Seinfeld's Democratic Vistas

Abstract

Academic appraisals of Seinfeld frequently criticize the series as apolitical or as advancing a nihilism that threatens contemporary American society. I counter that the show is better understood as a political satire that advances a robust democratic discourse predicated on inefficiency, leisure, and excessive talk. I argue that Seinfeld's discourse provides a vision of hope for democratic interaction predicated on the commonality of vices rather than a collapse into fascism or the disciplining of rhetoric by presumably higher moral standards.

Keywords:

• Seinfeld
• Democracy
• Rhetoric
• Political Cultures
• Political Styles
• Satire

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Joseph Boskin, Leda Cooks, Brett Ingram, the two anonymous reviewers, and members of his American Rhetorical Theory class for critical commentary.

Notes

1. The sophists were itinerant teachers of rhetoric in ancient Greece. Vilified by Plato, they often performed speeches in public on controversial subjects and social mores in order to attract students; most were relativists who advocated arguing all sides of an issue and who wrote rhetorically complicated works such as Gorgias’ On Nature, a treatise on nothingness. For more information relevant to this discussion, see Poulakos (1995).

2. On the recently released DVDs, the actors suggest Kramer was predictably self-interested but not as self-absorbed as the others.

3. Thompson, Ellis, and Wildavsky (1990) identify a fifth culture, the hermit, but it is not relevant here.

4. A more complex interpretation might detail each character as a ratio of cultures. Kramer manifests an egalitarian culture most prominently, but occasionally shows the luck and lack of control associated with fatalists; he rarely demonstrates hierarchical tendencies. I only emphasize each character's predominant political culture.

5. Seinfeld may not be alone in this practice. The Simpsons, Murphy Brown, South Park, and Sex and the City warrant similar interpretations. Moreover, all may be understood as satires and have received sharp criticism for their self-absorbed characters.

6. The correlation between a political culture and a political style is not absolute. An advocate of egalitarian culture may, for instance, utilize a courtly style during an election, a lecture, or related performances. As Hariman details, both Ronald Reagan and Oprah Winfrey employed courtly style, but neither represent the fatalist culture of Jerry Seinfeld.

7. For example, Hibbs takes umbrage with their “voracious appetite for conversation” and the general absence of the Puritan work ethic (1999, p. 155); Purdy laments the ironist's “ease in banter” (1999, p. 11).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen Gencarella Olbrys

Stephen Gencarella Olbrys is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst