"But it’s sort of surprising that the way it addresses this is to villainize those who fear alien replacement, while arguing that this was indeed Jor-El’s plan and Superman is good because he totally assimilates to American culture and values."
Seeing that the majority of media is more liberal in bent and in general accepting of immigrants, is the surprise the rejection of isolationist fears or the celebration of total assimilation?
Roy Schwartz wrote a very interesting essay about how the Jewish immigrant backgrounds of Superman's creators bled into the character himself, as well as the fact that "Superman" was already a circulated term due to Nietzsche's Übermensch: https://philosophynow.org/issues/148/Men_of_Steel_Superman_vs_Ubermensch
So there's an argument to be made that Superman's creators were directly inspired by Nietzsche.
"But it’s sort of surprising that the way it addresses this is to villainize those who fear alien replacement, while arguing that this was indeed Jor-El’s plan and Superman is good because he totally assimilates to American culture and values."
Thing is, this is actually a pretty realistic way of looking at it. If you look at some of the Catholic rhetoric regarding Irish immigration to America in the 1840s, for example, a lot of the Church hierarchy were hoping that it would bring the US under Rome's sway, and this was part of the reason that the Know-Nothings got a hearing. However, they turned out to be wrong--the Irish ended up being Americans first and Irish Catholic second. (Mostly. See the Fenians and NORAID.)
This, by the way, is one of the reasons why the concerns about Muslim immigration to Europe are overblown-- you get some malcontents that go radical, the second generation mostly assimilates. The problems Europe is having are due to governments being unwilling to enforce the law for fear of native-born lefties calling them racist more than it is about immigrants being unwilling to fit in.
It’s interesting: I never hear of someone talking about their Irish ethnic background expect maybe on St. Patrick’s Day, but here in NYC (and New Jersey) I know people who were descended from Italian immigrants from a century ago that still call themselves Italian. It seems that Irish people assimilated more than Italians, so there is a gradient in terms of assimilation.
Wonderful piece. I’m surprised it didn’t mention “Superman verses the KKK”, the radio show in the 1940’s that had Superman take on the KKK. Even before the movies and the issue of immigration, the character was always political in his day.
I’m curious about the quote:
"But it’s sort of surprising that the way it addresses this is to villainize those who fear alien replacement, while arguing that this was indeed Jor-El’s plan and Superman is good because he totally assimilates to American culture and values."
Seeing that the majority of media is more liberal in bent and in general accepting of immigrants, is the surprise the rejection of isolationist fears or the celebration of total assimilation?
Roy Schwartz wrote a very interesting essay about how the Jewish immigrant backgrounds of Superman's creators bled into the character himself, as well as the fact that "Superman" was already a circulated term due to Nietzsche's Übermensch: https://philosophynow.org/issues/148/Men_of_Steel_Superman_vs_Ubermensch
So there's an argument to be made that Superman's creators were directly inspired by Nietzsche.
"But it’s sort of surprising that the way it addresses this is to villainize those who fear alien replacement, while arguing that this was indeed Jor-El’s plan and Superman is good because he totally assimilates to American culture and values."
Thing is, this is actually a pretty realistic way of looking at it. If you look at some of the Catholic rhetoric regarding Irish immigration to America in the 1840s, for example, a lot of the Church hierarchy were hoping that it would bring the US under Rome's sway, and this was part of the reason that the Know-Nothings got a hearing. However, they turned out to be wrong--the Irish ended up being Americans first and Irish Catholic second. (Mostly. See the Fenians and NORAID.)
This, by the way, is one of the reasons why the concerns about Muslim immigration to Europe are overblown-- you get some malcontents that go radical, the second generation mostly assimilates. The problems Europe is having are due to governments being unwilling to enforce the law for fear of native-born lefties calling them racist more than it is about immigrants being unwilling to fit in.
It’s interesting: I never hear of someone talking about their Irish ethnic background expect maybe on St. Patrick’s Day, but here in NYC (and New Jersey) I know people who were descended from Italian immigrants from a century ago that still call themselves Italian. It seems that Irish people assimilated more than Italians, so there is a gradient in terms of assimilation.
The Irish have also been here longer; the initial massive wave occurred in the 1840s and 1850s, while the Italians came in the 1890s and 1900s.
Wonderful piece. I’m surprised it didn’t mention “Superman verses the KKK”, the radio show in the 1940’s that had Superman take on the KKK. Even before the movies and the issue of immigration, the character was always political in his day.
The piece only dealt with film as the author is a film critic.