Excerpt from the talk, “Representative Characters: Our Hope for Reestablishing Order in Society” given by Michael Whitcraft at the 2013 TFP National Conference on October 27, 2013
As I stated at the beginning of my talk, the next thing that we will deal with is what I will call, anti-representative characters. We see these spread all throughout our society today.
We have spoken about representative characters as being the embodiment of the ideals, principles and qualities of a people. They demonstrate in their selves how the greatest abstract qualities can be concretely lived out.
Well, it just so happens that in any society, due to Original Sin, there are also negative ideals, anti-principles and vices that tempt the people to turn away from the good of society, and ultimately from God.
An anti-representative character embodies these negative aspects of society, showing how they can be transformed into a destructive and sinful way of life.
The existence of these negative role models is important for us to talk about, because if representative characters act like dough to bring society up, their counterparts serve to crush it down. Therefore, we must be aware of their existence and formulate ways to combat their negative influence on society.
Unfortunately, we see far more of these anti-representative characters in our society today than true representative characters and they are spread through many different sectors of society.
One sector we will find these anti-representative figures is in entertainment. This is nothing new. From the outset of Hollywood and Rock and Roll, their leading figures have embodied many vices. It is these unrepresentative characters that must be rejected since they lead us to an artificial society and away from our salvation.