Reaper Man, Teacher Man: Using Popular Culture to Teach Grit, Mortality Awareness, and Goal Setting in the Age of Anxiety

Abstract

<p>Since the advent of low-cost modern media technologies (records, films, radio, television, and the internet), <em>popular culture</em> has both shaped and been shaped by complex economic, political, governmental, moral, and artistic concerns. <em>Fear and anxiety</em> and the human capacity to control, reduce, or induce them in others have been tools for influencing both individual and societal behaviours for far longer. At the juncture of these two are both opportunity and hazard. This paper will briefly consider the historical context of our current apprehensiveness and collective neuroticism from the early media age to the present and how anxiety has been used by significant power players and the nominally disadvantaged alike. It will then turn to the role of media technologies in distorting our understanding of risk, mortality, and the potential for (and the sustainability and importance of) happiness. Finally, it will present a series of suggestions to produce more resilient, realistic, and goal-oriented learners by cultivating within them a robust understanding of their mortality, the inevitability of suffering, and the tenuousness of the human condition. Much of the material and culture referenced will be from the United States; however, the observations and suggestions throughout this paper should be broadly applicable to the peoples of the developed world. Finally, this paper will include ample content and conversational suggestions, examinations of media context and interpretations, and questions for classroom discussion for the teacher who wishes to guide students towards a better-grounded mental state.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0097/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>