[lbo-talk] Don't sweat the Evangelicals

[Carl Remick]

>From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com>
>
>>From: "Marvin Gandall" <marvgandall at rogers.com>
>>
>>On 'Moral Values,' It's Blue in a Landslide
>>FRANK RICH
>>New York Times
>>November 14, 2004
>>
>>.... The blue ascendancy is nearly as strong among Republicans as it is 
>>among
>>Democrats. Those whose "moral values" are invested in cultural heroes like
>>the accused loofah fetishist Bill O'Reilly and the self-gratifying drug
>>consumer Rush Limbaugh are surely joking when they turn apoplectic over 
>>MTV.
>>William Bennett's name is now as synonymous with Las Vegas as silicone. 
>>The
>>Democrats' Ashton Kutcher is trumped by the Republicans' Britney Spears.
>>Excess and vulgarity, as always, enjoy a vast, bipartisan constituency, 
>>and
>>in a democracy no political party will ever stamp them out.
>
>This is rich, so to speak -- about as stupid an observation as Chomsky's 
>notorious remark that the US is "incomparably more civilized" than it was 
>40 years ago.
>
>What wonderful news!  Our ability to wallow in "excess and vulgarity" 
>remains untrammeled despite the left's catastrophic failure to inhibit 
>America's global war making or the ever more inequitable distribution of 
>wealth.  I myself find US mass culture disgusting for the most part -- an 
>unrelenting assault on human dignity and an appeal to what is most base in 
>people.

As a PS, I will cite an article on US blockbuster movies, "Is the Face of 
America That of a Green Ogre?," that appears in tomorrow's NY Times 
magazine.  Author Lynn Hirschberg speaks of how ashamed she felt as an 
American to be at the Cannes Film Festival, where the rest of the world had 
sophisticated film fare on display while the US was showcasing the 
lowest-common-denominator "Shrek 2," a fantasy about a heart-winning green 
ogre.  Says Hirschberg:

"I felt embarrassed:  America seemed, at best, an absurd, vaguely comic 
place.  When you look at the big international hits of the year, it is easy 
to understand why the world views America with a certain disgust.  Shrek may 
be a lovable ... ogre, but nearly every other global hero in American movies 
is bellicose, intellectually limited, stuck in ancient times or locked in a 
sci-fi fantasy.  American films used to be an advertisement for life in the 
states -- there was sophistication, depth, the allure of a cool, complex 
manner.  Now most big studio films aren't interested in America, preferring 
to depict an invented, imagined world, or one filled with easily 
recognizable plot devices.  'Our movies no longer reflect our culture,' said 
a top studio executive who did not wish to be identified.  'They have become 
gross, distorted exaggerations.  And I think America is growing into those 
exaggerated images.  My fear is that it's the tail wagging the dog -- we 
write the part, and then we play the part.'"

(There's no URL for this article yet.)

Carl