Gonzalez, in his book Popular Culture as Art and Knowledge, expresses his position on literacy and art and the way it impacts other people. The author of the book argues for the Hegel approach to metaphysics, stating that art cannot be understood in various ways, as Hegel meant in the philosophy of the Absolute Mind. According to Hegel, art is intuitively contemplated by the human mind leading it through one path of comprehension.
Gonzales underlines that art is not about politics, benefit, or propaganda; art is free, uncontrolled, and autonomous, and that is why it is not possible to implement rules of deconstruction toward it. The basis on which deconstructivism stands is the contradiction of the meanings one can find whilst reading a text.
Those who support deconstruction ideas consider that there are hidden for both readers and the writer senses in it, something that humanity inherited from the past, from stereotypes and linguistic clichés. However, metaphysics argues that art cannot be comprehended variously and cannot be misread as it has no hidden thoughts, senses, or goals. Art is simply an expression of one’s soul, and it cannot be contradictive.
Providing some examples of art following the Hegelian Absolute, Gonzales refers to the movies created in the Nazi era, initially aiming to spread propaganda and Nazi ideas to the population in an indirect manner. Indeed, Nazis have never created a film straightly pointing to their values and goals, and that was done on intention. Instead, Nazis wanted to make artistic movies with hidden senses of their values to persuade and attract more people to their side. Gonzalez further proves, with the help of Hegelianism, how that became a failure.
In Jud Süs, the story takes the viewer to the XVIII century showing a Jewish villain as a major character. It becomes clear that Jewish people were mistreated and disrespected over a long period of time, and that fact, according to Gonzales, fails the purpose of Nazis in the 1940s to spread anti-Jewish propaganda. Even though the main actor of Jud Süs, Süss Oppenheimer, is a villain and makes some crucial mistakes, the viewer draws a connection in his head that all the inappropriate actions are connected with the long-lasting suffering, terrible and unjust discrimination of the Jewish people.
The observer starts feeling sympathy for the main character and the nation, as Jewish people, in general, are shoved very poor and broken. At the end of the movie, when Süss Oppenheimer is executed, he begs for his lifesaving naturally and humanely. It makes the actor close to people that are afraid in front of death and value their life. Such a movie could not make people develop hatred and discrimination toward all Jewish people, and that is how an artistic film failed its initial mission.
Another example of the Nazi’s attempt to vilify Jewish people was Die Rothschilds Aktien auf Waterloo made in the 1940s. There, a rich family of Jews is drawn concerned explicitly on benefit and monetary goals during the war between the British and French. The Rothschilds are drawn as heartless people who do not care about war efforts or the lives of British soldiers.
However, Rothschilds have to cooperate with the British elite, and during the movie, some British financer treats the representatives from the Jewish family badly because of their nationality. The viewer observes how the main characters save the perseverance and the strength of the spirit despite discrimination and mistreatment toward them.
Nazis tried creating movies growing the hatred feeling to the British people. The first Titanic movie made in 1943 drew the chief executive of the Titanic and made the captain speed across the North Atlantic, so it caused a rise in the British company’s stock. However, the tragic events of the story led to a disaster in which not everyone managed to survive.
The chief executive made it to the boat, and the movie raises the issues of the British justice system, its corruption, and its unjust motives. It turned out that wealth and position in society could dictate the legal system and the rules to play, putting at risk the lives of simple people at the same time. Such disbalances in the justice system draw a parallel between the British and German governments in the 1940s.
People, after watching the movies that ought to form certain attitudes toward the British and Jews, were more likely to develop sympathy for Jews and a feeling of injustice in the current legislation system. Germany indeed had similar issues in the Nazi era in privileged access to justice among people of higher status and position. After watching Titanic, the observer feels pain and sorrow for the simple people suffering and losing their lives because of the race of rich people for more wealth and success.
Anti-Jewish films bring up the discrimination and bias toward Jews lasting for decades and centuries and explain the wrongdoings of the main characters in the movies. That is why, according to Gonzalez, bias in art cannot exist as art is not able to teach a person something on the purpose of a creator. A similar explanation is found in Hegelian Absolute, stating that dualism in interpreting ideas cannot occur.