaga lyrics picture with the maybe not but.

Well thank you grant McCracken that the last thing.

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