It looks like the Hollywood Writer’s strike is finally over, which is a good thing for those tired of prime-time game shows and “American Gladiator.” The labor dispute involved financial remuneration for the redistribution of entertainment programming. The writers’ problem is that their product is in such high demand around the world, and they want to assure that they are receiving fair compensation. If only we were all so fortunate. The fact that the appetite for American entertainment is so strong overseas raises a counterterrorism idea that some may dismiss as me being flippant, but is actually quite serious.
The idea hit me as I listened to Yonah Alexander’s comments at the excellent public forum co-hosted by the Counterterrorism Foundation on February 12, 2008 at the U.S. Capitol. Professor Alexander described how American counterterrorism efforts need to include more than just law enforcement and military tools, to win over youth in the Third World who are indoctrinated from an early age to hate American values. He suggested that this battle will last for 100 years, even if we start today, since today’s children are tomorrow’s terrorists. Why? For many of them, their daily intellectual diet includes Al Manar, the television station of Hizballah.
Does anyone else see the irony of this as American television writers put down their signs and retreat from the picket lines? Why can’t the U.S. government subsidize the distribution of regular American entertainment to the Arab World? I am not referring to the dry, policy-laden programming of Voice of America, nor to original pro-American shows that would inevitably involve consultations with American Muslim groups over whether the resulting productions violate politico-religious sensibilities. Let’s give them a heavy dose of what we give our own people, and which makes us so happy and wanting more. Not the pro-U.S. propaganda like what was produced in World War II. This would be “The Office,” “Desperate Housewives,” and “Friday Night Lights,” without apologies. That would mean more work and viewers for the Hollywood writers, and more reliable income. After all, U.S. government paychecks rarely bounce.
Think this is not possible in repressive regimes? The American entertainment industry has been ranting for years about the dangers of copyright infringement, to the point where they have convinced Interpol that intellectual piracy is used to fund terrorists. This means that even the best technological skills that money can buy cannot prevent illegal downloads onto IPods. I doubt the Mullahs in Iran have any better shot at it.
P.J. Rourke, I think, once said that the Berlin Wall came down not because of Minutemen Missiles and the Strategic Defense Initiative, but because of the Sony Walkman and Levi jeans. Johnnie Walker Red used to be a good tradeable commodity in remote parts of China, and probably still is. These items became things everyday Communists could not live without. People who realize they are living deprived are willing to risk everything for them, once they got a little taste. Throw lingerie-clad Eva Longoria at regular Arab viewers, and see how long they want to wear a hijab and insist that stoning is the proper punishment for adultery. I’m not sure our regular television programming rises to the level of an American treasure, but I seriously doubt that the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights will be able to claim that it amounts to U.S.-sanctioned torture.
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