War on terror’s other front: cleaning up US pop culture
The distorted view of America that Hollywood projects breeds hateful feelings abroad
Dinesh D’Souza

RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIF. – Anti-Americanism comes in different varieties. The European kind emphasizes the “evils” of “red” America: a shoot-first, ask-questions-later cowboy in the White House, and Bible- toting fundamentalists walking around the corridors of power.

The Muslim variety is very different. Many Muslims point to the “horrors” of “blue” America: homosexual marriage, family breakdown, and a popular culture that is trivial, materialistic, vulgar, and, in many cases, morally repulsive.

This latter view is dangerously – and justifiably – common in many traditional cultures across the globe. Because it feeds their perception that American values are inimical to their way of life, this attitude can blossom into the kind of anti- American pathology that partly fueled the 9/11 attacks. Any serious effort to shore up American’s security must include steps to edify American culture.

…The most powerful of all the American offenses recited in the lands of Islam, argues preeminent Middle East expert Bernard Lewis, “is the “degeneracy and debauchery of the American way of life.”

A major reason why some Muslims focus their anger on the United States is because it is American culture – not Swedish culture or French culture – that is finding its way into every nook and cranny of Islamic society.

While I don’t subscribe to most of D’Souza’s political viewpoints, this one—published in the Christian Science Monitor—is worth noting. Regardless of other positive aspects of Western (and American) cultures, many traditional cultures see a lack of morality as the major defect. It is too subtle an argument to say that ‘just because it’s on film doesn’t make it true, or widespread, or common’. It doesn’t work to talk about ‘unintended consequences of freedom of expression’. The bad behavior, which often seems glorified, is there in full color for the world to see.

Western freedoms assure that governments cannot reach in to the media to order bans on this or that. But those who produce the media might take a moment to consider the messages they send out, as much as the money they bring in.