An ode to Archie Bunker, armchair philosopher and key to true progress
OPINION:
The problem with today’s so-called progressives is that they do not believe in true progress. They believe in immediate and iron-fisted obedience — instant conformity to whatever happens to be their latest moral fever dream.
They demand this obedience and conformity in not only your behavior but also your thoughts.
This is why COVID-19 masks are so popular with modern progressives. These masks are an obvious symbol flagging one’s obedience and compliance with some agreed-upon authority.
Just as importantly, the absence of a mask identifies for them the enemy. These progressives wear their masks with moral fervor and hold scorn for those who do not comply.
This is also why modern progressives are so committed to “hate crime” laws — that is, until these hate crimes are committed against Jews. Hate crimes extend their demand for immediate and iron-fisted obedience to your thoughts.
There is another name for this: fascism. Modern progressives are enthralled with it, as they have always been.
Just ask Archie Bunker.
TV genius Norman Lear, who died this week at 101, created the situation comedy “All in the Family.” The series, which premiered in 1971, featured as its lead character Archie Bunker, the antagonist of progress. Grouchy, closed-minded and slightly bigoted, Archie was the ultimate “boomer” of his day.
He barked at his attentive wife. He barely endured his moocher son-in-law. And he constantly complained about lawlessness, “pinko” communists and egg-headed academics. Above all, he inveighed against laziness — all from his easy chair.
Archie Bunker was an armchair philosopher, standing athwart all the rose-colored, “progressive” visions of his idealistic son-in-law, whom he called “Meathead.”
But something troubling happened in Norman Lear’s critique of American culture: Americans fell in love with Archie Bunker.
Archie’s outdated views of African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Asians, women and even Jews were supposed to be the mark of Cain for him. Instead, they made him endearing to many Americans.
And this is where modern progressives always get it wrong.
Americans did not love Archie Bunker because he was a racist or because he was somehow stopping “progress.” Quite the contrary. He was doing nothing to stop “progress.” It was happening all around him.
What people loved about Archie Bunker was that they connected with the plight of a man who was bumping along at the cultural speed of light perplexed by everything that was new to him. Whether you liked him or not, Archie Bunker was the bridge from the present to the past — and the past to the future.
After all, he raised a daughter who was so good and pure and “progressive” that she married the morally incorruptible “Meathead” and brought him into the home of her old-fashioned father to enlighten even him (wink, wink).
It’s the same reason people love Jay Pritchett, the gruff, aging patriarch from “Modern Family.” His outdated comments and views are a foil for his gay son and daffy daughter, who married a hapless male cheerleader from college.
His soft prejudices turn into hilarity every time he fails to understand his buxom, much younger wife because of her heavy Colombian accent.
For all his obtuse callousness toward everyone (except his French bulldog, Stella), Jay is actually a softhearted man who, despite all their differences, keeps the family together through good times and bad.
Modern progressives who are forever in search of that final solution to society’s ills see people like Archie Bunker and Jay Pritchett as obstacles who need to be eliminated for their rosy visions to be realized. But the reality is that real progress never comes without the steadying influence of people like Archie Bunker and Jay Pritchett — and Norman Lear, joyfully chronicling it all the way.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
