Melodrama as a Cultural Mode

Melodrama as a Cultural Mode

God is Dead

Chelsea Manning

• Leaked confidential files
• Polarized to a victimized hero or traitor
• Security was not questioned nor the information itself nor whistle- blower safety
• The media did not ask questions with: clear and simple answers
• Brandon became Chelsea and that's all that mattered
• Prejudice- Sandy Springs
• Education would have prevented this

• Democracy is "unstable" because of secularization
• Do you relly want to Spring, Arabs?
• Secularization burned our bridge back to a time of an established morality
• But how does Marx have a justice system?
• What is Good? What is Evil?
• Back to the State of Nature
• The media assumes Judeo- Christian morality as what is good and evil when polarizing
• We need to ask WHY and not accept the melodramatic world we live in
• Is killing all that bad?

US Men's Ice Skating

Creativity

Kim Kardashian

• "We are educated out of creativity"
• Children are not scared to be wrong
• Raising Your Hand Syndrome
• Schools are products of institutionalization
• Companies want methodical and rational thinkers who are right
• Intelligence is:
• Diverse- Smart in different fields
• Dynamic- Progressive and constantly changing
• Distinct- Gillian Lynne and not fitting this mold
• Education needs to be the villain to fix this problem for the future

• Victim: US Team
• Villain: Under Armour suits
• Simplified to: The team could not win with uniform
• How: Dramatic narrative, Personification of hero/ villain, Creates suspense until their next race
• Evil suits? Legitimized with images of athletes losing
• The suits stopped their virtue of winning
• Suits or skill? Why doesn't the

media find out

• Television has brought her actions into public eyes
• The media puts her on a binary scale: Role Model-Degenerate
• How are they really like?
• The media does not tell us, but gives us a clear "truth"
• Preconceived as Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, etc.
• She is 'Color Blind' in reality
• The void of morality society has is creating a spectrum that people do not question

Syria

• Victim: Syrian People
• Villain: Syrian Government
• Simplified to: Population wants Democracy/ Human rights and the government is killing them for asking
• Communist Manifesto
• Socioeconomic class differences
• Is democracy best? And do the leaders know the answer?
• Do they not want democracy because it is "unstable?"
• Exposes grey area

Williams

When to be Melodramatic

• How School Kills Creativity
• What is After Democracy

Anker

• The American Judicial System is melodramatic by its nature
• Prosecutors, Defendants, Verdict
• The demeanor verdict and entertaining a victory
• The audience is the juror and wants a "truth," not reasonable doubt
• Which is what the trial aims for*
• Preexisting ideas and past experiences give us prejudices and that is enough to cloud the truth

• Melodrama oversimplifies the media by fusion of narrative, images, music, etc.
• Modernity and Morality
• The polarization of morals justifies retribution as necessary
• Nonverbal communication legitimizes the villains as solely bad
• The main damage is that people do not ask "why" anymore
• Details are not revealed and that does not expose grey areas