Friday, November 16, 2012

The Great Philosophers of Our Times

The Simpsons Family broke to the airways in 1987, more that 20 years without stopping transmitting it has already 500 episodes on going. But what it is a mere cartoon show, for some others, it represents a beacon of truth and crude realism. 
The entire show verges over the playful tension between stereotypes and prejudgements  but in a funny and sort of ironic way, every single character in the show, has its own way of understanding the universe. It is no surprise that a lot has been written about the philosophical postures of all the characters of the TV show. But in this particular case, the central figure of Homer, the father of a middle class american family. 
The image of Homer, has become an example, but not too over generalization of the society in our post modern world. Lets face it, Homer is: lazy, alcoholic, avoids working, avoids stress, reckless, racist, judgemental, under educated, selfish, and yet he always manage to keep everything back to an apparent state of normality. This is the attitude of most Americans says the representative of The Philosophers Magazine, Andreas Mitchel. If you´d prefer to  know more about the Homerian Philosophy  click here.
In 2007, The Big Bang Theory, opened in the billboards as one of the most buzzing shows of the year. It was awarded with the Emmy Award for the Best New Show of 2007. Since then, it has won many awards, and it has been on the air during 7 seasons. It success lies over the complexity of its characters. The figure of the nerds or the geeks, against the breathtaking beauty of Penny,  the female character. makes this show bear to watch. The personality of the Character of Sheldon Cooper provides the philosophical issue here. Dr Sheldon Cooper in many ways is: Selfish, self-centred, arrogant. deeply racist, obnoxious, talkative, hard worker, at the same time obsessed  with his work and his own world. Doesn´t it sounds familiar? Could a TV show, be a representation of our understanding of the world?

1 comment:

  1. It is a good attempt as an article, as it proposes an ideological reading about today, but remains just that, a good ideological reading, and I say it because I think it should not be misunderstanding among the concepts philosophy and ideology; even though, these terms are closely linked, and it is because philosophy constitute a period of time, an era; therefore, as you stated "Simpsonsis a TV series" so it is the product of the ideological discourse’s today and not of the worldview that has been built, rather pessimistic from the world wars. In short, the philosophy sustains the ideological discourse, and I think it is essential to establish this difference in order to provide a further analysis.

    ReplyDelete