The Opinion Leader as a Rebel Without a Cause: The Ideology of the Nineties Through Hollywood

Through a critical viewing of some typical Hollywood movies from the 1990s, we analyze the connection between American national ideology and the national ideology of Slovenian independence. We show how the liberal values of the period camouflage essentially reactionary elements. The figure of the opinion maker, which was established in Slovenia in the 1990s, is compared to romantic heroes, rebels without a cause, who act antisocially, while the cultures of both elites normalize this antisociality in the name of consolidating class and ethnic distinction. The collapse of the socialist countries influenced both the establishment of the USA as a monopoly superpower and the ideology of Slovenia as an Americanized beacon of the new age. This new consciousness is inscribed in the prejudices of the so-called Generation X, which understands itself in the opposite way, as freed from prejudice.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!