IMPRIMIS

Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242 February 1991 Volume 20, No. 2

"Popular Culture and the War Against Standards Michael Medved, co-host, Sneak Previews

Editor's Preview: In this edited transcript of I had initially decided not to cover the film his remarks at Hillsdale's Shavano Institute on Sneak Previews, the weekly show we host for National Leadership seminar, "Faith and on PBS, because we felt that by discussing it the Free Market," held in Orange County, on the air we'd only be granting it additional California last November, PBS film critic publicity. Jeffrey Lyons and I don't always Michael Medved describes the destructive agree by any means, but we certainly saw eye character of modern films, TV, art and music to eye on The Cook, the Thief His Wife and and suggests that ordinary Americans fight Her Lover. And when some of our esteemed back. colleagues began using words like "brilliant" and "excellent" to describe this putrid, hen people meet me and they find pointless and pretentious piece of filth, we out that I make my living as a film decided that we had to respond. W critic, they often exhibit two So we did a special segment on our show spontaneous but absolutely contradictory in the course of which I transgressed one of reactions. The first comment is, "Boy, you the great unwritten rules of the so-called have a great job!" and, usually in the very critical community: I not only attacked the next breath, they add, "Aren't movies terrible film itself, but I also attacked my fellow crit- these days?" ics who had praised it so lavishly. I objected The fact is that both statements are accu- Photo: Courtesy of the Washington Times in particular to the tendency to describe the rate. I do have a great job in many ways, and picture as "a raunchy black comedy" with- yes, movies are absolutely terrible today. cheek is pierced with a fork, and an edifying out giving prospective moviegoers any hon- Ironically, it is sometimes those films that are scene with two naked bodies writhing together est indication of the vivid brutality and the most profoundly, irredeemably awful that ecstatically in the back of a truck filled with horrors it contained. I also cited the laudato- make my job most stimulating. That was rotting, maggot-infested garbage. There is, in ry response to this hateful film as an indica- certainly the case with one of the most short, unrelieved ugliness, horror and tion that Americans are absolutely justified depravity at every turn. critically praised movies of 1990, The Cook, in their deep distrust of film critics. Naturally, the critics loved it. the Thief His Wife and Her Lover. After I made such statements on nation- Caryn James of the August New York This is not a film for the faint-of-heart— wide TV, there was a minor—and entirely or the delicate of stomach. It begins with a Times hailed The Cook, the Thief His Wife and predictable—firestorm concerning my scene showing the brutal beating of a naked Her Lover as "brilliant." Two leading film comments and protesting my alleged "arro- man while the main character gleefully critics, whose approach to film reviewing I gance". and "irresponsibility" One letter from urinates all over him. It ends with that same have often considered all thumbs, called the a viewer in Oregon eloquently summarized character slicing off a piece of a carefully picture "provocative" and awarded their these protests: "I was angered and disgusted cooked and elegantly prepared human coveted "'No thumbs up" endorsement. by your unfair and savage attack on The corpse in the most vivid and horrifying scene Richard Corliss of Time magazine went Cook, the Thief His Wife and Her Lover," she of cannibalism ever portrayed in motion even further and described the film as wrote, and then went on revealingly, pictures. "excellent, exciting and extraordinary." "Though I have not seen the film, I In between, we see necrophilia, sex in a For me, this sort of critical praise proved certainly plan to do so and your toilet, the unspeakably bloody and sadistic even more disturbing than the film itself. The review was way out of line. The one mutilation of a nine year-old boy, another movie just made me sick, but the positive thing we don't need is a Jessie Helms victim smeared with feces, a woman whose reviews made me angry. My partner and

clone on PBS ....If you are so full of Heaven forfend that I should discuss in any anal rape and the mutilation of female geni- old-fashioned, judgmental, right- way the message that a particular film is talia, had created a "refreshing and aston- winged bigotry, then that is your prob- sending to the movie-going public! ishing" body of work. Professor Gates went lem, but you have no right to pollute This is the very nature of the cultural bat- on to compare their achievements to those of the airwaves with your narrow-minded tle before us. It is, at its very core, a war Shakespeare, Chaucer, and James Joyce. (As against standards. It is a war against judg- the late George Orwell once commented, stupidity ....Your job is to tell us if a "There are some ideas so preposterous that only an intellectual could believe them.") "One of the symptoms of the corruption and collapse of our In film, the art form