Listening to the Spokesbarbarian

I have been thinking a lot about the uses of the term"barbarian" -- the way it carries a whole string of associations and overtones. My first encounter with the question came while ignoring my high school teachers in order to read a couple of essays by Octavio Paz. And Friedrich Engels brings it up, too, come to think of it (here). But lately I'm thinking about its pop culture usages, in particular, as part of the subset of topics within some research on popular historiography from the 1920s and '30s.

By coincidence, there is a recent barbarian rampage in the mass media: The horde running amuck in the Capital One credit card commercials.

In case you haven't seen the ads, someone at the site TV Acres has provided a quick synopsis:

In one commercial, a couple at a shopping mall discuss what credit card to use to buy a product. This simple dialog sets into motion a rush of crazed barbarians who determinedly advance on the unsuspecting consumers. As the barbarians make their way through the mall, they wreak havoc and pillage along the way. But, just as the barbarians are about to pounce on the couple, one of them decides to use a Capital One credit card and the entire army of hooligans cease their conquering ways.

In another spot, a man with a competitor's card is physically shot upward by a catapult operated by barbarians....During a follow-up campaign, the barbarians have been put out of work because so many consumers are choosing to use Capital One credit cards. Now, the formerly ferocious fighters (stilled dressed in their fighting garb) are forced to take other jobs like waiters, dog walkers, or paramedics to support themselves in these uncertain times.

A blogger signing himself as"Jeffrey J. Cohen, Medievalist" has written an open letter to the marketing gurus to register an informed complaint.

I am writing you this letter to ask you to cease and desist in your commercial use of medieval Vikings, barbarians, and other louche fellows.... I feel that you do a grave injustice to the early Middle Ages in offering such an unnuanced view of ancient proclivities towards raiding and pillage....[Y]our primitive and thuggish depictions of barbarians do a violence to history by flattening it beyond subtlety. I ask you to grant these groups their full complexity, a first step towards which might be having the spokesbarbarian no longer declare the tagline"What's in your wallet?" in a seriously poor Cockney accent. I should also note that a search at your website for the word"barbarian" returned no results, a missed opportunity for a pedagogy that nearly made me weep.

Check out the whole letter for a serious account of the historical issues involved. And for an example of good academic blogging, as well.