jamesteufel.com

I do not believe that many people would categorize me as a conservative person. On one point, however, I agree with some conservatives. Hollywood movies are terrible, but my reasoning behind this statement is different than most conservative people who dislike the Hollywood movie industry. A stereotypical conservative person would say something simplistic, feeble, and unsound such as “Hollywood movies are destroying American values” or “These movies are decimating the morality of our nation’s children.” Review Sunday morning television and/or political campaigns for support of these generalities regarding the conservative perspective on Hollywood. I can summarize the majority of Hollywood movies in two dimensions: 1) tragedy, which includes intentional and unintentional injury and 2) love stories, which are almost always focused on issues of family and/or heterosexual coupling. These dimensions of Hollywood movies are not destroying American values; instead they reflect and reify “conservative American values.” The conservative values system is fairly simple. People are responsible for themselves, but they, of course, need to value traditional family structures and protect their family by killing or suppressing anyone who is perceived to be a threat to their values. How many movies do people need to see regarding the glorification of war or historical events turned into a fiction that makes Harry Potter seem realistic? How many tragedies (e.g., Titanic) do people need to see turned into sophomoric love stories? Hollywood movies are not destroying morality directly, but they are destroying critical thought, discussion, and evaluation, which, in turn, creates a more simplistic and less mindful morality. As an aside, please note that in this rant I have not used the word Republican as a synonym for conservative because they are not necessarily more conservative in thought and action than Democrats. Both groups are rather conservative depending on the issue of the month or year. I perceive the conservative versus liberal argument to be one based on information processing, not on group membership.