Tradition For Thee

I watched a movie this weekend. Since I rarely watch movies, and I have a kindergartener, that means I watched a Disney movie, which is fine for our interests since an analysis on social signaling should be most concerned with the youth. This particular movie was Coco, which came out about this time last year. My daughter was familiar with it and wanted to watch it because they had started - but not finished - watching it in her Spanish class.

Coco is built up around the mythology of Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican version of Halloween. Miguel is a young boy who dreams only of being a musician, a profession that is shunned by all his family. He discovers, through an old photograph, that his great-great-grandfather is the folk legend Ernesto de la Cruz. Through some Disney magic that they don't really try to explain, Miguel is sucked into the underworld and must obtain the approval of his family to return to the land of the living. He soon finds out that his dead relatives are just as aggrieved of musicians as his living family, so he decides to seek out his estranged great-great-grandfather, the biggest pop sensation in the realm of the dead, to obtain his approval.

Eventually, the two are re-united and, indeed, seem to be of a kindred spirit. It is clear that Miguel is winning the approval he needs. He eventually asks his great-great-grandfather about the sacrifices he had to make as a musician, particularly regarding family. De la Cruz responds, "The world is my family." At that point I started to feel that Cold Anger bubbling up. Sweet Maria, I thought, I can't believe they're being so blatant with the programming. If you had to formulate a five-word motto for the left, you'd be hard-set to come up with anything more apt than the world is my family. Call it liberalism in a nutshell. And there was Disney promoting that message directly through the movie's great hero. Well, my cynicism was a bit impatient. As it turns out, de la Cruz is actually the movie's villain, a charlatan and scoundrel who murdered Miguel's real great-great-grandfather, Hector, to steal his songs. You'll have to pardon me for not seeing that twist coming. Who would have thought that, in 2017, Disney would make a movie where a character is practically given a name tag that reads modern liberal and is then revealed as a soulless vampire who's entire existence consists of achieving worldly power by sucking the lifeblood of others? The comparison isn't faulty, I just can't believe Disney would be the ones to make it.

In hindsight, though, it could have been predicted. Last year we analyzed another 2017 Disney film in r/K Themes in Moana. The major premise was that the tension between Moana and her father hinted at r/K conflicts within the tribe, but another was that the story was very moving because it was able to harness the power of ancestral ties, which is no longer permitted for Europeans. The same applies to Coco, which culminates in a moving scene where Hector is finally re-united with his daughter, Miguel's great-grandmother. Europeans aren't allowed such powerful themes, because our ancestors were all bigots and the sole source of evil to infect the world. You really have to compare these movies to Frozen, the major Disney flick of the last decade that gave a definitive Old Country vibe. [Brace yourself, Frozen 2 is due out about this time next year. Prediction: non-white human character(s). In the original, trolls were cast as a poor man's ethnic diversity, but I don't suspect that will fly in the current year plus one.] What exactly is the point of that movie? As best as I can tell, it's one big homage to malignant narcissism. Are Scandinavians proud of it? Which character would you want your child to emulate? There's Elsa, the queen of isolation for whom feeling anything and harming others are equivalent actions. Ana, the sweet but naive princess who foolishly sacrifices herself for someone who would never act in kind. Christoph, the competent but bumbling earthly man; masculine yet emasculated. You almost have to encourage your wee one to positively consider the role of Prince Hans - portrayed as the villain - who schemed to oust the whole lot of them, a would-be liberator of Arendelle.

In Frozen, there is no clear moral underpinning, like national tradition (Moana), or family lineage (Coco). Those movies both praise the transcendence of the individual to a cultural and genetic legacy. Rejecting national heritage - symbolized by mooring the canoes in a cave - is the path of decay, even doom. Replacing family life with a cosmopolitan the world is my family ethos is the domain of the wicked and rootless. Those are powerful and virtuous messages, just the kind we right-wing hate merchants like to see. Compare that to Elsa, who ran from her own feelings, underwent no sort of spiritual transformation, and was only saved by the actions of others. Both Coco and Moana took deep dives into spirituality. Dia de los Muertos is not as secularized as Halloween - and it is hard to fathom a more religious movie theme than reuniting with loved ones in the afterlife. Moana sailed with her ancestors under the guidance of the gods.

At this point, if you want your children to experience strong pro-social messages in their movies, then choose movies clearly set in a non-western society, because filmmakers who wish to incorporate themes of family, nation, and tradition must make them that way. And if you want your children to mimc characters who exhibit strong anti-social traits, show the movies with a clearly European setting, because studios aren't permitted to depict traditional western society as virtuous, transcendental, or spiritual. I suspect you might find movies that praise the west if they are produced by leftists in non-western countries. For instance, the liberals in Russia are generally pro-Western. The cultural rule of leftism remains unchanged: tradition for thee, none for me.