Robert A. Flutie

I was watching the movie NETWORK this weekend. It’s a brilliant satire on the television industry during the 70’s. Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway give spectacular performances and if you have not seen NETWORK, please get a copy and watch it.

There is a scene about one hour into the movie that struck me as being very relevant to the issues that we face today. Pardon my paraphrasing the dialogue, but it’s worth the effort of typing this out given how well it reflects on our society today.The scene is a newscaster gone mad who has been allowed (manipulated), by the network execs to go on the air because the network is in the crapper and they are trying to come out of a slump. In other words, they have put this poor psychotic out to the slaughter.

“I don’t have to tell you things are bad! Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression, everybody is out of work, or scared or losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth. The banks are going bust. Shop keepers keep a gun under the cupboard. Punks are running around wild in the street and there isn’t anybody who knows what to do and there is no end to it. We know that the air is unfit to breath, and our food is unfit to eat. We sit watching out TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be! We know things are bad, worse than bad. Their crazy, it’s like everyone everywhere is going crazy so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house and slowly the world that we are living in is getting smaller and all we say is Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster, my TV, my steel belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone. Well, I’m not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest, I don’t want you to riot, I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve GOT TO GET MAD! You’ve got to say that I’M A HUMAN BEING GOD DAMIT! MY LIFE HAS VALUE! So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to your window, open it, stick your head out and yell I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

In the movie, the millions of people who are watching the above broadcast begin to open their windows and begin to yell “I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” And so the scene goes on to express how this newscast put the network on top and served as the basis of the network’s ability to command liberal programming and messaging. Even the William Morris Agency gets and honorable mention.

So I get to thinking….and guess what I realized. Yes, “I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” Oil prices continue to rise, liquidity has left the market, people can’t buy homes, we are in a recession (don’t believe the BS you read about how we are not there yet), and we have become subject to the messaging and thin content of an otherwise shallow creative process because of it all.

It’s time for us to speak our truth. Go to your God, go to your Guru’s, go to yourself because that’s the only place where you’re going to find the truth!

Rent the movie.

* FLUTIE *

As an undergrad at Mercer University, I took a constitutional law class. We had a great professor, Dr. Cox, and his ability to draw a line of connectivity between cases that were decided in the US Supreme Court and our everyday life was extraordinary. I found the 1971 case of Lemon v. Kurtzman to be one of the more interesting cases that we studied. Essentially, that case created what is now known as “The Lemon Test” which aids the court in being able to decide if a particular act or acts involving government are a violation of the First Amendment.

We enter into 2008 with an abundance of exposure and awareness to the Presidential election. On the one side we have Hilary Rodham Clinton duking it out with Barack Obama. Across the aisle we have Romney and Huckabee taking shots. Sometimes we hear from good ‘ole Giuliani as he counters the attack from McCain and vice versa. Some find the tete-a- tete to be interesting, others find it entertaining. Some might not even notice, or even know how the respective candidates are addressing the relevant issues that are sitting on America’s doorstep (health care, immigration, the war in Iraq, the economy). What is not being spoken about, however, is the way that some of the candidates have worked religious influence into the process. Now, one could argue that running for The Office of President might make one immune from the issues surrounding the First Amendment. After all, if we were to apply The Lemon Test, we probably wouldn’t find that the candidates are violating the First Amendment.

My question, and ultimatly my concern, is “Are the subtle suggestions of religion in today’s political landscape a sign of how we can expect or anticipate religion to impact or influence us?”

If we take a look at the National temperament on the various topics being discussed by the candidates, we will find that the continued rise in uncertainty and instability of key social, economic and international issues has started a overwhelming shift towards conservatism. When chaos, confusion and haziness begin to take the advantage over confidence, assurance, and growth the populous begins to lean away from the center. Even the most open minded and explorative person will find themselves adrift. When the media bombardment continues to enforce the perception and notion that the ground beneath us is shaking, it becomes a natural inclination for the constituency to run for cover and seek comfort and safety. It is in these times that we are most vulnerable to outside influence and  this leads us into a trend to go towards what is comforting and, well safe. For 92 percent of Americans who are believers, the safest room in the house becomes religion.

I certainly can relate to the idea that in troubling, and not so troubling, times my spiritual salvation and belief provides an added base of steadiness. How I choose to travel my path in life is private and sacrosanct. Yes, I may choose to share it on a weekly basis with my friends in the congregation, but do I really want the religious influence to be woven into my political perspective? Not at all. In simple terms, it’s a conflict and violation of the First Amendment and no matter how gingerly we tip toe around the symbolic nature of religion, when we begin to head down the path of political aspiration we can not do so at the expense of our religious freedom.

If we were to plot out the trajectory of our social mindset, we can reasonably predict that the minor religious influences surrounding us will extend well beyond the Washington DC political platform. This wave of momentum will extend into the creative landscape and make its way into mainstream entertainment as marketers begin to respond to what they believe will be a conservative consumer disposition. And with such tremendous economic influence, these marketers will undoubtedly shape the taste and desire of the entertainment conglomerates (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW), as they seek to support programming that is reflective of the consumers “safe” mentality.