which I most regu- larly consider, the process of degradation has national culture is the insistence that we examine only the already reached levels that should lead all surface of any work of art. The politically correct, properly thoughtful critics to despair for the future of the medium. Indescribable gore drenches the liberal notion is that we should never dig deeper—to consider modern screen, even in movies allegedly whether a given work is true, or good, or spiritually made for families. And the most perverted forms of sexuality—loveless, decadent, brutal nourishing—or to evaluate its impact on society at large." and sometimes incestuous—are showing reg- ularly at a theater near you. Perhaps you haven't seen The Grifters, movie is skillful or not, but please stay ment. Its proponents insist that the worst another critical favorite of the last few off your moralistic high horse and insult you can offer someone today is to sug- months. Oscar winner Anjelica Houston co- keep to the business of reviewing gest that he or she is judgmental. stars with John Cusak in a story about the movies." One of the symptoms of the corruption sexual tension between a mother-and-son and collapse of our national culture is the team of con artists. In the climactic Ignoring Soul and insistence that we examine only the surface sequence, Houston attempts to seduce her Substance of any work of art. The politically correct, boy in order to steal his money, but this his letter represents just one very properly liberal notion is that we should heart-warming family reunion ends with small skirmish in what I would never dig deeper—to consider whether a given blood spurting endlessly from his severed T describe as the "culture wars" work is true, or good, or spiritually nourish- jugular vein. currently raging in our society, but it reveals ing—or to evaluate its impact on society at This kind of work is regularly described as very forcefully what those wars are all about. large. Contemporary culture is obsessed with high art, along with another sort of ugliness My correspondent is saying that it's fine for superficial skill and slick salesmanship while that is even more commonly celebrated on me to talk about a film being in or out of ignoring the more important issues of soul movie screens today. Film after film centers focus, about sloppy or competent editing, and substance. This is one of the conse- about a convincing or unconvincing quences of the war on standards—a war that performance, but Heaven for-fend that I is currently being waged on three fronts: the "In the visual arts, in literature, should address its moral content! glorification of ugliness, the assault on the in film, in music of both family, and the attempt to undermine orga- popular and classical variety, Michael Medved is well known to mil- nized religion. Each of these fronts is serious lions of Americans as the co-host of the enough to merit separate consideration. ugliness has been enshrined as weekly PBS television program, Sneak The Glorification of a new standard, as we accept Previews. An honors graduate of Yale, he Ugliness the ability to shock as a is the author of seven nonfiction books, verywhere around us, in every realm of including the bestsellers: What Really artistic endeavor, we see evidence of replacement for the old ability Happened to the Class of '65?, which E the rejection of traditional standards to inspire." became a bestseller and the basis for a of beauty and worth. In the visual arts, in weekly series on NBC, Hospital: The literature, in film, in music of both popular on characters who are, fundamentally, despi- Hidden Lives of a Medical Center Staff, and classical variety, ugliness has been cable—amoral losers who give us nothing to and with his brother, Harry Medved, The enshrined as a new standard, as we accept the admire, nor even to care about. Golden Turkey Awards. Mr. Medved has ability to shock as a replacement for the old Goodfellas, the winner of nearly all the been a frequent guest on "The Tonight ability to inspire. most prestigious critics' awards for 1990, is a Show," "Oprah Winfrey," "David This tendency has reached absurd case in point. This gritty tale of small-time Letterman," "ABC Nightline," "Today," extremes with the recent efforts to elevate the Mafia hoods is Martin Scorsese's follow-up to "Good Morning America," and other pro- banging and shouting of rap music into some The Last Temptation of Christ. Technically, it grams. He is also active in a wide variety sort of noble art form. Consider, for a of Jewish causes and is president of the moment, the recent obscenity trial of 2 Live is indeed a brilliant achievement, and it fea- tures superb performances by a number of Pacific Jewish Center in Venice, California. Crew. One of the expert witnesses who helped secure the group's acquittal was a professor of talented actors. Why, then, do most people In 1989, the December issue of Imprimis who see the film leave the theater feeling featured his presentation, "Hollywood vs. literature at Duke University named Henry L. Gates. Under oath, mind you, he testified that cold and empty? Religion," which was reprinted in Reader's these poetic souls, whose lyrics exalt Digest. Copies are available upon request.

