Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
Stories are fundamentally about individuals making choices. Conservatives believe life is about choices and consequences. The Democratic Party and liberals/progressivism are ultimately about the collective, and individuals are irrelevent. Hey, Troy Senik, who wants to see a TV show about the collective workers of the world uniting? Ben Shapiro’s “Primetime Propaganda” may be correct on the insidious planting of topics, but misses the mark in the aggregate: the fundamentals of story conflict, the notion of heroes, and satisfactory resolutions in great storytelling.
Conservatives also put their faith in the private sector, individuals, and voluntary associations such as charities. Liberals champion large, bureaucratic institution (government) to solve all of our problems. Let’s use an example shown on cable tv every day: GHOSTBUSTERS. A massive terrorists attack (Ghosts) in NYC paralyzes the city. A group of private contractors (Ghostbusters) are hired by ineffectual city government to eradicate this menace. Who are you gonna call? Not the government.
Progressive David Sirota's book “Back to our Future” takes the polar opposite position of Mr. Shapiro, and explains how 1980s film and television shaped the cultural underpinnings of today's center-right nation, and champions the individual, private contractors, and mavericks in our society. (FYI--He thinks this is a bad thing). But in reading it, I kept nodding my head in agreement about the A-Team solving the problems that government can’t, and how Family Ties, which was originally designed to lampoon the conservative kid and champion the hippie parents, resulted in the reverse of its original intent.
Here’s another example: Steven Spielberg (D-Hollywood) directed E.T. The world of adults in that film is represented by an oppressive government that invades your home, shuts down an entire town, and grabs your new best friend (who happens to be from outer space). Take a look at the themes that warn against an oppressive government—that individual friendships and perseverance against the government will grant you happiness (as E.T. is reunited with his space buddies). How did this happen from a lefty like Spielberg?
The realities of life are conservative. Art imitates life.
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May '10
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
In liberal films where government is the enemy, it is the enemy only because the politicians are right-wing. Liberals don't object to oppression so long as it is liberals oppressing conservatives.
Likewise, they don't respect free will. They respect freedom to deviate from traditions but not to embrace them.
You're right that liberal artists often promote conservative ideas without realizing it. Some Monty Python skits are remarkable for their roasting of the Left from the Left. But their criticisms of the Right tend to be specific while their promotions of conservative ideals tend to be more general and obscure.
Mar '11
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
Conservatives sometimes overplay their hand with regard to the role of popular culture—see Rich Lowry’s latest column (he calls himself a Scrooge, at least he knows he’s being a bit stuffy).
Sometimes we act as though human nature is magically transformed or somehow irredeemably corrupted by popular culture: and that’s just hyperbole.
I never get into hyper-ventilating fits of anger at whatever the outrage of the day is because we have immutable, eternal human nature on our side.
That said, I disagree a bit with your premise. Art does imitate life—if we see nothing of ourselves in it, it won’t entertain us. But art also educates taste and shapes opinion: the process isn’t just one way. And those tastes and opinions have consequences in society.
A sensible view is to be concerned about culture, but not trying to ban books, TV, music, theater, or public dancing. Conservative truths of life are deep and lasting, they should provide us solace and wonder. There is no reason culture cannot express those truths and so enrich the soil of the age.
Oct '10
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
I think this is true, the easy liberal assumptions concerning things like single-motherhood, casual sex, and disdain for the military, all part of the fabric of current novels/TV/movies/music, definitely influences a public just looking to be entertained. I think Shapiro has pretty conclusively shown that this was intentional in many,many cases. It is fortunate that in spite of a widespread intent to undermine them, conservative values are not only an essential in our daily lives, but necessary for effective drama. Even though conservatives haven't had much influence in shaping the artistic narrative for the last forty or fifty years, reality was there to save us. To some extent anyway.
Absolutely, and where is the drama in a determined universe?
Oct '10
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
What I found most interesting was the left winger Sirota blames the 1980's media culture for our nation's belief in conservative ideals such as individualism. He goes into the most popular films and TV shows and explains how the underlying messaging is conservative.
I think it is fascinating that two totally opposite opinions on the same topic can be supported by great examples. Perhaps the fundamental truths we talk about on Ricochet are reflected in popular culture more than we realize. Abortion, gay marriage, evil corporations are just plot devices, while the free will of individuals making decisions and solving problems are ultimately conservative in their message.
I would like to hear Klavan chime in on this topic, as well.
Oct '10
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
It's true that liberal as well as conservative artists often present the government as The Big Villain, but their motives are usually completely different- for liberals, it's only the present government that's bad, while conservatives (ideally) think that any overweaning, overreaching, and oversized government is fundamentally wrong. As a side note, the only good guy among the government agents in "E.T. " was played by Peter Coyote, who also played a very bad government agent (U.S. Army), in the paranoid thriller "Endangered Species".
