The Curious Case of Fanboy Herd Culture

Imagine this: A highly credible corporate establishment hires a new chief in one of its crucial departments. The new chief casts such a spell on his office mates right from day one that he gains their undying patronage. Although in due course he performs his tasks horribly, affronts everyone, discredits the establishment with his whims and fancies, and runs the establishment to the ground due to his incompetence, yet his counterparts and juniors unflinchingly go gaga over him. And when their endorsement to his antics reaches a point that the establishment pulls its shutter down because of the aforementioned chief’s ineptitude, costing the employees their bread and butter, they still inexplicably seem to show their admiration to him and on his claim, they blame external factors for their misery

If you thought that a scenario like this sounds totally ludicrous, then you are absolutely right. In an ideal world, it is difficult to imagine a covey of such over enthusiastic admirers whose patronage for the object of their admiration carries no bounds. However, such people do exist. Although rarely, you might have come across terms like fanboys and fangirls. That is exactly what they are called, and that is what this piece is going to talk about. There are two mainstream establishments where you will find a herd or rather a mob of fanboys and fangirls, and here they are:

 

 

Predominant Entertainment: Cinema/Sports/Music

For the uninitiated, here’s the definition of fanboy according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “a fanboy is a person who is an extremely or overly enthusiastic fan of someone or something.” Now you might ask, what’s the difference between a fan and a fanboy? They are same, aren’t they? Well, there is a tiny little difference. Now, if we go back to the same dictionary, this is how it defines the word fan: an ardent admirer or enthusiast. Any individual with its innocuous, amiable respect towards the object of its admiration can be a fan, but a fanboy, takes his admiration and enthusiasm to a level of toxic, blind faith. Fanboys are usually affiliated to mainstream celebrities from cinema. Artists and art forms that affiliated to the authentic subjects of art do not attract a horde of fanboys as they do not constitute the core of snazzy, glamorous pop culture. You might want to be fan, but not a fanboy.

Photo by Mark Angelo on Pexels.com

 

Mainstream celebrities from films and sports, such as cricket in India, hold such influence on fanboys that one slight criticism against the object of their fan-hood makes them fulminate. Their whole life revolves around what their favorite stars say, believe or endorse, for they are put on such high pedestals. A celebrity might consume organic products, but if they endorse a superfluous branded product, no matter how harmful it is. the fanboy ensures the brand sets its cash registers ringing. If a celebrity endorses another talent less celebrity, then the fanboys will ensure that the latter is brimming with fandom. If a celebrity glorifies a lifestyle that will push one to be a part of perennial rat race of reality shows, then you can count on the herd of fanboys to do just that. The list is endless.

If you think being a fanboy to film or sport celebrity might not sound so toxic, there is another stream where you will find this faction that could stave societies at large.

 

 

Politics

Now, if you hark back to that implausible situation presented earlier in this piece, just take a moment to match that scenario with a town, city or a country where its elected representative razes the whole  place to the ground as a result of gross mishandling of powers, which was enabled by fanboys who refused to question their representatives’ incompetence and intentions.

A job of a representative is comparable to that of a person with a job in a corporate structure. You will not find a corporate employee’s recruiters going gaga over them for using public transport or coming to work on a cycle or performing their duty. Why? Because of simple reason. It is their job. They are meant to be at their workstation and stoically do the tasks for which they were hired in the first place for which they receive salary. But when it comes to representatives chosen by public they are embellished with Rockstar demi-god status, while the work they are supposed to perform is like any other job, and just like how every working individual is accountable to show their performance at work, every public representative is accountable to the job he performs. Once fanboy(s) start putting them on pedestal, it gives them immense power. The rise of Nazis in Germany can primly be analogous to what happens when politicians are honored with fanboys who are ready to tear the world apart at the drop of a hat. When common individuals act like servile subjects a.k.a fanboys/fangirls then, without any reservation, politicians will act like kings. One criticism against them and then you are showered with epithets and mudslinging abuses by fanboys.

 

 

The fanboys of celebrities are still seasonal, they hibernate when their stars are not in news, but fanboys of politicians never take rest, always vigilant of those who critique their object of their admiration.  If only they knew that the demigods they venerate are people like them who are supposed to conscientiously do their job that indiscriminately makes every citizen’s life better and ensures concord in society. Nevertheless, India, where I come from,  has nothing to worry about: we have neither rabid fanboys nor politicians with sullied records or noxious ideology. There are none in that field whose performance, intentions, or disposition must be questioned… right?

