In my last message, I mentioned that the next posting would be about Maureen Dowd. Many of you may be expecting some salacious details about Maureen's life to follow after the above title. Maureen was not cooperative so I will remark on a typical Hollywood movie called "In Good Company” that I saw on my flight back from Denver.
In this movie, like the majority of films from Hollywood, a college girl insist on going to bed with a guy on the very first date. The relationship goes on for a bit until the guy falls in love and makes the mistake of telling her. She immediately ends the relationship. She is in the self centered business of “knowing herself”. Any deeper relationship that might interfere with her future Siddhartha experience must be avoided at all costs.
The film captures the worse Hollywood stereotypes of America - the weak and venerable male and the strong, powerful and sexually liberated woman. The combination is lethal when combined with bad acting. The American culture is amazing because it perpetuates the worse image of itself and broadcasts this message to the world. In Denver, I had an Iranian taxi driver. He was studying for his PhD in Agriculture. He asked me if I could guess his greatest fear in coming to the US. Considering the fact that he was both a Muslim and Iranian, I guessed that he would be afraid of possible discrimination. Nope. Before he arrived, he (and his wife) were most afraid that a buxom beautiful blue eye blond would be waiting at the gate to seduce him. The other big surprise for him was the general religious nature of Americans which was once again in contrast to all the stereotypes depicted in the media.
Why are American woman always portrayed as sluts? Or why is virginity in a unmarried woman portrayed as a fault? Can you think of any culture that ever portrayed itself so lowly? Even truly depraved cultures like the French try to portray themselves in a much more positive light then they deserve. The American culture does the opposite. It seems intent on trying to portray itself at the lowest nadir. Liberals worry over how the world sees America because of George Bush. They should consider how the world see us because of Hollywood. We should all fret how this depiction of normal life encourages immorality and its logical consequences.
(Lev 19:29) Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.
This quote from the Bible indicates that the private sexual actions of a society can in fact have severe public consequences. This is a blog for another day...
