Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 10

Popular Culture Review

I recent memory, the closest historical analog to this Greek
tableau is the case of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt II—the architect of the
Agent Orange defoliation policy in Vietnam—and his son, Elmo
Zumwalt III. In what newspapers and TV newscasters inaccurately
labeled a terrible twist of fate, Elmo III himself was exposed to
Agent Orange during his tour of duty in Vietnam, later developing
cancer linked directly by physicians to the defoliant. "1 am the
instrument of my son's trag^y," Admiral Zumwalt acknowledged in
a television interview in the nineteen eighties.
Remarkable though it is, this unhappy instance underscores
a general truism of contemporary popular culture: tragedy is what we
do to ourselves, not what the gods do to us. Thus, everyday occurrences
like plane crashes, traffic accidents, spousal and child abuse, drug
overdoses and drive-by shootings are routinely lumped together in
the media as "tragic." Of course, deaths due to earthquakes, floods,
volcanic eruptions, landslides and fires are also described as tragic,
and yet, in spite of the anachronistic Acts of God clause in everyone's
insurance policy, these occurrences are commonly accepted as natural,
not divine, in origin. If constant media exposure of earthquakes,
floods, and fires creates the impression that there's nothing
particularly special about these natural occurrences, then it follows
that the unfortunate people who happen to be in the way aren't
particularly special, not to mention heroic, either. Indeed, for most of
us these victims are simply nameless statistics; as a rule we aren't
moved to pity and terror by their sufferings.
We may be moved in other, less therapeutic ways, however,
by exposure to extreme situations, both natural and man-made. In a
poem entitled "Expecting the Barbarians," the modern Greek poet
Constantine P. Cavafy depicts a narcissistic culture so bored with its
indulgences that it actually longs for something tragic to happen :
What are we waiting for, assembled in the public
square?
The barbarians are to arrive today.
.. .Why this sudden unrest and confusion?
(How solemn their faces have become).
Why are the streets and squares clearing quickly.