On To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch and heroism

I have recently had the chance of reading this novel, and I must say it has rightfully earned its position in the annals of literature as one of the greatest modern classics. If you haven’t read this novel, then I sincerely urge you to read it, and if you read it during your high school or middle school days as a part of a literary studies project, I would still urge you to read it again.

I am going to proceed with this post assuming that you have read To Kill a Mockingbird sometime recently or at least at a point in past from which you can still recollect the plot, characters and nub of the story. Also, this is not a review of the book, but an opinion piece on one of the primary characters and its reflection on the present era.

Although the book’s central character is a six year old girl, it is the principal character’s father (Atticus Finch) who I found to be the most inspiring figure, to an extent where I would consider him to be the greatest fictional hero of all time. I do comprehend that the universe of fiction is brimming with characters who have accomplished heroic feat, but for me Atticus Finch takes the honor, and there is an underlying reason behind this.

To Kill a Mockingbird is narrated by a six year old old, and it takes place in 1930s America, when the aberrations of prejudices against African-Americans were normalized and seen as a standard for a customary social structure by majority of white men and women.

Save for handful of characters such as central character herself, Scout, her brother, Jem; their widowed father, Atticus; and their affable neighbor, Ms. Maudi; all but entire white population of the town that the story is set in saw nothing wrong in racial injustice. An act of empathy or support to people of color would wreak revulsion of the officious community of white people. 

So, as the story goes, Atticus Finch, a middle-aged lawyer, is appointed to defend a case for an African-American who has been falsely accused of violating a white woman.

To Kill a Mockingbird might have paved way for some of the Hollywood movies to scarcely set the character arc of their protagonists on Atticus Finch’s plot line. Avatar, Dancing With the Wolves and The Last Samurai follow a trope where the protagonist, who belongs to a certain powerful majority, fights for the OTHERS who are seen as enemies by his own folks, because he is motivated by the fact that his people are ready to put the minority populace in harm’s way just to satiate their fiendish interest and prejudices. Of course, there is a minor difference when it comes to these movies and the novel: unlike the protagonists from the aforementioned movies, Atticus Finch does not seem to be teetering in indecision whether he should stand for the one who has been wronged, but he sticks to his duty right from the beginning because he knows that every innocent has every right to seek justice in a fair world, and he sticks to it even when it rakes severance from some of his own people.

A still from the film adaptation of the novel.

Atticus Finch is not a stereotypical Gen Z hero: a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist with a suit of iron armor, fighting diabolic monsters and aliens. He is just a common man with a typical job and a small family in a sleepy town.

What makes his heroism relatable is that Atticus Finch could be anyone, me, you, yes, you right there reading this blog post,  your siblings, your parents, your children, your neighbor, anyone.

Atticus’s character has ostensibly full knowledge of what his conscientious action towards his duty will wreak, and he still proceeds to do what he is supposed to, a trait that many of us lack in today’s world teeming with iniquity. We are afraid that questioning people in power or the government’s incompetence  will get us antagonized in the eye of public, and we will be labelled as anti-nationals; questioning religious charlatans will wreak the havoc of rabid, fanatic followers; questioning the rise of fascist powers will get us labeled as anti-state; questioning the unfair exploitation at the corporate house will get us tagged an contemptuous incompetent employees; basically we avoid going against bullies when we see them stomping on the weak, because we don’t want to be seen as someone who is against them, lest we see the bully wreak havoc on us.

Doing what is fair and right is seen as an act of naivety  in today’s vulpine world. While racism, jingoism, xenophobia, casteism and classism is becoming a norm in majority in many parts of the world, shunning these prejudices is seen as an act of rebellion by the majoritarian establishments.

People who vehemently support these unjust prejudices seek the validation of the majority. Maybe the rebellion of one Atticus Finch to do the right thing may look inconsequential in influencing the society at large; however, if many come forward and do what Atticus Finch did, it could help  inspire other majoritarians to stop being mere spectators and come forward to shed  their outlook on how they view minorities.

We see a similar stamp of his objective’s purity in many real-life figures from the past. Take, Nelson Mandela, for example, or Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr. There are many more examples of individuals from past and present on whom we could see the silhouette of Atticus Finch. They knew that the path to justice and fairness is paved with unspeakable malice of the oppressors, but they still strode the path of rectitude and fought for the oppressed.

To conclude, my take away from this classic literary piece and its essential character was a timeless reminder that heroism does not always have to be an ostentatious display of brawniness, that standing up for what’s right is not easy, but always necessary.