Maxwell Institute: Don't Overlook Smith as Negative Hero
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:29 pm
The Maxwell Institute ought to consider taking their problems with Smith from another angle.
The official portrait is Smith as the puritan who penned the Book of Mormon with ink and quill, a man of duty with no sense of humor or moral fault. But there has always been a little room to adapt his personality to present circumstance. For instance, as the 1950's family man, he wrestled, played ball, and knew how to have good clean family fun and even had a few mischievous "foibles." But with the truth coming out and the expressed need to turn his faults into part of circumstance and "narrative," why not take advantage of some of the ways entertainment is redefining public perceptions and expectations?
When I was a kid, I watched CHiPs, Night Rider, the A-team, and the Dukes of Hazard (when I could get away with it - mom didn't like Daisy's dress standards). The heroes in these t.v. shows were either rebels who wore black leather jackets and cool sunglasses, or outlaws but with the moral right on their side doing the jobs corruption or bureaucracy prevented the established from doing. At worst they were mischievous, had attitudes, and didn't respect authority. But in these weaknesses were their strengths for thinking outside the box or getting things done when red tape incapacitated the fumbling white hats. So to an extent, thanks to the evils of television, there's some room for Joseph Smith to be an outsider. But the media of the eighties didn't prepare the church for but a fraction of Smith's "flaws".
In this century, however, Smith gets a big boost. We can start with Jack Bauer whose altruism is so over the top it comes with personal sacrifices such as getting addicted to heroin in order to infiltrate a cartel. We're introduced to a sense of duty so thick that Jack will kill, torture, and break all the rules the A-team didn't in order to bring justice. But reality digs deeper in The Wire or The Shield. Cop shows where it gets tougher and tougher to tell who the good guys are and what's permitted to exact moral law or raise questions about even the existence or very possibility of the notion. In The Wire, the cops are nearly as corrupt as the dealers. But in the Shield, boy oh boy, Vick Mackey goes a long way in our ability to revere Smith. Here's a guy who gets the temporary results at least, the criminals respect and fear him. The precinct tries to put up with him. But he doesn't just bend rules, he's a dirt bag and a criminal himself. He's a bad husband who cheats on his wife - he likes the girls. He's a bad father, although he loves his kids and those fumbling instances where he tries to be a dad are bait offered to the audience in hope to redeem him. The only rules that matter for Vick are his own "gang" codes that the officers in on his secrets and in his club follow. And that can cover actions like, stealing large amounts of drug money for themselves in addition to breaking rules in order to protect the public. In fact, in one instance, a newer, green officer with high morals and a "black and white" fundamentalist worldview got too close to the details of his operation. So Vick took a gun, shot him in the head and killed him, and then planted the evidence on the drug dealers. It's really left up in the air as to whether any "greater good" is being accomplished at all.
But you just love to watch Vick in action, the king of all bad asses, and if in the end a greater good served, then we've just got to stand in awe over how he achieved it. An audience with a proper respect for Vick is far more ready to accept Joseph Smith's role as a prophet. Because in a world that "real", it might just have been that specific ills such as his penchant for women and especially the wives of his friends was necessary for keeping the respect and submission of his cohorts. It might have been the case that Smith could never have got the church off the ground without being the "Vick Mackey" of religion. And a properly entertained Mormon community might be led to understand this unfortunate matter if the Maxwell Institute can see the advantages present-day entertainment venues offer them.
The official portrait is Smith as the puritan who penned the Book of Mormon with ink and quill, a man of duty with no sense of humor or moral fault. But there has always been a little room to adapt his personality to present circumstance. For instance, as the 1950's family man, he wrestled, played ball, and knew how to have good clean family fun and even had a few mischievous "foibles." But with the truth coming out and the expressed need to turn his faults into part of circumstance and "narrative," why not take advantage of some of the ways entertainment is redefining public perceptions and expectations?
When I was a kid, I watched CHiPs, Night Rider, the A-team, and the Dukes of Hazard (when I could get away with it - mom didn't like Daisy's dress standards). The heroes in these t.v. shows were either rebels who wore black leather jackets and cool sunglasses, or outlaws but with the moral right on their side doing the jobs corruption or bureaucracy prevented the established from doing. At worst they were mischievous, had attitudes, and didn't respect authority. But in these weaknesses were their strengths for thinking outside the box or getting things done when red tape incapacitated the fumbling white hats. So to an extent, thanks to the evils of television, there's some room for Joseph Smith to be an outsider. But the media of the eighties didn't prepare the church for but a fraction of Smith's "flaws".
In this century, however, Smith gets a big boost. We can start with Jack Bauer whose altruism is so over the top it comes with personal sacrifices such as getting addicted to heroin in order to infiltrate a cartel. We're introduced to a sense of duty so thick that Jack will kill, torture, and break all the rules the A-team didn't in order to bring justice. But reality digs deeper in The Wire or The Shield. Cop shows where it gets tougher and tougher to tell who the good guys are and what's permitted to exact moral law or raise questions about even the existence or very possibility of the notion. In The Wire, the cops are nearly as corrupt as the dealers. But in the Shield, boy oh boy, Vick Mackey goes a long way in our ability to revere Smith. Here's a guy who gets the temporary results at least, the criminals respect and fear him. The precinct tries to put up with him. But he doesn't just bend rules, he's a dirt bag and a criminal himself. He's a bad husband who cheats on his wife - he likes the girls. He's a bad father, although he loves his kids and those fumbling instances where he tries to be a dad are bait offered to the audience in hope to redeem him. The only rules that matter for Vick are his own "gang" codes that the officers in on his secrets and in his club follow. And that can cover actions like, stealing large amounts of drug money for themselves in addition to breaking rules in order to protect the public. In fact, in one instance, a newer, green officer with high morals and a "black and white" fundamentalist worldview got too close to the details of his operation. So Vick took a gun, shot him in the head and killed him, and then planted the evidence on the drug dealers. It's really left up in the air as to whether any "greater good" is being accomplished at all.
But you just love to watch Vick in action, the king of all bad asses, and if in the end a greater good served, then we've just got to stand in awe over how he achieved it. An audience with a proper respect for Vick is far more ready to accept Joseph Smith's role as a prophet. Because in a world that "real", it might just have been that specific ills such as his penchant for women and especially the wives of his friends was necessary for keeping the respect and submission of his cohorts. It might have been the case that Smith could never have got the church off the ground without being the "Vick Mackey" of religion. And a properly entertained Mormon community might be led to understand this unfortunate matter if the Maxwell Institute can see the advantages present-day entertainment venues offer them.