Popular Media, Romanticism, and the Statist Insinuation

By Robert Lee

Popular Media, Romanticism, and the Statist Insinuation

It involves the unquestioned assumption that the state is the natural or necessary agent of moral order, safety, or progress. Typically, some societal problem is recognized and state interventionism is subtly (or not so subtly) insinuated, implied, or suggested as the evident solution. The negative form involves the implication that, absent particular actions of the state, disaster would be inevitable.

The statist insinuation seems to occur in societies so used to the modern nation-state that, not only do they assume the necessity and obviousness of the political state as the solution, but the concept of the state is so ingrained that it is often insinuated or implied in the very statement of an issue. Whenever a problem is stated by certain persons or most popular media, it can be almost guaranteed that the insinuation will inevitably involve greater power to the state. Further, because it involves little personal cost or thought and may often involve a boost to perceived social status, statist insinuations or direct advocation for increased state action incentivize virtue signaling.

Given the nature of fictional popular media -- distinguished from media that seeks to directly communicate factual information -- and the cultural influence of romanticism, it should not surprise us that the statist insinuation is rife in fictional media.

The Importance of Media

Most impressions are shaped by media, even popular media. In fact, all the impressions that form our internal model of reality which do not come directly from rightly-applied logic and/or empirical sense experience must come from some form of media. Put another way, all our indirect information about the world is mediated. This does not mean that mediated content is untrue, rather that media is crucial and -- since it fills this role in human society -- it is both susceptible to manipulation and an irresistible potential battleground for communication of values.

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