AMERICA’S CULTURAL REVULSION
“Are movies and music poisoning America’s soul? Probably, but not without the millions who plunk down billions for this schlock.” Patrice K. Yeatter Duvall, Washington CONGRATULATIONS FOR ADDRESSING THE violence in the media issue [Cover Stories, June 12] with a degree of responsible depth. You not only suggested viable solutions but also respected the intellect of your readership. It’s disturbing that more politicians don’t exercise the same qualities. Fred Moffett Orange, California
DESPITE HOLLYWOOD’S SELF-RIGHTEOUS indignation at supposed threats to the First Amendment, let’s not lose sight of the sole reason film producers turn out gory movies and vitriolic lyrics: money. To expect entertainment moguls to stop peddling lucrative scum is just about as realistic as to expect hyenas to become vegetarians. R. Alex Kaseberg La Jolla, California AOL: ThorDoggie
BOB DOLE’S ATTACK ON HOLLYWOOD IS laughable. In my lifetime, Washington has contributed more to the moral decay of America than Hollywood has. Hollywood at least is fiction; Washington is real life. Scott Sundback Saegertown, Pennsylvania Via America Online
YOU GOT IT BACKWARD! THE AMERICAN soul killed music and movies when it abandoned the Good, the True and the Beautiful as ideals. There is enough guilt to go around. Artists, producers, publishers, liberals, conservatives, politicians and businessmen are all guilty, but mostly it is the populace. We want the junk. Nyal Williams Muncie, Indiana
IF THE ARTS ARE REFLECTIONS OF A society, then sick arts are the products of a sick society. Censoring these products is nothing more than treating symptoms and neglecting the disease. The remedy for such an ailment is education that sharpens the critical mind and nurtures discriminating taste. A nation with such educated citizens is usually immune to cultural pollution. Hardja Susilo Honolulu
THE NOTION THAT MUSIC AND CINEMA are responsible for the meltdown of U.S. society is utter nonsense; moreover, this red herring is perpetuated by venal politicians to pre-empt any serious examination of sensitive issues. America is ailing and in denial. Chief among the many ills exacerbating our sick spirit is bogus puritanism. Ill-minded men wed to this pernicious folly inhibit us from ordaining reasonable policies regarding sex, drugs, violent crime, taxes, the military and foreign policy. Tully Atkinson San Clemente, California
THE ISSUE OF DEPICTED EVIL IS CERTAINLY not as cut-and-dried as both sides of the argument make it out to be. Art reflects society, to be sure, and ours is a troubled society. But art is an imaginative instrument, and the imagination that fuels our actions can help us overcome society’s troubles. What raises a product of entertainment to the level of a work of art is in part the strength of its treatment of human action, good and evil. Great art uses descriptive and prescriptive means to depict morality. Pure depiction in art has no force; pure prescription in art has too much. At the crossroads of the two is where the path to virtue begins. Eric David Los Angeles
THE ROLE OF A COMPANY
TIME SHOULD BE CONGRATULATED FOR its objective reporting on its parent company’s promotion of offensive music and movies [Cover Stories, June 12]. However, one question in particular needs to be asked of Time Warner. The company takes refuge in the First Amendment and the guarantee of freedom of speech when it promotes music and movies that are clearly at odds with decency, as most Americans define it. No one denies that Time Warner is entitled to produce nearly anything it thinks will make a profit. But the question is, Whose freedom of speech would be denied if Time Warner were to take a responsible leadership role and actively weed out the undesirable material it has been foisting on the public? Certainly not Time Warner’s. Surely not the “artists’.” Their freedoms would not necessarily be denied just because Time Warner wouldn’t produce their work. I’m sure most Americans would welcome being free of the tasteless violence and wanton sex that have become their daily diet. W. Scott Wycoff Wilmington, Delaware
YOUR ARTICLE SIDESTEPS THE MAIN issue. Freedom of expression in 20th century media is not total freedom, since the market is in control. However, the market in this case may often be created by the media as they explore and create new expressions of popular culture.
