Culture: The Big External Influence 47
supporters, got angry. The United States began to develop a
conscience and a culture that recognized this.
Enter media powered by new technologies. They offered the
super-typical an opportunity to redress in ways FDR’s generation
could not imagine.
African-Americans, members of the sub-typical, had little
access. But there were super-typical, as well as African-Americans,
who had both drive and access, and a conscience to stand with the
sub-typical. Their efforts launched the Civil Rights movement, and
the course was set to create a culture that tolerated differences in
the framework of equal rights under the law.
And then came an ideological hijacking. More media translated
into more media access by more people. Americans could become
super-typical simply by being on camera or in print. It is impossible
to sustain an identity based on standing in front of the camera when
the camera makes every part of a person’s life a subject for cover-
age. Even if he could maintain this status, it is much more desirable
to become super-typical in a subculture of the sub-typical.
These new super-typical citizens understood that they needed
causes to maintain their identity. A common way to forge it was by
spotlighting areas where their sub-typical neighbors struggled, by
raising the flag of entitlement as it pertained to food, healthcare, or
education, for example. Others who became super-typical due to
their talent (including a “talent,” such as inherited wealth), were
seduced by their own image. But unlike Narcissus admiring his
own reflection in the pool, much of the population joined them in the