The rise of Philosophical Concepts in Pop Culture
“Why do we exist?”, “I have no enemies” or even Stoicism, does any of them sound familiar to you?
Pop Culture and High Culture
Before going deeper into how philosophical concepts are becoming more mainstream in popular culture, I'm going to first get into what pop culture and high culture means as it will provide a better understanding of the topic.
To define what popular culture means, there are many ways of interpreting it. According to John Storey's sixth definition of popular culture, it is a postmodern blurry line between the “authentic” and “commercial” culture or “high culture" and “popular culture". It also refers to the breakdown of the culture of dominant and subordinate classes in the postmodernism world.
In a lecture about Pop Culture, when we talked about high culture we were told that it is often associated with fine art as in classical music, ballet, opera, painting and they were usually savored by the elite class of society. After the lecture ended, I have discovered that high culture is also linked with literature as in poems, and even philosophical theories, which have piqued my interest on how popular culture has made philosophy become accessible.
From “High class” to “Low class”
Going back to the past, similar to fine arts and literature, philosophical concepts (or theories) were only accessible for the elite or upper class of society because of its abstract, sophisticated knowledge and concepts that only educated people could fully understand and study. Now, with globalization, philosophical concepts are becoming more accessible to the public, shifting from a niche field of interest to a more mainstream one. (Christian, 2021)
Star Wars, The Matrix, or even Rick and Morty – a cartoon series are some examples of how philosophical concepts are being integrated in pop culture and made their way to reach wider audiences.
I’m going to take the phrase “Carpe diem” — “seize the day” in English from the movie Dead Poets Society as an example of philosophical concept in pop culture. When I first watched the movie, I thought that it was just a pretty cool phrase (and it sounded nice when saying it out loud), but after I had a better grasp of the phrase’s meaning, it means to live life to the fullest, focus on the present, appreciate the value of every moment in life, and avoid postponing things unnecessarily because every life eventually comes to an end.
A simple Latin phrase originates from Horace has changed people’s (including mine) philosophy of living. In the present, most people still take the “carpe diem” ideology as their life motto. *surprised*
Below is a demonstration of how the saying “Carpe diem” becomes a renowned quote in pop culture through the Shannon-Weaver’s model of communication:
Conclusion
With the rise of digital social media platforms such as Tiktok, Youtube, Reddit, and Quora, philosophy concepts and theories have reached to many people around the world. While they help people to have a better navigation about living and acting as a form of entertainment, such ancient theories can be oversimplified by the public causing misinterpretation of abstract and complex ideology.
In my opinion, though it is hard to differentiate between high culture and popular culture is the current world, we cannot deny the fact that products of high culture or of elite class are being well received by the public in pop culture and have bring people closer together in the context of globalization.
References
Storey, J. (2015). Cultural theory and popular culture: An Introduction (Fifth Edition). Pearson.
Christian, A. (2021). Reflections on popular culture and philosophy. KRITERIAN - Journal of Philosophy, 35(4), 335–357. https://doi.org/10.1515/krt-2021-0038
Carpe Diem: Seize the day. (n.d.). https://effectiviology.com/carpe-diem/