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Because Goodfellas, with its fascination deeply lovable and admirable than people in ness and fulfillment. This fundamental for its own collection of lavishly loathsome the real world. Today, the movie business notion has not only been challenged in recent characters, never engages our sympathy or regularly offers us characters who are smaller years, it has been assaulted with unparalleled our concern. This has been a problem with than life, who are less decent, less intelligent, ferocity by some of the most powerful forces scores upon scores of recent American films. less noble than our own friends and in our culture. From Miller's Crossing to Dennis Hopper's neighbors. Four years ago, George Roche The popular music business, for instance, The Hot Spot, from After Dark, My Sweet to wrote an eloquent and important book that has become a global enterprise of staggering highlighted the threat within our culture to proportions that generates billions of dollars State of Grace, to David Lynch's Wild at those values of civility and faith that many of every year through the simple-minded glori- Heart to Robert Redford's Havana to Jack us hold most dear. The name of that book fication of animal lust. Nothing could stand Nicholson's Two fakes, Hollywood has been at a further remove from the selflessness and creating central characters with all the discipline that are essential to successful warmth and charm of poisonous lizards. "Today, the movie business family life than the masturbatory fantasies This trend reached its logical conclusion, I regularly offers us characters that saturate MTV 24 hours a day. suppose, in an absolutely unbearable film Once upon a time, parents worried about called Homer and Eddie, in which the hero- who are smaller than life, the impact of idolized crooners like Frank ine, played by Whoopi Goldberg, is a who are less decent, less Sinatra, Elvis Presley, or the Beatles, but murderer, a thief, and an escaped mental these performers were tender, wholesome patient who also happens to be dying of a intelligent, less noble than our romantics when compared to Guns and brain tumor. What an inspiring role model own friends and neighbors." Roses, Madonna and other paragons who for today's youth! dominate today's music scene. The singers of yesteryear certainly exploited sexuality as part You may never have heard of Homer was A World Without Heroes. And that is pre- of their appeal, but the fantasies they and Eddie, or many of the other films I've cisely the sort of world that Hollywood por- purveyed in their songs still centered on just mentioned, because they all proved to be trays again and again on screen. It is a world long-term emotional relationships between pathetic flops at the box office. Despite the in which ugliness—and emptiness—emerge as men and women. What is most striking presence of major stars, obscenely inflated the new standard for our society. production budgets, and enthusiastic about the popular music of the moment is endorsements from some of my fellow critics, The Assault on the the cold, bitter and sadistic edge to the vision these motion pictures failed to connect with Family of fleeting sex it promotes. Another message of the music that is ordinary moviegoers. Hollywood nevertheless he second front on the war against ceaselessly reinforced by television and persists in shelling out untold millions on standards involves an attack on the movies is the perverse but pervasive idea that projects that emphasize the darkest, most family that seems to gather new force T "kids know best." Teenagers are regularly repulsive aspects of American life. To vary the with every passing year. For thousands of portrayed as the source of all wisdom, sanity lyrics of the old song, these cinematic artists years, society has acknowledged the fact that a and sensitivity, while their parents are shown insist on walking exclusively on "The Slimey permanent partnership between a man and as hopeless, benighted clowns. With Bart Side of the Street." woman, for the purpose of nurturing chil- Simpson regularly turning up on lists of the In years past, in the heyday of Gary dren, offers the best chance of human happi- Cooper, Jimmy Stewart and Katharine most admired Americans, we've certainly Hepburn, Hollywood was accused of creating come a long way from the Andy Hardy characters who were larger than life, more

