The Political Baser Instinct

Bob Dole banked on getting a great deal of press by attacking Hollywood as vociferously as he did. But like politicians--as opposed to statesmen--everywhere, he is trafficking in a form of short-term thinking: How do we get headlines preceding the weekend, leaving little room for any response?

That’s not leading the country. Sen. Dole is seeking the presidency, and the responsible thing for a man running for our highest office would be to look at this in full context, at the broader culture. He should be examining the societal ethic that results not only in some excess film and television violence, but also the cultural ethic that teaches us daily that the end justifies the means.

Of course, I think that leadership in Hollywood needs to be more responsible, as does leadership in every American industry, American government. There are excesses everywhere.

I’m not, for example, an expert on the environment; but I know enough to know that excesses in other industries that affect the environment or pollute the environment in a different way continue. Excesses in journalism--like the amount of space Mr. Dole has already gotten on this subject--continue. And if another example is required, I give you the O.J. Simpson trial.

It is a fact of human nature that we stop to look at an accident, that we laugh at somebody tripping on a banana peel. We are orchestrated that way from birth. We have baser instincts. We have higher instincts. Politics seeks to appeal to our baser instincts.

Bob Dole, if he continues in the pattern that both Republican and Democratic politicians exhibited in the last election, will do far more attacking than he will explaining himself--appealing to our baser instincts to mistrust and to hate.

Certainly, there are films, by no means all, that also appeal to baser instincts. I can’t defend them. But they are at least balanced by the wholesome films and family films produced here. I see no like balance in politics. Campaigns are used solely to demean, diminish and destroy. But also destroyed in the process is our faith in leaders and our hopes for the future. That is our current political reality. Which hurts our children more, the violence of make-believe or the violence of reality? While it is true that offensive rap lyrics are packaged as entertainment, demeaning and violent campaign attacks on political opponents are packaged as patriotism, as Americanism or as do-goodism.

If one is to assume that packaged entertainment that is offensive is a pernicious lie, violent political rhetoric packaged as reform is also a lie.