-Caveat Lector-
>From www.wandererpress.com
> Issue Date of 9-10-98
>
> <Picture><Picture>
>
> The Wanderer
>
> <Picture><Picture><Picture><Picture>
>
> Enticing The Muses . . .
>
> Why Conservatives Are Losing The Culture Wars
>
> By JAMES BEMIS
>
> "Hope and Memory have one daughter and her name is Art. . . ." W. B. Yeats.
>
> It's now axiomatic that American culture, including most artists, has hitched
> its allegiance to the left. In fact, conservatives have so conclusively accepted
> this reality that they do very little thinking about why this is so. Thus,
> although winning political and economic battles, they're being completely routed
> in the far more important culture war, which is where life in this country -- in
> any country -- is actually lived.
>
> Look at high-circulation conservative publications and journals, the
> high-water mark of the modern conservative movement. Feature articles are nearly
> always about economics or politics. Very practical, down to earth. If any
> creative artist is highlighted, it's usually an author -- of books on economics
> or politics.
>
> Not so the films of Hollywood. Stories of heroism against bigoted, reactionary
> forces fill screen after screen, along with parables of evil capitalists,
> shrewdly exploiting the poor and noble. Conservatives and the religious are
> typically portrayed as villains or buffoons; the rebellious and libertine as
> modern saints. Simplistic, I know, but don't laugh: It's all part of the
> mythology the religion, if you will of the left. And it's the key to the
> liberals' artistic dominance.
>
> The "Vision Thing"
>
> Myths -- defined here not as fictitious events, but the tales, fables, and
> images that underlie and define a people's beliefs are man's most important
> cultural element. Myths are symbols evoking emotions, cultivating attachment,
> and delivering anathemas, revealing what a society loves, fears, and hates as
> depicted in traditional art forms like stories, songs, and poetry handed down
> from generation to generation. Those who control a people's myths that is, its
> artists by nature also control their culture.
>
> Why, then, are today's artists so overwhelmingly drawn to the left? It's a
> truth George Bush unwittingly stumbled upon, that "vision thing."
>
> The aim of the artist is to provoke a certain response from the viewer,
> reader, or listener to his created image. He attempts to present this image in
> such a way that audiences will feel the desired emotions and grasp a certain
> interpretation of the creation.
>
> Poetic imagination the artistic impulse reflects the stimulus of a vision
> a philosophy or theology, if you will about the nature of man. This vision
> of man must also necessarily make assumptions about man's relationship to the
> universe, and thus about God. "In the beginning, no God . . ." is just as much
> a religious statement as "In the beginning, God. . . ."
>
> The artist's imagination, then, responds to an aesthetic, not a scientific,
> stimulus, based on a poetic image of man. And this is where conservatives begin
> to lose their way.
>
> Liberals have made a religion with worship, symbols, rituals, and saints
> out of its modern poetic image, Enlightened Man. This image describes man as
> born good, and then corrupted by an authoritarian environment. Free him, educate
> him, and he will return to his naturally good state, living in peace and harmony
> with his neighbors. He needs no supernatural being to help him to reach
> perfection; he may, given enough freedom and facts, attain Heaven right here on
> earth.
>
> Since Enlightened Man is naturally good, so are his instincts. And his
> instincts, or appetites, are aroused by voluptuous beauty. These appetites lead
> to sensual desires, fulfillment of which is the highest "good" in Enlightened
> Man's universe. The only sin is restricting pursuit of this "good."
>
> Enlightened Man's emphasis on physical fulfillment has a profound impact on
> the idea of society. Here, each person is isolated in his own private world of
> subjectivity, in which every choice is as good or bad as another. The individual
> thus becomes an entity outside the reach of the shared values of the community,
> leading to a deep sense of personal alienation.
>
> Because this is a false religion, its fruits are ugly and often evil, but its
> theology is very distinct. Man is deified, becoming his own god; public schools
> become houses of spiritual cleansing and worship; and the sacred beliefs of
> progress, equality, tolerance, and democracy the myths of its orthodoxy. Call
> this modern paganism if you like; it is, nevertheless, the perfectly logical
> extension of the Enlightenment.
>
> Unfortunately, because of his fallen nature, man no matter how enlightened
> without God is prone to corruption. This is why modernity's shining dream of
> Enlightened Man has degenerated into the wretched, ugly, hag of today's culture.
> Ultimately, it's a barren image, incapable of sustaining great artistic
> achievements.