3 model, with young Mickey Rooney learning Even those films that seem to celebrate distinctions. In the Book of Genesis, God cre- life lessons from his father, the stern but the joys of child-rearing display a contemp- ates the world by dividing the light from the kindly judge. This new idea that children tuous attitude toward marriage. A few years darkness, dividing the waters above from the have all the answers, and have to show the ago, Hollywood discovered that babies could waters beneath, and so forth. In traditional older generation how to live and how to serve as a major draw at the box office, and Jewish homes, when we say farewell to the adjust to the brave new world around them, attempted to lure moviegoers with a series of Sabbath every Saturday night and prepare to is a holdover from the destructive obsessions diapers-and-formula fantasies. The three move into the secular week, we recite a bless- of the '60s youth culture, and it poisons the most successful of these films—Three Men ing that praises God for separating aspects of climate for family life. and a Baby, Look Who's Talking, and Baby reality, one from the others—for making dis- Even the smash hit motion picture Home Boom—all featured single people in the tinctions. To the extent that we as human Alone, which cunningly caters to America's parental roles. The underlying message could beings feel that we are created in God's desperate hunger for family entertainment, hardly be more clear: infants may be cute and image, we make distinctions too—and we advances the notion that today's hip kids cuddly and desirable, but they are best have standards. don't really need their bumbling parents. enjoyed without the inconvenient entan- That is a position that is honored by mil- The seven year-old hero not only survives in glements of marriage. This is precisely the lions upon millions of our fellow citizens, fine style when his parents fly away to Europe sort of irresponsible message that encourages but it is regularly ridiculed in the mass and accidentally leave him behind, but the the tragic epidemic of out-of-wedlock births media. One of the national television net- boy also displays remarkable courage and that is sweeping the country. works has chosen to promote its most skill in foiling the designs of two adult bur- With its single-minded focus on unmarried popular show with a scene that mocks a fam- glars. characters, the movie industry conveys the ily saying grace. With the Simpsons solemnly Nevertheless, Home Alone deserves some idea that it's exciting to live on your own, but gathered around their cartoon dinner table, credit for showing a more-or-less normal boring and stifling to live within a marriage. Bart intones: "Dear God, we pay for all this middle class family, since this sort of unit The unspoken assumption is that married stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing." has become an increasingly endangered people never experience anything that's Meanwhile, the federal government pays species in American feature films. According interesting enough to be dramatized in a fea- to display a crucifix immersed in a jar of the to the Census Bureau, two-thirds of all ture film. My favorite contemporary psychol- artist's own urine, and the nation's most American adults are currently married, but ogist—who also happens to be my wife, Dr. prominent vocalist, Madonna, abuses movies today focus overwhelmingly on single Diane Medved—recently wrote a book called Christian symbols and sacraments in sexually people. If you want to test this premise, all The Case Against Divorce. In the course of explicit music videos commonly viewed by you have to do is pick up a copy of any that book, she shows how the media's titillat- children. metropolitan newspaper and read the enter- tainment section to see what's currently play- ing at your local theatres. The number of films about single people will outnumber the "A war against standards leads logically and inevitably to hostility films about married people by a ratio of five or six to one. And even those relatively rare to religion, because it is religious faith that provides the ultimate films that do make an attempt to show life basis for all standards." within a family will most often depict a mar- riage that is radically dysfunctional—with a husband accused of attempting to murder his ing portrayal of the sexy thrills of singlehood In 1989, I spoke at Hillsdale College on wife (as in Reversal of Fortune), or a wife has helped to foster the sense that people are the topic, "Hollywood Versus Religion," and I sleeping with her husband's male (or female) missing something if they remain married, focused on the film industry's self-destructive friends, as in Henry and June, or The and has thereby promoted the rising divorce tendency to portray all religious characters as Sheltering Sky, or Alice, or so many others. rate. Of course, there are many other socio- corrupt, or crazy, or both. I found this pat- Apparently, some stern decree has gone logical and psychological reasons that couples tern particularly perplexing since the major out from the upper reaches of the Hollywood break up, but