Friday, July 15, 2005
Dreaming of Jeannie
As Space Shuttle Discovery prepares to launch, with little fanfare for the astronauts, I can’t help but recall another era of space flight, a time when astronauts were national heroes. You could argue that the astronauts were fundamentally passengers and not true leaders like the sea explorers of an earlier age, but that would be to misunderstand the nature of heroism, which depends less on action than you might suppose.
It’s hard to explain to today’s young people just how different America was in the 1960s, but it wouldn’t hurt to begin with an episode of the 1960’s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie.” The lesson of this show is not obvious. An astronaut, Major Tony Nelson, by chance becomes the somewhat reluctant master of a beautiful female genie. Jeannie adores him and offers him infinite powers. But Major Tony Nelson is—how do I put this?—embarrassed by the temptation. Like his counterpart Darrin Stephens on the show “Bewitched,” Tony prefers to earn his rewards.
A superficial reading of these two characters sees them as idiots. After all, they can have anything they want, but they prefer to struggle doggedly forward on their own human power. But this obvious criticism is actually written into the story of “I Dream of Jeannie” through the character of Tony’s best friend Major Roger Healy, an id-driven swinger who is incapable of appreciating Tony’s restraint. In episode 17, Roger accidentally becomes Jeannie’s master, and he immediately employs her powers to acquire enormous wealth. But in the end, Roger’s ideology must be defeated. Why? Because he doesn’t represent American values.
Tony, the good astronaut, stands for a post-war America that finds itself suddenly immensely powerful. Jeannie represents that power, a windfall of economic and military might. Bubbly, lustful, possessive, vengeful, she is giddy with amoral delight. She’s everything America could be if it chose to exercise its superiority without regard to the needs and desires of other nations. Half of Major Nelson’s energy is tied up in containing her wild tendencies, but he views that task as his moral responsibility.
Such values are dead today, and it is no accident that we no longer have heroes, because a hero is a master of restraint, not a show-off. In our culture the astronaut has been replaced by the out-of-control CEO who, not content to earn a respectable salary for growing a business, seeks instead to seize as much wealth as he can get. The same values have bled over into the political realm. In the 1960’s we witnessed the same kind of official lying about the war, but there was no gloating, no “bring it on!,” no aircraft carrier stunts or Thanksgiving turkey shows. I don’t mean this as a rap on Republicans. President Clinton was George W. Bush’s equal as a show-off. Both presidents represent the dream of limitless power, the idea of living for today and not worrying about tomorrow, the pleasure-driven ethos of the 60s generation that shaped them. Both are more or less unconverted Roger Healys who try to tell us that we can all own a genie in a bottle. This is, after all, an ownership society, and Major Nelson is a fool who just doesn’t know how to enjoy himself.
What partly accounts for the ridiculous nature of Major Nelson’s predicament is that he really belongs to the other 1960s, which is perhaps better known as the 1940s, the generation of mutual sacrifice. It gave us Social Security, the G.I. Bill, student loan programs, civil rights laws and disabilities protection, public radio and television, and other institutions by which we reach out to one another and care for one another under the assumption that life can be difficult and that not everyone owns a genie in a bottle. I don’t. Do you?
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A random selection from more than 300 Michiana Chronicles -- refresh the browser to see another set:
Joe Chaney -- Dreaming of Jeannie / More essays by Joe
Louise Collins -- More essays by Louise
April Lidinsky -- More essays by April
Jonathan Nashel -- More essays by Jonathan
Jeff Nixa -- More essays by Jeff
Ken Smith -- More essays by Ken
Jeanette Saddler Taylor -- More essays by Jeanette
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About the series
Michiana Chronicles is a series of radio essays by Jonathan Nashel, Louise Collins, Joe Chaney, Jeanette Saddler Taylor, Jeff Nixa, April Lidinsky, and Ken Smith.
Michiana is the region of north-central Indiana and southern Michigan roughly centered on South Bend, Indiana.
Michiana Chronicles airs on Fridays at 7:35 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on WVPE (88.1 FM), the home of public radio in Elkhart / South Bend, Indiana.
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