Those who market the media exercise power to influence their own sales first, but definitely affect other markets and, in the end, society as a whole. Portraying violence can incite either feelings of sympathy and pity for the suffering or an unholy desire to emulate the sheer power of the evildoer. If rat poison were sold without warnings on the product, the manufacturer could expect fines, a jail sentence and worse-and the consumer who challenged him would be a hero. That is the real issue at stake here. Hugh J. Bridge London
IT SEEMS INCREDIBLE THAT DOLE, AS a candidate for President, hasn’t the capacity to recognize Natural Born Killers as satire. Is the concept of black comedy really that difficult to understand? Is Dole still wringing his hands over the likes of Dr. Strangelove, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Network? These films speak volumes about the troubled times from which they emerged, and they stand as the sanest of cinematic signposts. As a student of the medium, I feel obligated to defend Natural Born Killers as the most accomplished American feature released last year, and possibly the finest since Blue Velvet and Unforgiven. Edward M. Vitunski North Bay, Canada
PAWNS OF THE SERBS
IS IT TIME TO RETALIATE? YOU ASK IN your story [June 12] about the hostage situation in the former Yugoslavia. No, it’s time for every civilized country to stop being held hostage by arms dealers. There is no place in our modern society for companies and individuals that profit from selling advanced killing weapons to anyone, anywhere. Human nature being what it is, there will still be aggression, but perhaps it will no longer be so lethal. A fork does a lot less damage than a heat-seeking missile. It is time for citizens and governments to wake up and say that our prosperity is no longer tied to arms. You get what you plan for. How about planning for lasting peace and making arms manufacturers and dealers the pariahs of society that they truly should be? Judith Murray Montreal
THE WEST CANNOT REALLY EXPECT THE Serbs to just sit back and allow NATO to bomb them all the time. They have responded, in accordance with appropriate military procedure and rules, by bombing back and taking POWS–not hostages, because they are soldiers in combat. Wearing blue helmets while having the right to fire and bomb is absolute hypocrisy. David Hye London
WHAT RIGHT HAVE WE TO DENY THE Bosnian Serbs their wish to form a separate state of their own in Bosnia, with the option of eventually uniting with their people in Serbia proper? Would that be a crime? It certainly wasn’t the case when the Slovenes and Croats–as well as the Bosnian Muslims–sought independence from the then very viable state of Yugoslavia. More sinister agendas seem to be at work concerning the future of the Balkans; agendas by Western powers that want to divide and conquer, i.e., feed and control, instead of accepting the reality that the Christian Serbs, for obvious historical reasons, will not allow themselves once again to be subdued by Muslim rule. Miroslav Dordic London
I’M SURE ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER would be able to end the war in Bosnia single-handedly. At least that is what American movies would have us believe. But reality is something different. Watching NATO and the U.N. tiptoe around the Serbs makes me wonder, Should I feel extremely lucky to be alive, since I left my hometown of Sarajevo? I guess so. The Serbs can do whatever they please, whenever they please and to whomever they please. Taking 400 hostages is quite a task, and shooting down an American jet is crazily brave. The world is showing me that Serbia is the most powerful nation on earth, and I have managed to escape it and stay alive while it laughs in everybody’s face. Bozana Benic Zagreb
ANXIETY OVER A VISIT
YOUR WARNING THAT AMERICA AND China “could come to see each other as enemies” [Diplomacy, June 5] is, I fear, a fact. The centuries-old psychology of confronting the West traces its roots to deep within the Chinese culture. With China’s economic boom, particularly, the long-suppressed sense of superiority again finds easy justification. The Middle Kingdom expects the rest of the world to admire it, not the other way around. That is why I am so surprised to hear some experts talk of the U.S.’s avoiding Beijing’s suspicion while it also thinks it can “improve China’s values.” On the other hand, China needs to grow up, probably as much as it wants to grow to be a respected power. A better and safer world cannot be built with an adolescent China asking to be rewarded for each effort made at the expense of 21 million Taiwanese. Li Hanyu Strombeek, Belgium
DON’T CLIP GATES’ WINGS
JOSHUA QUITTNER’S “WHY EMPEROR BILL Should Rule” [Cover Stories, June 5] neatly describes the frustrations shared by users of personal computers. The unreliability of these machines, caused mainly by integration of hybrid software, is the reason Big Business has stayed loyal to the mainframe. Bill Gates has been the visionary, taking microprocessing to where it is today, so let’s give him credit. To clip his wings at this stage could end the U.S. domination of the industry he helped create. Michael E. Jacobs Plettenberg Bay, South Africa
I HAVE WORKED WITH BOTH MICROSOFT’S products and competitors’ products. Microsoft’s products are nothing special, and in many cases are inferior. The company is good at marketing, not technology. Perhaps Gates should spend more time fixing his programs instead of scheming about how to make another buck. Peter Kearns Fourways, South Africa
PART OF THE RICHNESS OF THE INTERNET stems from the many local Internet providers that have sprung up around the world. Services like Ireland On-Line have brought the diversity of local cultures to the Internet. Were the Microsoft Network to be another service provider competing on a level playing field with everyone else, then it would be a welcome addition. But if it is to be bundled with Windows 95 and sold at below-cost prices in developing markets, then it is in danger of killing the cultural diversity of the Internet. As a director of Ireland On-Line, I hope other countries besides the U.S. wake up quickly to this danger and prohibit the bundling of Microsoft Network with Windows 95, unless Internet service providers currently operating within the country are given equal status within Windows 95. William O’Farrell Galway, Ireland
ROAR OF THE LION
IN HIS SIDEBAR COMMENTARY “NO, BUT He Read the Polls” [Cover Stories, June 12] concerning the movies Senator Dole likes, Richard Schickel inanely charges The Lion King with promoting fascism and then alleges that Natural Born Killers has some redeeming qualities. I really think Schickel needs a good rap on the head with Rafiki’s quarterstaff. Rip Kirby Rutland, Vermont
I SIMPLY CANNOT BELIEVE SENATOR DOLE considers the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie True Lies, with its high body count, as much a family film as Disney’s The Lion King. Since nearly everyone knows Arnold is a big Republican backer, it certainly seems nothing short of a double standard. Linda Lee Louisville, Colorado Via America Online
THE REAL MEANING OF GURU
I’M SICK OF READING ABOUT FINANCIAL gurus, health gurus and most recently the so-called Japanese guru Shoko Asahara “Engineer of Doom” [Japan, June 12]. This is a total bastardization of the word. The Sanskrit word guru literally means “one who is heavy with love for God.” Example: Jesus Christ is a bona fide guru. It is offensive to me that you continually misuse this word. Asahara is in the same league as David Koresh, Jim Jones and other lunatics who have proclaimed themselves to be God’s representatives. In reality they are charlatans and should be labeled as such. Krishna-katha das Honolulu
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