Society Has A Magic Fixation
Perspective From The Popularity And Strange Reality of Magic (In Pop Culture)
Magic is everywhere in pop culture today. If you lump in mutant and psychic powers, even more so. It pervades the line up on networks from HBO to The CW. It rages on cable, Netflix, movies, and anime. It is everywhere! Even The History channel has slipped it into series like Vikings and Knightsfall. Everyone is fixated on magic.
There is nothing so new about this fixation. It is a love affair that stretches back decades to books by Tolkien and CS Lewis. And further still to the ancient material which inspired them — The Eddas, Morte D’Arthur, and the stories of Greek Mythology. Magic is timeless. Although certain themes do cycle through — recently there is a certain prominence of Gods.
It may also be fair to challenge whether the fixation with magic is truly stronger now than in the past. It is perhaps fair to notice that modern special effects have only recently been able to create convincing stories at costs that allow series and movies to be profitable (ah, the magic of free markets). But we digress… what can we learn from this fixation?
Magic is Power
Boy is that underwhelming and obvious! Humans fixate on power… another stunner. But if we interject a little social science, things start to get more serious.
Cogito Ergo Sum — Descartes
Sum, Ergo Cogito — Nietzsche
In sociology, this is a matter of Agency. Agency is the ability to exercise free will and power. Magic fantasy allows the viewer to connect with a feeling of agency, much like gaming. And so all of this to say:
people fixate on agency so in a society where people increasingly express a sense of powerlessness, perhaps magical fantasy has greater appeal?
Not convinced? Good for you! I am only presenting a hypothesis, a perspective, and hopefully a little insight & inspiration. But let’s take another idea from the pop culture land of magic — suspend disbelief. Stay with me for another few minutes.
It might take a moment for you to distinguish the cover art of this article. Is it magic? Is it science? In today’s world, sometimes they don’t feel that different. Science, technology, and magic all seem to be blurring. It is increasingly difficult to draw clear lines. It doesn’t help that marketing and sales teams work to blur those lines further. In fact, it may very well add to society’s sense of powerlessness?
While prior decades and centuries saw fictional stories filled with magical words and magical ingredients, newer story lines are rife with magical equations and algorithms. An evolution, be it loosely, has seen magic evolve from language to chemistry to mathematics. Science has followed a similar evolution. Is magic just user-friendly science? Well… viewer-friendly?
But science isn’t the lone analogy, not recently at least. Magic schools are all the rage as well. Hogwarts or Brakebills, St Benedict’s or Xavier’s School For Gifted Children — schools, academies, and universities are now tied into the concept of magic. This may not be new, but it is certainly more popular now than ever. Tolkien & Lewis weren’t spending time on this.
Is agency lost in education? I think so, but perhaps no more than before. Is our feeling of agency over education lost? Perhaps that is the better question. Now more than ever, education is run by central bureaucrats with federal oversight and endless conformity. Is there a better foil for the agency of magic than that? Magical education may be the feel good story of millennium … or at least the millennials.
The Start Of A Magical Journey…
Perhaps this article was a short distraction? Perhaps it inspired? Perhaps it was fuel for deep thought? Or maybe even the beginning of a magical journey? Society seems to love those stories most. One can only hope…
Actually wait… that is not the lesson here at all! This was a lesson in agency. Although, had I used that title — you wouldn’t likely be reading this. Magic offers us tremendous inspiration:
magic is agency, the fantasy version. science, technology, analytics, and education are the true agency of our times… which perhaps makes them a bit magical?
If that seems too fanciful, just remember The Evolution of Analytic Thinking begins with ideas. Perhaps that is all that magic really is… but ideas are powerful. It is up to others to add form (my attempt here), process, and action. It is the process of agency… and that can be magical indeed. Thanks for reading!
