What we as a society promote in popular culture and stories have profound impacts on what our world looks like. As said in the podcast, popular culture makes arguments about what should or should not be in culture that surrounds us and the stories we tell can change/shape our world. To think that popular culture does not play a large role in society and leadership is to “profoundly misapprehend” its value in the world (Bezio). Therefore, as a society, we have a job to use works of culture for the better, whether it is to create a more representative popular culture or use popular culture to mold minds to be more inclusive or more inspired.
Even more, our society’s leaders must be aware of what is being promoted in popular culture and ask the necessary questions to encourage or fix what is being put out there. As said in Harvey, “to lead is to ask.” Leaders must be questioning what popular culture is identifying as society’s identity or purpose. Any popular culture or stories that do not accurately represent society or misconstrue what society is meant to do should be fixed immediately or gotten rid of. Representation and culture matter; therefore, leaders need to be asking or answering the right questions about popular culture, as it plays a profound role in who we are and what we strive to be. We must make sure the right messages are being put out there in order to make the world a better place for everyone.
I believe leaders can sometimes become too detached from the people they serve, and I think that’s where. a majority of corruption stems from. There are other ways to gain social power, but becoming a public leader holds a great deal of responsibility. A leader must work with the community they are in, understand it, and be able to provide the right guidance for their citizens. If not, leaders fall into the possibility of oppressing a community instead of leading.
I think you make an interesting point that leaders should be aware of how these popular culture sources are influencing culture rather than just letting them ‘do their own thing’. However, there is always the issue that a leader may try to sway popular culture towards their beliefs whether that be good or bad.
I think your point about asking and answering the right questions because, as Sofie said above, leaders can be detached from the people, and this can cause inaccurate evaluations of popular culture.