News talk 2013-12-29: Liberal movies

Of course Hollywood films predominantly promote liberalism. But that’s not the point. We all have liberal feelings. And conservative ones. Reading Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath will likely influence you more toward liberal views, and you may be more likely to vote that way immediately after reading it. You’ll cheer for the downtrodden.

But my conservative friends seem to find it difficult seeing the truth. We aren’t conservative or liberal. We are battling within ourselves, our compassion against our logic. Sometimes compassion and logic walk hand-in-hand; often not. Each of us fights this battle. It’s only how we focus and which dominates more often that defines our apparent liberal or conservative natures. Overall, we’re the same.

Labels are sad things. Movies (and art in general) tends to be emotional, not logical. The problem is that Hollywood has collectively decided to marry our caring about fictional characters to liberal causes. And liberal outlook in film is fine. We need that. We need movies about poor people who are invisible to cold-hearted businessmen. But we also need movies about unsuccessful people who are villains against conservatives who stand up against them. It’s all part of life.

So, yes, Hollywood sneaks liberal messages awkwardly into movies. Duh! The question is, how did movies get to be one-sided. This study shows that people are more likely to be in touch with their liberal sides after watching sentimental movies. But that’s really a reflection on the type of sentiment broadcast by the movie itself. Compassion can be a positive guiding force, but it can also be a terrible addiction. If logic triumphs over misguided compassion in a film, the audience will more likely leave the theater feeling good about being reasonable, rather identifying with artificial victims. That message can be art, also. But you don’t see it. And that’s a shame. — MC