What do Phantom, a 7-11 Hotdog and Norman Rockwell have in Common?

Last night, my wife and I experienced Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera in an opulent performing arts center. Some people were dressed to the nines while others wore jeans and flip flops. Bentleys and Porsches vied for precious parking spaces with Kias and Fords. During intermission, champagne and fine wines flowed, as did Coca Cola and Gator Aid. Oh, I forgot to mention that before the show, we had dined on pizza at a nearby convenience store only blocks from where we had seen the Norman Rockwell exhibit a week before. It was truly a night of wonder!

In March 1949, social critic Russell Lynes, fearing the end of civilization as he saw it, wrote an article for Harper's magazine entitled, "Highbrow, Lowbrow and Middlebrow". On the heels of his 1947 article, "The Taste Makers", Lynes lamented the democratization of culture. Highbrows, he offered, were the self-proclaimed carriers of true culture-fine arts, music, science and the like; while middlebrows were the encroaching hoards-enemies at the gates of sense and sensibility. They were pretenders and wannabes. Lowbrows, Lynes proclaimed, were happy with their station in life, and were as satisfied with the creature comforts of beer, functional furniture and bowling. For the highbrow, the world would be better without the middle-class middlebrow culture mongers, as they blurred the distinction between the feudal lords and the masses. Two months later, in April 1949, Life magazine publsihed a piece by Lynes which presented a chart entitled "Where Do you Fit in the New Leisure" in which he graphically outlined the tastes, beliefs, and practices of each of the castes he described two months earlier.

As I stood (not sat) in 7-11, dining on my mass-produced, recently microwaved pizza facsimile, and drinking cheap bottled water, I was struck by the absolute impossibility of the moment. Dinner-$7.99; tickets-$200; incongruity, priceless. That for me is what popular culture is all about. It is appreciation without boundaries, indulgence without self-consciousness, freedom without guilt...it is unassuming, unashamed and unapologetic! It is intelligent as it needs to be and emotional as is necessary...and no more. Popular culture is keenly astute and consciously aware, it is flowing and organic as well as mindful and secure. It is polymorphous in its perversity, yet inherently non-offensive.

If popular culture could take human form, it would be psychological fit-flexible, resilient and free to live. It would be a creature of its own making who feels no need to surrender its ties to tradition and legacy. It would be unfathomably complex yet ridiculously simple...a sum far greater than its parts. It would enjoy both golf and wrestling, beer and martinis, Boccherini and Meatloaf, Fellini and Tarantino, Shakespeare and Harlequin romances, wine tasting and hot dog eating contests, veal cordon bleu and Big Macs, Jesus Christ and Superman, the Dalai Lama and Brittney Spears.

So, in the words of Russell Lynes, 'where do you fit in?"..."how do you define yourself?"..."what do you value?"...who are you and what do you like about yourself?" While psychology is about science, awareness and clarity, and popular culture is a bit rough around the edges, fleeting, frivolous and even profane at times, perhaps as a team they can be a powerful force to better understand ourselves.