>
> Business Man, Enlightened Man, And Heroic Man
>
> Today's conservatives have not effectively countered the progressive's image
> of Enlightened Man. Instead, whether co-opted by modernity, lack of imagination,
> or simply afraid of being laughed at by the intellectual elite, they've been
> cowed into presenting only a safe, limited, materialistic view of man, unable to
> articulate an alternative poetic vision to Enlightened Man. This notion,
> possessing neither heart and nor spirit, encompasses only a half vision of man:
> an economic, scientific one (call it Business Man), one that cannot possibly
> inspire.
>
> In fact, for appealing to artists, there's no worse image: Business Man has
> for centuries been the object of contempt and ridicule in the art world. It's a
> vision suggestive of conniving, dishonesty, and, yes, greed; not an image that
> drives one's blood to run hot, inspires creative devotion, or makes the good
> man's eyes well up with tears. The brave will not offer their lives for a 4%
> increase in the GNP.
>
> The alternative to modernity's Enlightened Man is, of course, Heroic Man, the
> vision that has inspired Western civilization. The poetic image of Heroic Man is
> one of supreme nobility, altruism, chivalry, and self-sacrifice. Born tainted
> with original sin, Heroic Man is drawn toward goodness and objective beauty by
> God's Revelation, able to strive for perfection only with the help of an
> outside, supernatural force. Because he's weak, his mighty struggle to
> accomplish good and resist evil takes on a noble, indeed even a heroic, quality;
> this ideal gave birth to the knight and, later, the gentleman.
>
> Struggling against wickedness and his own failings, Heroic Man draws strength
> from belief in his Creator and the ancestral faith of his fathers. Thus, this
> vision possesses pointing toward Yeats' quotation above both Hope and
> Memory, which give birth to their radiant daughter, Art. This is the image that
> inspired Shakespeare, Dante, Bach, and Mozart, the builders of European
> cathedrals, and other great art of the West.
>
> The medieval Catholic Church was the most successful exponent of the heroic
> ideal. The Church won all the arts into her service because of the beauty of the
> vision she inspired. Far from shackled during the so-called Dark Ages (a
> description betraying either ignorance or deceit; see the works of Christopher
> Dawson Europe and the Rise of Western Culture, for example), medieval man, his
> imagination fired by the Church's poetic image, created art of lasting beauty in
> architecture, literature, music, and painting. Medieval artistic achievements
> will long outlast modernity's disposable creations.
>
> In recent times, Ronald Reagan attempted to unfurl a poetic vision along these
> lines, combining the myth of Heroic Man with that of Business Man, with some
> success. But lacking the sustaining support of the traditional art forms of
> songs, storytelling (which is the essence of filmmaking), or literature rallying
> to this image, he alone could not revive the traditional view.
>
> American culture quickly resumed its woeful decline. Reagan's conservative
> successors have since timidly beat a hasty retreat back to the safe, if flaccid,
> ideal of Business Man.
>
> Lifeboats And Chivalry
>
> A good case study of culture war dynamics is offered by the three feature
> films made about the Titanic tragedy: the 1953 production Titanic, 1958's A
> Night to Remember, and the current blockbuster, also entitled Titanic. Putting
> aside each film's quality (A Night to Remember is by far the best of the bunch),
> what's interesting are the underlying cultural assumptions implicit in each
> movie.
>
> In the 1953 Hollywood film, Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck play a
> dysfunctional married couple, as Webb discovers that his young son, who idolizes
> him, is illegitimate. Webb's estrangement from his family ends when his son
> heroically gives up his safe seat on a lifeboat with his mother and sister to
> return to seek his father on the sinking liner. The film ends with the two,
> along with the rest of the doomed passengers, singing Nearer My God to Thee, as
> the ill-fated cruiser goes under.
>
> Of course, the notion that men should give up their seats on the lifeboats to
> women and children is rooted in chivalry and the ideal of Heroic Man. This is
> perhaps the greatest and least commented upon aspect of the Titanic tragedy.
> Few men tried to escape their fate by breaking the cultural codes of the time.
> And yet, in Enlightened Man's world, the rational course of action would have
> been to elbow your way past anyone weaker, and plop down -- immovable -- in the
> lifeboat. After all, who's to judge?
>
> The 1958 British production, A Night to Remember, starring Kenneth More,
> emphasizes the Titanic as a supreme technological achievement, with an
> intriguing subplot featuring one of the ship's designers, Thomas Andrews, trying
> desperately to save the ruptured ship from disaster. Andrews goes down with his
> ship, but More's character, through his nautical and scientific know-how,
> survives, saving several other lives as well.
>
> Hollywood's current teen drama, Titanic, its first billion-dollar baby and
> winner of a record-tying 11 Oscars, eschews both the heroic individual and
> family conflicts portrayed in the 1953 movie and the scientific
> man-versus-nature approach of the 1958 British film in favor of the
> "progressive" themes of class struggle and feminism. Here the oceanliner tragedy
> serves merely as a backdrop for the film's "enlightened" characters to find
> themselves and each other, defeating the regressive forces of money and status
> (in his case) and sexism (in hers).
