- Dan Gelernter  

- Dan Gelernter 

- Dan Gelernter 

I have just finished by far the busiest term of my life. I am back:

I was watching a DVD of a recent comedy called Music and Lyrics today, and things were going pretty well; it actually looked like one of the better modern movies I’d seen. But then we got to the closing credits, during which a series of little blurbs appeared on screen to let us know what happened to all of the movie’s characters “later in life.” We learn that the two main characters of the movie, Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) and Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) go on to write many more hit songs together and that they are “now living together.” Not married – just “living together.”

“No!” I yell at the TV screen, “They’re not ‘living together!’ They’re married! They’d better be married.” (I find myself yelling at the TV set a lot these days, which is one of the reasons I try to avoid movies produced after 1967). I don’t mean to sound prudish, nor do I think that Hollywood’s liberal bent is anything new, but it just made me wonder: “Comedies,” by definition, are plays that end with marriages – at least this has been the way it has worked for about 2000 years. Remember, this happens past the end of the movie: the plot is over, we’re into the credits after all – it’s no skin off the playwright’s nose to suggest that these characters are simply married as opposed to living together (it even takes fewer letters). So why does this movie go extra lengths to make the “living together” statement? Just to express contempt: contempt for marriage, contempt for tradition, and contempt for America and the very idea of goodness.

But this is not as depressing as it sounds, provided we remember that Hollywood is an irrelevance. Asking a Hollywooder to explain morality is like asking a used-car salesman to fix your fuel injectors: there is no correlation between the ability to be loud and obnoxious and the ability to do something useful. And since Hollywood has been talking to us for a long time, I would now like to talk to them:

Dear Hollywood: Nobody takes you seriously. Hollywood’s pagan views do not interest America, except from the standpoint of a rather pathetic amusement. Hollywooders and academics and the media mercenaries can stand there all day long telling us that morality is a variable thing, that absolute goodness doesn’t exist, that out traditions are simple-minded and bigoted (in fact, this is what they do). But get this Hollywood: America refuses to believe you. A Hebrew proverb states that “silence is a fence around wisdom.” As a good neighbor, I will simply point out that there are few holes in your fence that could use fixing.

-- Dan Gelernter 

Northwestern University is enduring its first ever "sex week," featuring the distribution of free condoms and "safe sex supplies," various sex workshops, and the production of "Kama Sutra: The Musical." Amidst the depravity, Northwestern's pro-life student group has invited Feminists for Life president Serrin Foster to present the feminist case against abortion.  Ms. Foster will speak at Swift Hall room 107 on NU's Evanston campus at 7:30pm.  The lecture is free and open to the public.

On CNN.com this morning there is a video of a military recruiter telling someone to do a “gay voodoo jig.” CNN has labeled the video “Homophobic Recruiter.” Now, I don’t support the recruiter’s actions, but let me ask you something. What does “homophobic” mean? It means fear of homosexuals or homosexuality. There is a difference, though, between making fun of something or someone and being afraid of them. If I make fun of funny looking hats, it doesn’t mean I’m afraid of funny looking hats. It means I think they’re funny looking. Similarly, when people mock homosexuals (which I do not condone) it’s not because they fear them; they just don’t like them.

But were the media and the left to use a more accurate term, or talk about “anti-homosexuals,” they wouldn’t get to cast their enemies as scaredy-cat bigots. By claiming someone is afraid of something else, you get to imply a sense of inferiority and irrationality. Fear is seen as a symptom of failing to understand, of feeling threatened by. When someone is seen as afraid, they are seen as weak. So when you call someone a homophobe, you aren’t just calling them prejudiced, you’re also characterizing their prejudice as weak, irrational, and intimidated. By claiming someone is afraid of someone else, you empower those you claim they fear.

If, on the other hand, you simply - and more accurately - state that people are against another group of people or ideas, these negative connotations are not imparted. If someone is against something instead of afraid of it, it begs the question, “Why?” But if the left simply accused others of being against homosexuals, then they would invite a rational discussion of why they are against and whether their claims are valid. We would have to ask ourselves if there are reasons to not support homosexuals or homosexuality.

But rational discussion frightens the modern left because they rely on arguments of emotion (love, hate, fear, passion) and are prone to refutation by reasoned discourse. By labeling anyone against homosexuality as a homophobe they get to circumvent a discussion of the possible merits of the position they ridicule and instead immediately cast them in a negative, condescending light without ever making an argument as to why that' the case.

You may have seen Maloney's work before with his piece Protesting the Protesters, in which he attended a New York City anti-war rally to ask the protesters some questions.  Maloney takes the same approach in Indoctrinate U, though from what I can tell in the trailer, professors are far less willing to talk than the run-of-the-mill anti-war protester.

Check out the trailer on the website to see if you are interested.  Sign a petition to get the film shown in your area if you are really interested.  If you're lucky, there may already be a showing somewhere nearby.

[Edit] For a little more about the film, check out Maloney's visit to Fox News recently.