Bob Barr

Grappling for Decency in a Cultural Pit

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

March 15, 2006

A few months back, I complained about Atlanta's new "theme song" being little more than unintelligible moaning about "get 'em up" and something called "ATL." Little did I realize that within just a few months, I might be looking back on Atlanta's song and musing that its lyrics are downright eloquent when compared to the latest rhythmic trash coming out of America's hip-hop songwriters.

Last week's 78th Oscar "culture clash" has made a believer out of me: No matter how base, disgusting or disparaging American culture becomes, it can always get worse.

It is axiomatic that most of what emerges from the dung heap that is today known as Hollywood, and as personified in recent Oscar celebrations, bears virtually no resemblance to the majesty of bygone moviemaking eras. Those times gave us movies of true majesty that transcended cultural, historic and geographic divides to unite people in standing for the very best human nature can become.

Apparently, in Hollywood's jaundiced eyes, all the good capable of being attained by human beings has been accomplished, and all that is left for the movie industry to celebrate and hold dear are those crumbs of human degradation that seem the central themes of the genre known as modern movies. The human spirit, in Hollywood's jaded view, can do no more than strive to reach such goals as trans-genderism, illicit sex, racism and competing to see just how many times screenwriters can cram the F-word into a 90-minute film.

The industry that used to value and honor some of America's most accomplished musical composers and conductors is now scraping the bottom of the barrel to hold up what passes for music today, such as "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," one of this year's Oscar winners. The good news may be that in choosing this song as the best—one that is nothing more than a collection of lyrics so foul that they cannot be repeated in this column—the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (is a song about the difficulties of managing prostitutes "art" or "science"?) has perhaps sunk to the bottom of the cultural abyss and has nowhere to go but up. I will not fall prey to such optimism. The self-imposed cultural abyss into which America's film industry is happily descending seems truly limitless. I shudder to think what's next.

Yet, when one looks at what passes for "culture" in these early years of the 21st century, it is impossible to tell whether it's Hollywood that's really driving us into the cultural abyss, or whether the film industry is merely the morale officer being paid to entertain us on the journey.

We have universities—reputable universities—teaching courses in bizarre topics, such as "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll in Ancient Egypt" (The Johns Hopkins University), "Lesbian Love Novels Since World War II" (Swarthmore College), "The Unbearable Whiteness of Barbie" (Occidental College), "The Psychology of the Lesbian Experience" (UCLA) and "Stupidity" (Occidental). These are just a sampling of the ridiculous menu of college-level courses passing today for "higher education," which is compiled each year by the Young America's Foundation.

Perhaps the most graphic illustration of the darkness of the cultural abyss, however, lies not in courses offered at our universities or in movies being shown in our movie theaters but in the exhibits making the rounds of major American cities, including Atlanta, of cadavers being marketed to the public as "art." Human bodies—flayed, "plasticized" and propped up in varying poses to display their innermost structure—are on display now to that segment of the public so eager to satisfy some grotesque urge to look at dead people that they will pay money to do so.

Western culture embarked many centuries ago on a difficult journey, learning to revere life and respect the human body. No longer do we display the dead to teach the living a lesson. Not until now have we placed the deceased in deliberately provocative positions so the voyeurs among us could satisfy some prurient interest, or to "ooh and aah" and convince their friends and family (if not themselves) that what they are really looking at are not dead bodies, but rather some "art form" or "teaching tool."

Some parents are even taking their children to gape at dissected human bodies, prompting one 9-year-old boy who "wants to be a scientist" to declare the exhibit "cool." Yes, in today's Bizarro world, in which pimping is the stuff of Oscar-winning tunes and lesbianism the subject of university courses, I suppose ogling dissected cadavers is cool.

Still, I don't think I'd like to be on the receiving end of that 9-year-old's experiments when he is handed his first scalpel.

Bob Barr occupies the 21st Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union Foundation.