NBC icon Jerry Seinfeld has seen the cultural landscape transform as he grew up in the ’60s, and once in his career, he both influenced and was influenced by dramatic social changes. Recently, Seinfeld talked about the way society has changed, and says one of the biggest differences he feels is the lack of “dominant masculinity” today.
Seinfeld recently appeared on the Honestly with Bari Weiss podcast to share his views on masculinity, basic decorum, nostalgia, hierarchy, and more. In Seinfeld’s view, a lot of these elements, especially the latter, which has caused people today to favor rudeness and “crazy” actions.
Jerry Seinfeld misses the cultural landscape of the ‘60s
Seinfeld and Weiss expressed nostalgia for growing up in the ‘60s. “Obviously there were problems,” noted Weiss. “[The] civil rights movement had yet to start, like a zillion.” He went on, “But the thing that was present that I feel like isn’t now is a sense of, like … a common culture.”
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Seinfeld agreed, and went on to further specify that the era felt more defined by “an agreed-upon hierarchy.”
“There’s another element there that I think is the key element, and that is an agreed upon hierarchy,” Seinfeld elaborated, “which I think is absolutely vaporized in today’s moment.” He did not specify what he meant by an agreed-upon hierarchy, but rather said, “I think that is why people lean on the horn and drive in the crazy way that they drive, because we have no sense of hierarchy. And as humans, we don’t really feel comfortable like that.”
Jerry Seinfeld says he wants dominant masculinity to make a comeback
“I really thought, when I was in that era, again, it was JFK,” listed Seinfeld, “it was Muhammad Ali, it was Sean Connery, Howard Cosell, you can go all the way down there. That’s a real man. I want to be like that some day.” Though, he went on to jest, “I never really grew up.”
“But I miss dominant masculinity,” Seinfeld added. “Yeah, I get the toxic [masculinity], but still, I like a real man.”
He also misses the comedy landscape of roughly the same era. “It used to be you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, ‘Cheers’ is on,” he mused. “‘Oh, ‘M*A*S*H’ is on, oh, ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ is on. … You just expected there’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight. Well, guess what? Where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap and people worrying so much about offending other people.”
