"American influence" is the great white whale of the 21st century, and Jacques Chirac is the Ahab chasing her with a three-masted schooner. Along for the ride is a crew that includes Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Vladimir Putin, North Korea's Kim Jong-Il, Kofi Annan, the Saudi royal family, Robert Mugabe, the state committee of Communist China and various others who have ordained themselves leaders for life. At night, seated around the rum keg, they talk about how they have to stop American political power, the Marines or Hollywood.
The world is lucky these despots and demagogues are breaking their harpoons on this hopeless quest. Because all around them their own populations are grabbing the one American export no one can stop: raw technology. Communications technologies, most of them developed in American laboratories (often by engineers who voted for John Kerry), have finally begun to affect an historic shift in the relationship between governments and the governed. The governed are starting to win.
Not that long ago, in 1989, the world watched demonstrators sit passively in Tiananmen Square and fight the authorities with little more than a papier-mâché Statue of Liberty. Poland's Solidarity movement had to print protest material with homemade ink made from oil because the Communist government confiscated all the printers' ink.
In 2004, in Ukraine's Independence Square, they had cell phones....
Until recently, one-party or no-party governments had a standing list of answers for people with a different notion: a) we don't care what you think; b) shut up; c) we kill you. There's no sure cure for c, but Plans a and b are becoming obsolete. Once impervious political authorities must now face the possibility of having their information monopoly hammered by an array of mostly American-engineered technology--smart cell phones, communication satellites, e-mail, Web logs (or "blogs") and a seemingly endless stream of information-sharing programs whose arcane names (RSS, Atom) hide their great power.
: LATER: I got a bit of grief before for not mentioning when I link to such an article that it quotes me. I think that's egotistical to do but the argument was that it was disingenuous not to. So be warned that Henninger quotes me at the end and says something too nice. Click at your own risk.
Does God have a sense of humor?
: The LA Times writes that the so-called Parents Television Council released a "study" purporting to show that TV and heathen Hollywood are hostile to religion.
I talked to the reporter and said: First, Brent Bozell's group does not speak for America. Second, so what if there are shows with negative views of religion? There's no rule against that. That's what we call free speech. Those points were quoted in the article. I also said that it is ludicrous to think that entertainment should be created by quota; writers do not and cannot sit down and say that they have to have something nice to say about religion (or whatever your cause is) today; it's their job to entertain, not to preach the PTC gospel.
I'm glad the LA Times reporter, Lynne Smith, took the time to call two critics of the PTC to get another perspective. Others did not. And so, once again, media is swallowing the PTC's nonstory without questioning it. Thus, an impression is created that, first, TV is anti-religion and, second, that there's some movement out there determined to do something about it.
Even PTC's own numbers don't tell the story they want to tell: Of references to religion they found, "22.1 percent were positive, 24.4 percent negative." I wouldn't call that a heathen conspiracy. And what PTC calls negative is often laughable.
Let's look at what the PTC thinks are negative references to religion on TV. The real finding of this study is that the PTC has no sense of humor or irony:
On the 31st American Music Awards, November 16, host Jimmy Kimmel gives his audience a brief list of rules, which concludes, “And finally, and this is a personal thing, no thanking God. God does not watch television. And if He did, He would not be watching this show. He would be watching Tarzan on the WB.”
Whoo, boy, God sure is going to bring a plague of locusts onto the earth because of that. You know, I have more faith in God than that -- faith that He can laugh even at Himself. More:
Lauren asks her mother what Mass is on the February 3 Judging Amy. Amy replies, “It’s what Catholics call church so they can feel more guilty about it when they miss it.” Bruce replies, “Hey!” To which Amy says, “Hey, it’s my dinner party, I’ll cast disparaging remarks if I want to.” (CBS)
On the February 10 Will and Grace, Karen, in an attempt to cheer Grace up, remarks, “Let’s go buy that historic church and turn it into a gay bar.” (NBC)
On the January 15 episode of The Simpsons, Lisa tells Bart, “The Mount Builders worshipped turtles as well as badgers, snakes, and other animals.” Bart replies, “Thank God we’ve come to our senses and worship some carpenter that lived 2,000 years ago.” (Fox)
A senator whose platform is morality and virtue arrives at the casino on the September 29 episode of Las Vegas. Danny says to Ed that the Senator is a hypocrite: “He stands in front of the cameras every chance he gets spouting morals and virtues, meanwhile he’s here once a month, indulging in every one of the seven deadly sins. Oh, and I think he’s up to number nine on the Ten Commandments list, too.” (NBC)
A priest on the October 2 episode of Without a Trace is found in a hotel room with a woman. Only sheets cover the couple, implying a sexual affair. (CBS)
On the April 27 episode of Judging Amy, Bruce’s friend, a priest named Father Ted, has come to town to visit. When Bruce sees Ted, Ted is wearing a dress, wig, and pearls and says he is Theresa now. (CBS)
May 4, on Less Than Perfect, Lydia tells Jeb that she thinks Kip is going insane. Jeb replies, “Well, it may be time for the same conversation that I had with Grandma. I just hope that Kip hasn’t already given all of his money to the 700 Club.” (ABC)
I find all those to be not only harmless but not hostile to religion.
But here you have Bozell's partner in this "study" trying to make it look as if heathen Hollywood is running a fascist campaign against God:
Even so, Frank Wright, president of the NRB, called the negative portrayals "dehumanizing" and compared them to representations of Jews prior to the Holocaust, and blacks in the era of slavery. "Systematic negative portrayals of groups of people are always disturbing," he said.
"They produce the potting soil that leads to persecution."
I have one bit of advice to Bozell and Wright and their coreligionists:
Lighten up.
A footnote for the Professor
: Jeff Reed of CIATech Solutions posts a list of all the Iraqi bloggers for whom he provided free domain registration and forwarding. Note that three of them have much negative to say about the American occupation.
...
