In the last hours of the year, it’s time to look at the public figures that shaped our culture for 2010. Mark Zuckerberg, Julian Assange, Kanye West, Michael Vick and Girl Talk are just some of the biggest names of 2010: the antiheroes that our culture assimilated.
As Spider-Man once learned, with great power comes great responsibility or, in the case of these guys mentioned above, great controversy and even greater legal actions.
Some of us love them, some hate them and some love to hate them, to speak in clichés.
2010 was definitely the year of the antihero, PopEater argues in a recent piece, a year when we saw amazing people do things that made them controversial at best and vilified at worst. As they say, it’s lonely at the top.
Take Mark Zuckerberg, for instance. He may have already agreed to donate most of his vast fortune to charity and he is definitely the creator of the biggest thing since Internet, the social network Facebook, but he’ll always be this blank-stared villain who is trying to steal people’s identity for profit and who would walk on his friends’ dead bodies to get what he wants.
Part of this image is due to this year blockbuster “The Social Network” and, as PopEater puts it, it doesn’t even matter if things really didn’t happen as they’re portrayed in the film. They probably didn’t, but no one will care.
As far as regular people are concerned, in a few years’ time, this is what Mark will be all about: whether we or he likes it or not, the film will soon blur the fine line between history and fiction, if only on the premise that at least part of it must have been true.
The same goes for the ever-raging debate on whether Facebook is guilty of breach of privacy online, and whether users’ personal information is used for profit. Mankind tends to better remember the bad over the good.
Kanye West is again a good example in this sense. Boasting an album that is easily the best release of the year, he’s still paying dues for an incident that happened over a year ago, when intoxicated both on alcohol and his usually inflated sense of self, he robbed country singer Taylor Swift of her moment in the spotlight at the VMAs.
Kanye West making the “Imma let you finish” speech
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West has been vilified and severely punished for his transgression, which was considered all the more grave since Swift was the nation’s darling. Yet he’ll go down in history as the “Imma let you finish” guy a man who is as obnoxious as he’s brilliantly creative and talented.
Also in music, Girl Talk (Greg Gillis) perfectly embodies this duality, though he too verges more on the antihero side. As record labels struggle to plug all holes that’s costing them money, Girl Talk dodges copyright issues and creates new music by using tens of samples from well-known artists.
It’s copyright infringement taken to the next level, if you will.
In this sense, the DJ is an excellent example of industry’s cannibalistic tendencies and artistic creation at the same time, PopEater argues. And, while labels and music honchos would kill to have a go at him and the money he’s making off their artists, fans praise him as the future of music: a sound that is free (of charge) for all.
WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange: terrorist and savior
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Of course, when it comes to being universally hated, there’s no better person at it than WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, seen as the worst kind of traitor / terrorist by governments and a preacher of transparency by masses.
“Assange preaches transparency by unleashing hidden truths around the world, and for the most part, he’s seen as a hero by the people – but he’s also public enemy No. 1 for assorted governments the world over,” PopEater writes.
“Because so many of his released documents could very possibly get people killed abroad or sever valuable international relations, he represents the balance between journalistic integrity and reckless idealism,” the e-zine says.
Other two antiheroes that got more than a fair share of media in 2010 are athletes: Michael Vick did time for torturing dogs, while LeBron James should do so (say his fans) for ditching his home team.
Sports is where the antihero is most easily recognizable, PopEater notes, because he’s glorified even when he’s hated and this couldn’t be more true for these two. Though fans despise them for what they did, no one’s contesting their being the most accomplished athletes of the past 2 decades.
Still, all antiheroes have in common just one thing: they don’t want to be it.
“It’s a lonely feeling,” says PopEater. “The entire state of Ohio hates LeBron. Vick will die known as a great quarterback, but also as a dog torturer. Russia wants Assange killed. Millions don’t trust Zuckerberg because they think he’s out to steal their private information for money. Record label executives wish they could sue Girl Talk for everything he’s worth. And Kanye West is arguably the most unpopular musician who happens to make amazing albums,” says the e-zine.
And, while universally hated, these guys are writing history – and have come into our homes in 2010 through various media channels.
“Society hates all these guys for different reasons than the ones that make us love them; such is the tragic romance of being a cultural antihero in a country still struggling to make its big comeback,” PopEater concludes.
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