can anyone doubt that the movie projects that attacked traditional faith establishment that love between married popular culture's determined assault on the all turned out to be commercial flops, while people must never be portrayed on screen. If traditional family has contributed to the the very few films that took a more sympa- a wedding occurs in the course of a film, it problem? thetic attitude toward religion performed sur- invariably marks the conclusion of a prisingly well at the box office. romance, never the beginning or the middle Hostility to Organized I wish that I could report that Hollywood of the love relationship. The top grossing Religion has gotten the message in recent months, but film of 1990 was Ghost, one of a series of sex- This brings us to the third front in the if anything the situation has deteriorated. after-death fantasies that the movie industry current culture wars, and perhaps the most Since I last spoke on this subject, major stu- has churned out in recent years. In this crucial battlefield of all, and that is the dios have given us films such as Nuns on the crafty tear-jerker, the filmmakers seemed to attempt to undermine organized religion. A Run, which savagely lampoons every aspect make a point of the fact that the central cou- war against standards leads logically and of Catholic practice and belief; Star Trek V, ple, connected by a love so deep that it sur- inevitably to hostility to religion, because it is in which the villains are a band of crazed vives into the afterlife, have never taken the religious faith that provides the ultimate basis believers who follow a mysterious, demonic trouble to get married. for all standards. The God of the Bible is not force that they, and the film's credits, a moral relativist, and He is definitely identify as "God"; Mermaids, which fea- judgmental. The very nature of the Judeo- tures Cher as a nymphomaniac single mother Christian God is a Lord who makes and manages the considerable feat of

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trashing both Judaism and Catholicism in assault weapons in my trunk. Instead, we did fantasies they have created have no influence the same film; and Godfather III, which the only sensible thing, which was to get into on anyone. The networks and the studios focuses on corruption and murder within the the car and to drive away. We gave up the have commissioned expensive studies from Vatican and displays far more sympathy for shores of the lake, the waterfowl, and the various experts to support their appallingly the mafia than for the Church. beautiful day. We abandoned the scene to illogical contention that violence on screen these brutish kids, and to the degradation of has no connection to violence in real life, Popular Culture: Why It's that hideous noise. and that intensely sexual material does noth- Impossible to Tune Out The point is that you can say to yourself, ing to encourage promiscuity. hen I try to discuss some of these "I'll just tune out the messages of the This same industry then turns around issues with working professionals media," but it's not possible today. In the and asks advertisers to pay hundreds of thou- Win the entertainment industry, they past, if you talked about popular culture, you sands of dollars for thirty seconds of air time usually offer the same response: "Nobody's meant going to a movie theatre perhaps once in the hope that this fleeting exposure will forcing people to see these movies," they'll a week and paying your money to see a single directly alter the public's buying behavior! say. "If you object to the messages that show. But modern technological advances Don't they grasp the internal contradiction you're getting from a piece of creative work, have brought us boom boxes, and here? On the one hand, we're told that an then you can exercise your right to avoid that Walkmans, and VCRs, television and MTV. hour of television programming has no real film, or to switch that channel on your TV The messages, the images, are everywhere world consequences whatsoever, and on the set, or to turn your radio off. If something around us, and seep into every corner of our other we're led to believe that 60-second offends you, then it's easy to tune it out." lives. spots that occasionally interrupt this pro- Unfortunately, they're wrong. Popular Is it a coincidence that the war on stan- gram are powerful enough to change public culture is an overwhelming and omnipresent dards in art, music, television and film, perceptions of everything from canned goods force in this society; not even the most deter- corresponds with increasingly destructive to candidates. mined and conscientious efforts can effec- behavior on the part of the young people I happen to believe that the industry is tively insulate