The Great American Demise of Britney Spears

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a Zeitgeist is "the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era". It comes from the German words; zeit meaning "time" and geist meaning "spirit". A zeitgeist is most often reflected in popular culture such as movies, music, films and books.

We often look to past zeitgeists for a general idea of the mood of an era. An example being perhaps, F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby" as the iconic archetype of the roaring '20s. Of course there were the flappers, the jazz music, and three piece suits, but even beyond that there was also the deceit hidden beneath cordial dialogue and the hint of the financial instability soon to erupt. In short, it was everything that generally comes to mind when recalling this time in American history.

Another prime example of a zeitgeist being the film "Rebel Without A Cause", a well recognized time capsule of the American 1950s. The cars, the cigarettes, racial inequality, the unrest and angst in America's post WWII youth. James Dean's character in this movie personifies the pulse of our country. The list can go on and on, with various things acting as zeitgeists of a certain time period for any number of reasons.

So in light of this, what then would be the zeitgeist of the current American climate? The Sopranos perhaps? A seemingly traditional patriarchal American family with two kids, two cars, a large suburban home, therapy, stress, etc. The Sopranos clearly suffer from the same trivial problems that most of us deal with on a daily basis. Only of course, in this case, there is an undercurrent of much more serious things like violence, infidelity, drugs, crime and so on. Perhaps we cannot all relate to the extreme degree to which these things are illustrated on the show, but they definitely represent the real dark side to things we will all come across in modern American life. So are The Sopranos the American Zeitgeist? No.

I think there is actually a much more accurate and telling American Zeitgeist of modern times, it is just a bit harder to identify because it happens to be all encompassed in a single person, that being Britney Spears.

Britney Spears, once America's darling sweetheart. She was wholesome, sweet and virginal. She, more than anything else, represented the wavelength of pre 9-11 American naivety. She unassumingly paced the American tempo, proclaiming the importance of family values, religion, the sanctity of the institution of marriage, monogamy, material wealth, and the list goes on and on. She was American Values personified and plastered across our televisions, movie screens, magazine stands, etc. in the guise of the cute girl next door in pig tails and short shorts.

She was our barometer that everything was okay in the world around us, at least as we saw it. Sure there was still war, people were oppressed and dying, the environment was falling to pieces, but as long as she sang those sugary sweet pop songs of innocent love and having fun we were able to turn a blind eye to all of the negativity and focus on the good. She was always happy, always smiling, always laughing. It was our reassurance that everything was fine in our great nation.

We adoringly looked on as she started to blossom into maturity. She found love with fellow pop superstar and resident American heart throb, Justin Timberlake. Nobody was jealous of their love, we admired it. They were a match made in heaven. The utmost in American beauty, both male and female, had found each other and settled into a comfortable, predictable routine of public displays of affection further reasserting our god fearing loving and good natured society.
Maybe they drank alcohol or fooled around sexually on occasion, but it was all in good fun and nobody got hurt. We loved our Britney, she was superhuman in her humanity. Just like the rest of us only prettier, better, richer, happier, not unlike a true blue American when compared to the average world citizen.

It was on September 11th, 2001, that everything changed. Our would as we knew it came crashing down around us with the demise of the world trade center. The beacon of our American dreams and capitalist imperialism was destroyed along with our innocence and naivety. We had to wake up and acknowledge the effect we were having on the world existing outside of America. And not surprisingly, as the political climate in America changed so did our Britney.

Her sexuality was in full bloom. She longed to shed her good girl image in lieu of a much more risque and sexually realized adult self. She had betrayed Justin and their relationship fell apart. We all mourned the loss of our great American love. Then we came to learn that Britney had not been the innocent virgin we all thought she was for some time. There had been a different Britney, a secret Britney all along. We were the ones who were fooled. Her true self manifested itself in scandal and excess. Partying, shotgun weddings and subsequent divorces, scantily clad dance routines, sex, what had happened to our little girl? Our beautiful American dream had shed its costume of perfection and become the potato chip scarfing, cigarette smoking, beer guzzling, trucker hat wearing hick it had always been. America's true self had been unleashed.

As our government waged war on the world so too did our zeitgeist wage war on us. Our identity and solidarity as a nation crumbled and divided and again, so too did Britney. She had been a helpless cog in our collective identity for so long, brainwashed to be what we wanted her to be, that when that ship went down she was left scrambling to pick up the pieces of her self. American flags can wave, troops can be supported but Pandora's Box has been opened. Our once squeaky clean, bubble gum princess has no place in a disillusioned, divided country at war with the world and at war with itself. We have no use for such unwavering optimism, we no longer believe in it. And so America and Britney both must adapt or perish.

We do nothing but watch her on her hands and knees, failing over and over again to discover her identity in this new American climate. It will never happen, she is too far damaged. She is nothing of what she used to be. A casuality of our celebrity obsessed culture. She had served her purpose and then she was thrown away. The adoring eyes that created her have long since moved on. She can now only keep our attention through acting out in vulgarity. She shaves her head, attacks and abuses photographers and fans, takes drugs, races around town in her car. Her career is all but non existent. Our once great zeitgeist has been reduced to a manic, unstable, confused, violent tragedy.

We all want her to get better but are unable to help. We want her to go back to being the old Britney, the Britney we once knew and loved, but that is impossible. She has changed too much, we have changed too much, America has changed too much, the world has changed too much. Everything is different. So instead we revel in her downfall, unaware that this is our downfall we are watching.

It is the end of the great American era. The world has changed. Our zeitgeist showed us this.