>
> While the real ship sank to the bottom of the Atlantic, Hollywood's Titanic
> provides safe passage for modern mythology. With remarkable special effects and
> cinematography, the movie provides a fast-paced three hours of entertainment.
> But beneath the film's attractive surface, Enlightened Man's murky moral
> message, like an underwater shark, runs fast and deep.
>
> The wealthy aboard the Titanic, consistent with the liberal stereotype, are
> uniformly crass and self-indulgent, while those in steerage are warm and
> sharing. The rich heel, played by Billy Zane, is nearly campy; a Simon
> Legree-type villain right out of the silent era. All he needs is a handlebar
> mustache.
>
> In the film, women find fulfillment by rejecting traditional roles of
> femininity and marriage, and indulging themselves in spitting, profanity, and
> (what else?) premarital sex. Conforming to Hollywood's new ethos, no
> consequences arise from the characters' self-indulgence. In reality, of course,
> people in 1912 who behaved like our very '90s characters would have found
> themselves jailed, pregnant, or thrashed to within an inch of their lives;
> outcomes which, cynics might say, are exactly what these two deserve.
>
> But, hey, it's just a movie.
>
> Modernity Personified
>
> Titanic is hardly the worst current offender, but comparing the three films
> clearly shows what conservatives are up against. By tacitly surrendering to the
> premises of Enlightened Man, traditionalists are rendered incapable of refuting
> it with their own alternative vision; they may not even know there is an
> alternative vision. And without articulating a competing appeal to the poetic
> imagination, conservatism is reduced to simply slowing the inexorable cultural
> tide.
>
> Thus, by attacking liberalism only in ad hoc skirmishes, conservatives have
> been fighting the wrong enemy all along. In the culture war, the left is but one
> component of the larger foe that conservatives should attack: modernity and its
> poetic image of Enlightened Man. So long as conservatives accept modernity's
> assumption of man's natural goodness and perfectibility -- and thus his autonomy
> from God -- they cannot inspire artists to embrace the rival tradition of the
> heroic ideal nor hope to change our culture in a significant way.
>
> Enlightened Man is simply modernity personified, with members of the left the
> most devoted and effective proponents. Adherents of the right will never sing
> the praises of Enlightened Man as beautifully as liberals can; their mission
> should be to change the tune.
>
> The problem is that, in many ways, conservatives have accepted these
> assumptions, equating modernity with improvement. Belief in "Progress" has
> itself become an American myth and no one wants to be seen standing in its way,
> least of all prominent Republicans.
>
> Some modern fruits are undeniably sweet: Who doesn't love his computers,
> microwaves, and compact discs? But because of Enlightened Man's inevitable
> decadence, manifested in an obsession with self-indulgence and physical
> fulfillment, our country now gorges itself on hedonism and consumer goods:
> Physical needs are placed above spiritual ones, pleasure above joy, convenience
> above culture.
>
> Glorifying "Progress" profoundly misinterprets the source of our wealth,
> indicating an inability to sort out the wheat of improvement from modernity's
> chaff. Technological advancements that truly improve the human condition
> medicines, machinery, tools result from honest scientific inquiry, a concept
> consistent with the image of Heroic Man and his quest for revealed truth.
> ("Progressives," remember, deny the existence of truth.)
>
> Conversely, the greatest horrors of this century the bloodiest ever
> resulted from Enlightened Man's monstrous use of science, freed from the
> restraints imposed by divine Revelation. Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, and other
> modern leaders quickly realized technology's usefulness for increasing their
> power over others. For the millions they ruled, "Progress" came at an unbearably
> high price.
>
> Conservatives cannot hope to do cultural battle astride commercialism's gelded
> steed. The potent vision of Heroic Man is as attractive as ever; only its
> champions have grown timid, lazy, or corrupted. In leaving our inherited poetic
> image undefended against the progressives' Enlightened Man, though, we have
> abandoned the field to the foe, leaving ourselves with no choice but to swallow
> the poison of modernity with the bit of sugar its conveniences bring.
>
> + + +
>
> (James Bemis is a columnist for The Los Angeles Daily News, and is writing a
> screenplay for a film based on the 16th-century English Reformation.)
><><Don't forget: The Titanic (the ship) was a testimonial to "Enlightened
Man" and touted as being 'unsinkable'. Needless to say, the ship sank,
becoming one of the high seas' greatest prizes, one of man's greatest
disasters, preventable, and, as such, one of man's greatest blunders.
A<>E<>R ><><
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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