you—or your children—from its who are the most devoted consumers of these right when it touts the impact of media powerful reach. media? images, but I can't accept the contention that Allow me to illustrate the point with a In one of his most important columns, motion pictures, and song lyrics, and music personal recollection. Last spring, my family George Will asks if it was merely an accident videos and TV shows are somehow less and I went with a large group on a Passover that the horrifying "wilding" attack in Central influential than commercials. retreat to the mountains near Santa Barbara. Park so precisely mirrored the images in popular rap songs celebrating sexual violence Getting Government Out It was a wonderful experience, and in the of the Culture Business middle of the week we took a private side trip and the degradation of women. The to a nearby lake. The weather couldn't have members of a new generation of American hat is why the current war on stan- been more perfect—with puffy April clouds in children will have watched an average of dards in the popular culture is such an a pure blue sky—and as we got out of the car 15,000 murders on television by the time T important struggle for America's our daughters, aged one and three, went tod- they've reached the age of eighteen. Is it future. I believe that this will be the issue of dling off toward the ducks at the edge of the illogical to suspect that some of them might the 1990s—the issue of values, of trying to be intrigued enough by all this vicarious maintain standards against those who are water. All of a sudden, the one year-old was violence that they might want to explore seeking to erase them altogether. saying one of her first words, "Duckie! similar experiences first hand? Unfortunately, there's a tendency at both Duckie!" and reaching out to the birds with Is there no connection between the ends of the political spectrum to confuse this her chubby little arms, while my wife and I media's obsession with crime and violence question with absolutist claims about the looked on with satisfaction. and the fact that the number of 14 to 17 need for censorship versus the protections of But within minutes, a group of teenagers, year-olds who were arrested in 1990 was thirty the First Amendment. mostly 13 to 15 year-olds, arrived at the times what it was in 1950? For conservatives, there's the special dan- lakeshore. They were carrying a "boom box," The rate of out-wedlock-births in this ger of surrendering to the fundamental liberal and coming out of that shiny chrome country has increased by 500 percent since temptation, which is to attempt to solve machine was a rap song with the foulest, 1960, and one out of ten of all teenaged girls every problem with a new government pro- ugliest language I have ever heard. It pro- will be pregnant in 1991. The Centers for gram. When it comes to the current crisis in duced a series of angry shouts of four-letter Disease Control recently reported that more values in the popular culture, the govern- words describing rape and feces and oral than a quarter of American females have mental initiative that is sometimes recom- sex—all blasting out at a deafening volume. engaged in sexual intercourse by age fif- mended is a vastly expanded role for official Our little girls had never heard those words teen—five times the rate that prevailed as censorship. I am always surprised at before. They were startled. I don't know if it recently as 1970. How can media moguls thoughtful conservatives who argue passion- was the words themselves, the violent plausibly maintain that these behavioral ately that bureaucratic solutions will never explosions of that so-called music, or trends have nothing to do with the sex- eliminate poverty, or improve medical care, or whether it was merely the painful level of drenched popular culture that plays such a end racism overnight, but who nonetheless that throbbing bass. Whatever it was, my central, all-consuming role in the lives of so believe that a government program can one year-old started to cry. Naturally, the many young Americans? somehow succeed in the delicate task of rais- three year-old soon joined her, and we had Ironically, the leaders of the entertain- ing the moral tone in this country. our hands full trying to comfort two ment industry regularly downplay the Expanded censorship is not the answer, frightened little girls. significance of their own work, insisting and attempts to move in that direction will I suppose we could have stayed and made that the a scene, but the fact is that I don't carry

