Friday, July 29, 2005

Faded myths - Cowboys


Has anybody noticed that cowboys have disappeared from our lifes?

  • No kid wants to disguise as a cowboy at Carnival
  • The Playmobil cowboy is still there, but he is hidden in the category "other", like the indians as well. Sales figures have decreased drastically. Policemen, farmers, pirates, ambulance men, builders seem to be en vogue.
  • Nobody but George W. Bush, some other guys from Texas and Madonna wear cowboy hats and cowboy boots.
  • Are there any Western movies anymore, except for something of Clint Eastwood, which I can hardly remember?
  • Nobody knows Lucky Luke anymore
When I was young cowboys were supposed to be cool. We played cowboys and indians and disguised this way at carnival.
We read Winnetou and Old Shatterhand books and watched the movies. At least cowboy boots were hip.
The cowboy was the top-selling figure of Playmobil.

What has happened here?

Did the physiology of the cowboy cease to exist, when the antagonist, the indian, was put to the reservations?
Digression. Version of Woody Guthries "This land is your land": This land is your land, it once was my land, before we sold you Manhattan Island. You put our nations to the reservations. This land was stole by you from me.
Did the American dream vanish from our thoughts? Maybe after September 11th?
It's the edge of the world and all of western civilization. The sun may rise in the East, at least it settles in the final location. It's understood that Hollywood sells Californication.
Hollywood is about the Western American frontier. But did it forget the cowboys?
Why was the Marlboro advertisement banned? Because cowboys are not posh enough? Maybe they can use Bob the builder instead.


2 Comments:

Blogger Prus said...

Playmobil was/is the "bomb"

I used to have tons of fun having minature wars and adventures with them. The only thing that sucked about them was, unlike lego, when you destrory some Playmobil it's hard to put back together

7:37 AM  
Blogger Matthew said...

Believe me, the cowboy mythos is alive and well in the midwest and country music. You can't swing a dead pole cat in a shit kicker bar in Oklahoma without hitting one ten gallon hat.

9:19 PM  

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