Surging political violence in America has dominated headlines in the past 10 years, with experts and everyday people alike searching for an explanation. Often, they don’t have to go far to find it: rising polarization and influences from social media. Nothing is inherently incorrect about these claims, but coming from a literary field and a personal background steeped in modern mass-market American film, literature, and culture, I believe there is an influence that goes undiscussed.
I’ve seen a trend across popular films and books over recent decades — particularly in science fiction — that the amount of stories containing and even celebrating political violence has been steadily increasing. This is not to say that works of any genre or medium should not include political violence at all: there are countless ways to tell a story that explores the full complexity of visceral, on-screen political violence. However, trends in the mass market seem to help normalize an extremely oversimplified form of political violence: perhaps, at least subtly, playing into the modern political scene.
An early example of this modern trend is “Star Wars.” Violence in the original “Star Wars” trilogy is clearly political: a conflict between an evil Empire and a wholesome democratic Rebel movement, violent, heroic rebellion the only option. This rebellion ends with a simple and undisputed triumph for democracy, not taking into account the complexities of a successful violent revolution. Most strikingly, though, this attitude extends beyond the screen. George Lucas revealed that the main inspiration for the leader of the franchise’s Nazi-coded Empire (even complete with Stormtroopers) was American president Richard M. Nixon. Given that this emperor was violently overthrown and killed on-screen, doesn’t this suggest something about the use of violence to resolve American political disputes?
Elsewhere, in both the literary and film spheres, the “Dune” franchise frames an adventure and romance story around a violent movement — with Arab-coding as painfully obvious as the story’s White Savior trope — whereby the protagonists violently resist a feudal empire’s exploitation. Its novels are often upheld as a beacon of literary quality in science fiction contrasting the mass-market appeal of “Star Wars.” But the “Dune” franchise also suggests something more than a mere fad spurred by the box office success of “Star Wars” has occurred in the American zeitgeist: the makings of a trend in fiction where protagonists stick it to power through “righteous” violence.
Perhaps one could argue that “Dune” and “Star Wars” are too inextricably linked to form a general trend — the former inspired the latter, after all — but taken together, they are two extremely influential pieces of sci-fi media whose ripples can still be seen in the twenty-first century.
Bestselling series for young adults like “Divergent,” “The Hunger Games,” and other YA-dystopian bestsellers eventually culminate in a sociopolitical struggle in a dystopian setting, where again, oversimplified, unambiguously heroic violence wielded by the protagonists plays a central role. Meanwhile, bestselling book series “Red Rising” centers around protagonists pursuing violent class revolution to end socioeconomic injustice, while in “The Expanse,” even the United Nations — presumably an organization valuing peace — engages in war, torture, and covert military operations when diplomacy fails. In the last 10 years, this presence of violence has only grown — from the “Star Wars”-spinoff “Andor” (which has frequently been connected to politically-relevant modern issues by critics and analysts alike), to the film “Mickey17,” to debut book series like “The Graven” and “The Kindom.”
It is worthwhile to note that these works exist on a spectrum: popular late 20th-century franchises like “Star Wars” tend to be on the black-and-white end, while newer stories like “Red Rising” more often consider violence with at least a degree of increased complexity. Nevertheless, the commonality of oversimplified political violence in popular fiction — particularly, when used by both a story’s villains and its heroes — remains.
Either way, given their far-reaching presence in modern cultural media, it is clear that producers and publishers see stories that present violent resolutions to politically-rooted problems as profitable investments. The stories we tell on bookstore shelves and on the big screen shape culture, and with such constant violence dedicated towards heroic political ends in the media, it’s little surprise that American society might see increasing political violence.
Of course, science fiction is just one facet of American culture, and almost certainly, the effects of film and literature are a smaller and subtler influence than political polarization and other factors. However, when tackling a problem as complex and deep-rooted as political violence, we must understand all the factors at play.