5 invariably prove counter-productive. Take the way that federal welfare policy promotes and the further pollution of our culture. It's high example of 2 Live Crew, our country's most subsidizes promiscuity and illegitimacy. In time to broaden our sense of corporate celebrated poets of the perverse. When we recent years, the genuine need for AIDS edu- responsibility to include a serious considera- tried to censor them and had them arrested cation has provided a new excuse for massive tion of the long-term impact of the enter- on obscenity charges, we made these thugs governmental support for radical sexual tainment that a company may produce or into instant folk heroes. They were perform- indoctrination. I am personally acquainted sponsor. ing in front of an adults-only crowd of with one mother in the Chicago suburbs who As part of the continuing struggle we masochists who had been stupid enough to felt compelled to withdraw her sixthgrader must do more than protest the bad; we pay money to listen to their feeble-minded from the public schools because the required should also begin promoting the good, and filth, when the police appeared to apprehend "AIDS Awareness Unit" featured approving providing uplifting alternatives to the trash the stars of the evening and to cart them and graphic descriptions of anal intercourse, that currently dominates the scene. It's a sad away in handcuffs. Of course, they became oral sex, and male and female homosex- fact that talented individuals with traditional the objects of sympathy, while receiving gen- uality—all presented to 11 year-olds! This convictions or religious scruples have too erous coverage on the evening news. particular mother could turn to private often shunned active involvement in show Largely thanks to the free publicity education as a refuge, but what about the business because of that arena's longstanding resulting from governmental attempts to millions who can't afford that alternative, or reputation for sleaziness. Unfortunately, this silence them, 2 Live Crew has now sold aren't even aware of what their children are means abandoning the field to the sickos and more than two million copies of their being taught? sybarites, and you see the results on your disgusting album, "As Nasty as They Wanna We have the right, we have the obligation, television and movie screens. Let the call go Be." This is a group that had been wallowing to protest such abuses of bureaucratic out immediately: the outnumbered good guys in well-deserved obscurity before it became authority. While it is unreasonable to expect in Hollywood desperately need reen- the target of would-be censors. As Talleyrand that government provide a solution to the forcements! once commented about a particularly ill- crisis in fundamental values, we certainly Keep in mind that the entertainment considered policy of Napoleon: "It is worse should demand that it cease contributing to industry is one area of endeavor in which a than a crime; it is a blunder." the problem. Strict governmental neutrality few gifted individuals can still make an enor- People on our side of the current culture in the ongoing culture wars is not only a mous difference. The American people have wars should be calling consistently for less legitimate goal, but an attainable one if we shown that they are ready to respond when governmental involvement, not more. The fight for it intelligently. given the opportunity, as witness the utterly unexpected, $100 million success of a whole- fact is that it is the other side that has relied Free Market Solutions upon federal power to advance its own pur- some, life-affirming project like Driving Miss and a Grassroots Daisy. poses in the campaign against standards. Revolution The most obvious example is the outra- Even more recently, an unheralded, low- geous abuse of the National Endowment for n the final analysis, the key issues in the budget picture called China Cry demonstrated the Arts, which has played a major role in current conflict won't be decided in the once again that good values can mean good helping to underwrite and sanction the glori- I halls of Congress or the offices of the box office. This off-beat production, funded fication of ugliness that we previously dis- federal bureaucracy. They will be settled, as by a determined group of evangelical cussed. When someone like NEA grant fundamental questions are always settled Christians, may not be the greatest film ever recipient Karen Finley feels a deep compul- most effectively in America, through the made, but it's a heart-felt, passionate piece of sion to express her spiritual yearnings by tak- application of free market principles and movie-making about a young mother who ing off her clothes and smearing her genitalia displays of private-sector determination and undergoes a religious conversion while suf- with chocolate, then more power to her. If resource-fulness. fering persecution at the hands of the responsible adults choose to invest their Part of this process