In this morning’s New York Times, there’s an interesting article in the Fashion and Style section entitled “The Newly Uptight”. The article is all about the upcoming Fashion Week in NYC and the “new” styles that we can expect to see on the runways of the top designers. They predict a return to the Jackie Kennedy look (which my wife tells me never goes out of style), a return to a tailored, more conservative look.
I have to admit, I do prefer Jackie Kennedy’s style to that of Britney Spears, but that was not what struck me about this article. It was the reason for this move by the designers.
“We have certainly reached the time where people want to feel good again, to go back to Camelot and pre-Camelot days,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst with the NPD Group, a market research firm. “Boomers especially are harkening back to a day before there were issues,” among them global warming and teenagers overdosing on prescription drugs.
Fascinating! The appeal of living in denial is strong, is it not? We want to go back to a time that covers over dysfunction and unrest. Jackie Kennedy admitted that she created Camelot in The White House to project an image of fairy tale perfection because she felt the reality was too much for the country to handle; that is, the President was unfaithful, and she suffered from depression, being often overwhelmed by the spotlight. The interesting fact is that no matter how much truth comes out about that time, our country still remembers it as the fairy tale, as Camelot.
Fast-forward to today: the sword of impending doom of a recession, the continual war in Iraq, the prospect of losing our superpower status as a nation, etc – according to the article, all this is proving too much for our society. We want to dream about a “better” time. As a result, the fashion shows “are expected to pay homage to a period, the late ’50s and early ’60s, that was, in retrospect, an interlude of prosperity and stability”.
How ironic! I thought the ’50s and early ’60s were, “in retrospect”, a time of suppression and denial that led directly to the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll of the late ’60s.
Still, I understand the desire to return to Camelot even if it is a fantasy. One look at my dvd collection and it’s clear that I like to escape reality as much as the next guy. Reality can simply be too painful and too scary to handle sometimes. It’s hard to hold on to the hope that things will be okay, when nothing in life seems to point that way. Denial and escape come much more naturally. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that hope doesn’t really exist in me; it has to come from outside. It has to come from Someone who knows what this world is about, what my life really is, and who has overcome the world.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have over come the world.” (John 16:33)
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6 responses to “The Return to Camelot”
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I think of June Carter Cash’s song “Sunny Side of Life” which, though it acknowledges the trials of life, prescribes positive thinking. The lyrics reads as a country-styled Theology of Glory.
Or how Republicans today long for a return to a Reagan Presidency, denying all of that president’s massive economic failures.
The power of positive thinking is a very attractive idea, but, in my experience, it is just the “power” of denial. Unfortunately, denying reality never seems to make it go away. It seems to keep popping up no matter how great my effort is to prevent it from doing so.
DZ, great post. Your insight into the the collective American psyche is right on! For those who do not know the love, power, and hope that is found in Christ, it’s either denial or despair, right?
c- thanks! but i didn’t post it. sean did. cause he’s the man.
A great and timely post Sean. Last night I was reading a biography on William Wilberforce–the man responsible for ending slavery in 18th c England. Here is an excerpt from Eric Metaxass’ “Amazing Grace” page 69.
“American have an outsized tendency to romanticize the past, to see previous eras as magically halcyon and idyllic, and of no era would this be truer than the eighteenth century in Britain. Visions of powdered wigs and liveried coachmen dance in our heads. IF forced to think of something negative about that time, we might come up with the charming anachronisms of chamber pots and wooden teeth. Perhaps someone will bring up the absence of anesthetics. But if the subject of slavery comes up, we will probably think of it as a grotesque aberration, as a single monstrous evil without much connection to an otherwise genteel and civilized society. That would be a gross mistake.”
Denial is something I’m really good at and will probably practice the rest of my life. I’m aware of my denial, I know Christ conquers my sin, but I think I’ll keep practicing it….Emily
I wish I could change the fact that I am in denial, but most of the time I’m in denial about my denial. So, as a result, most of the time I don’t really think that I am in denial:)
I am sure I will continue to be in denial because I have no choice. Thank God He saves me in my denial.
Thanks Emily!