Edited on July 7, 2011 at 6:45pmAug '10
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
Interesting argument, but a bit simplistic, I think. Better to say that Conservatives champion liberty and Liberals champion freedom.
I take your point that there are a lot of movies about individuals taking it upon themselves to solve problems in lieu of government or other big institutions...and that this is an essentially conservative theme.
But how many movies revolve around an individual who defies a disapproving family to achieve self-realization? This is a quintessential Liberal theme AND a time-tested story hook.
Mar '11
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
"What I found most interesting was the left winger Sirota blames the 1980's media culture for our nation's belief in conservative ideals such as individualism."
The reason that opposite opinions on this subject can be reached is because Sirota is near-sighted.
Take a look at Alexis De Tocqueville's discussion of individualism in Democracy in America.
Democratic societies are good in De Tocqueville's judgment, but he wants us to be attuned to problems within them so that we don't become flatters, blind to the defects of this kind of society and therefore blind to ways of remedying them.
In that spirit he critiques individualism because it can cause men to withdraw from wider society and civic engagement, to retire to enclaves in private life and refuse to enter the forum that is the proper realm of men who are citizens, not subjects. That is, untrammeled individualism can undermine the virtues of citizenship.
Perhaps the libertarian milieu of our age is evidence that Tocqueville's worry wasn't groundless.
All of that to say: don't think that because Oliver Stone's heroes make choices, they've demonstrated any great conservative virtues.
Apr '11
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
Very insightful thoughts everyone. But couldn't it be that we see the thread of conservatism running through movies and television in the 70's and 80's because of the influence of the creators parents and family. I see it as I see it before me with my own children. Raising them with conservative values seeing them mirrored back to me when they are young but jettisoning them as they matured thinking they are archaic.
Those shows reflected a desire to jettison those conservative values while replacing them with more modern ideas never realizing that they are foundational.
Like the person who puts on a display of modern architecture desiring to prove that old ideas are no longer necessary we can jettison them in favor of the avant garde all the while housing it in a building and under the roof of a building that stands on foundational engineering ideas.
Dec '10
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
The Soviet Union succeeded in planting a few operatives in Hollywood. However, the historical record shows they were spectacularly unsuccessful in planting Soviet or Communist themes into movies -- that didn't happen until homegrown Lefty filmmakers started doing it spontaneously in the 1960s.
In the 1940s, there were a couple of movies sympathetic to the USSR as an ally in WWII. But other than The Grapes of Wrath, most Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 1940s avoided explicit Leftist themes and focused on specific social injustices (chain gangs, juvenile delinquency, etc.).
I'd argue that one of the most liberal films of the 1950s was Cape Fear, in which the protagonist decides to let his adversary live so that he'll rot in jail instead of die quickly (anti-death penalty). By contrast, a film of the same era, A Place in the Sun, has its anti-hero go calmly to the gas chamber even though he only accidentally killed his bride because he knows he had murder in his heart.
I love the TV show Criminal Minds. The members of the FBI team have on several occasions killed suspects rather than risk letting them escape justice.
Dec '10
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
Why do liberal writers, directors, actors and producers create works with Conservative themes? Because money trumps ideology. Their only shot at making politically correct flops like The Valley of Elah or Rendition is to have enough commercial success that those flops can be excused. Thus they have to make thillers in which heinous villains don't get due process and fair trials, but are killed in fits of righteous justice that dispense the capital punishment the system can't be relied on to provide.
Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock seem to be able to make money on pure-Left work, but they're creating "non-fiction" documentaries. Their production costs are low, they can self-finance and they attract ideologically-driven audiences.
Producers of entertainment have to entertain in order to attract paying viewers. Their freedom of ideology is thus limited. And even a guy like Dick Wolf, who made his Law & Order franchise a reliable Lefty organ, had to include storylines that hinged on getting criminals onto Death Row.
Mar '11
Re: Why Film, TV and Novels Serve Conservatism, Regardless of Ideology from Creators
This talk about what exactly is conservative and liberal in entertainment can get convoluted. I think that's the reason Ben Shapiro can look at it one way and David Siroata can look at it the totally opposite way when they are viewing the same thing. In fact, Ghostbusters is a good example. Is it a story about small business owners defeating evil the government can't OR is it a story about a bunch of professors with un-useful degrees (i.e. liberals) defeating evil the government can't?
James Bond? He is defeating evil from China to North Korea to the Soviet Union and terrorists. He's one of the good guys. BUT, he sleeps around--I'm sure at least one Bond girl has had an abortion. He has no problem eating, drinking, and driving the best on the government's dime even in times of deficits. And the enemy is sometimes a corporation. But, many conservatives still love James Bond.
My opinion is that if we conservatives get TOO caught up in going "by the book" in entertainment, a lot of stuff we like is not going to get made anymore.