will no doubt involve Chinese Communists. Without well-known money in paying for the opportunity to sponsor boycotts, direct protests, letter- stars or any promotion budget to speak of, witness such enlightening displays, who are writing campaigns, and other forms of this audacious little picture has drawn an we to object? Nor should we attempt to inter- organized pressure. These tools are far more amazing response from the public—averag- fere with the paying fans of another federally appropriate than new governmental ing more than $6,000 per screening in its first supported artist, Miss Annie Sprinkle, who regulation, which is, at best, a blunt, sloppy three weeks of release. This means that in delights members of her audience by urinating and ineffective instrument. A group called multiplex theatres where it has played on them in the course of her act. But it is CLEAR TV—Christian Leaders for alongside big budget major studio produc- hardly reasonable to expect the taxpayers of Responsible Television—has already enjoyed tions, it has easily clobbered films such as America to subsidize the cost of those experi- some notable success in this area. They Rocky V or Goodfellas or Predator II. We ences for those who feel the need to share recently pushed Burger King, one of the need more films like China Cry, but we'll them. Whenever specific NEA grants are largest advertisers on network TV, to take out only get them if concerned individuals are questioned, the media and the liberal man- a series of newspaper ads in which the willing to roll up their sleeves, to dirty their darins invariably holler, "Censorship!" But company pledged its sup-port for family hands, and to get to work—outside the main- the issue isn't censorship at all, it is sponsor- values, and promised to apply those values in stream, if necessary—to change the direction ship. judging any future television shows it will of the popular culture. On another front in the war against stan- sponsor. The change, when it comes, will amount dards, the assault on the family, governmental While environmentalists are employing all to nothing less than a grassroots revolution. power is similarly deployed. For many years, means available to persuade major cor- It won't flow from the top down, but from perceptive critics have pointed out the porations to stop polluting our air and water, the bottom up. If we place all our faith in a we should use similar persuasion to prevent few bigwigs in Los Angeles, or New York, or rely instead on a thousand different centers Washington, nothing will happen. We must of energy and dedication, in every corner of these United States, to make sure that popu- lar culture will once again reflect—and "What matters ultimately in the culture wars is what we do in 6 our daily lives—not the big statements that we broadcast to the world at large, but the small messages we send through our families and our neighbors and our communities." encourage—the fundamental goodness of our There's a ready answer to that challenge the culture wars is what we do in our daily people. in George Roche's homely recollections of his lives—not the big statements that we broad- As a film critic, it is sometimes difficult own education in a one-room school house cast to the world at large, but the small mes- for me to acknowledge that movies aren't the sages we send through our families and our measure of all things. I keep my own sense of neighbors and our communities. And those perspective through my involvement with high in the Colorado Rockies where they small messages, reinforcing each other from Pacific Jewish Center—an educational and were short on money, books and facilities, every direction across this country, can religious institution in California I helped to but long on grit, determination and individ- become a force powerful enough to change found some thirteen years ago. People con- ual responsibility. What matters ultimately in the world. The future of America will depend stantly ask me, "Why do you spend so much not so much on the movers and shakers in time on that place? You have access to televi- the centers of power, but on the hopes that we sion, to the world stage, and yet you devote generate in our own communities, our every spare moment to your neighborhood, schools, our churches, synagogues, and fam- your synagogue, and your personal friends." ilies. What we do there will count for even I know that supporters of Hillsdale more, in the long run, than what celluloid College get the same sort of questions: "Why shadows do on screen. 4 lavish all this attention on this one tiny school? It's in the middle of Michigan, for Heaven's sake, with only a thousand stu- dents! Wouldn't it be better to forget about this backwater institution and concentrate on the big picture?"