Religions > Atheism > Da Vinci Code: This Movie Is A Kick In The Teeth For Conservatives
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Religions > Atheism |
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"Sound of Trumpet" |
| Date: |
24 May 2006 06:03:08 PM |
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Da Vinci Code: This Movie Is A Kick In The Teeth For Conservatives |
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTViNzkwZjE1ODRiM2FhODA0ZjZmMzAxZWYyMmQ1OTA=
Monday, May 22, 2006
Da Vinci Thoughts [Stanley Kurtz]
I just saw The Da Vinci Code. Point one: Michael Novak's review is
dead on.
Point two: This movie is a salutary kick in the teeth for
conservatives. There's no gainsaying the fact that the Narnia movie
was a big deal. Having conceded that, the fact remains that when it
comes to exercising influence on the fundamental levers of American
culture, conservatives remain in a pathetically weakened position.
I may not be a professor of "symbology," but I have taught at
Harvard and studied religious symbolism. So I feel in a particularly
strong position to reveal the entirely unsecret conspiracy against
patriotism, tradition, and religion hiding in plain sight on our movie
and television screens, in our universities, and on the pages of the
mainstream press. Conservatives have forgotten just how precarious our
position is. One cable news channel, talk radio, and the blogosphere
do not an invincible army make. It only seems that way because we also
have nominal control of the reigns of power. But lose our foothold in
government, and conservatives are up a creek. The other side controls
the levers of cultural power in this country, and we are the enemy in
their eyes (and on their screens).
Conservatives need to face the fact that our position in this culture
is genuinely precarious. If we lose our hold on power, we'll scream
bloody murder on our outlets at everything the other side does. Yet
those screams may only confirm our helplessness. The deep cultural
dimension of our political battles makes an ordinary transfer of
political power far more consequential than it was in the days when
America had a bipartisan foreign policy and a broad cultural consensus.
We can dream about forcing Republicans to the right and then riding
back into power two years later, but one big loss could easily turn
conservatives back into a marginal cultural force for some time.
Why have Democrats been so angry? It's because their
taken-for-granted cultural superiority has been called into question by
9/11, the return of patriotism, a tough foreign policy, and the open
defense of the sort of traditional values they thought were on the way
out. Republican victories have punctured the cultural left's sense
of the historical inevitability of their triumph, and that is at the
root of their rage. By controlling the political agenda, conservatives
control the cultural agenda as well (or at least a large part of it).
But the truth is, other than the government, the left is still in
control of our critical cultural institutions. Should the left
recapture the government as well, it may well succeed in pushing
traditionalists aside in the culture at large.
The battle is radicalizing. Big Love and The Da Vinci Code are far
more direct and brazen attacks on tradition than we might have
anticipated just a few years ago. Conservatives are the targets, and
Hollywood is aiming and shooting repeatedly. Give credit to Tom Hanks,
by the way. As producer of Big Love and star of The Da Vinci Code, he
is clearly one of the captains of the not-so-secret conspiracy.
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| User: "Calvin Rice" |
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| Title: Re: Da Vinci Code: This Movie Is A Kick In The Teeth For Conservatives |
24 May 2006 10:27:10 PM |
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Long before now it has been made clear that the left will 'win',
though what it will win won't be worth having. They will get
their precious world government and socialist utopia. But
it will be a dull and dreary affair, with everyone equal in misery.
All that conservatives can do is work to impede their progress,
just for the fun of it, knowing that they wont be stopped, only
slowed down a little.
So cheer up, conservatives. Let's just enjoy fighting the long
defeat (a phrase from someone in the 60s), and then after they
see what they have done, we can say we told them so.
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| User: "trotsky" |
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| Title: Re: Da Vinci Code: This Movie Is A Kick In The Teeth For Conservatives |
25 May 2006 07:11:16 AM |
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Calvin Rice wrote:
Long before now it has been made clear that the left will 'win',
though what it will win won't be worth having. They will get
their precious world government and socialist utopia. But
it will be a dull and dreary affair, with everyone equal in misery.
All that conservatives can do is work to impede their progress,
just for the fun of it, knowing that they wont be stopped, only
slowed down a little.
So cheer up, conservatives. Let's just enjoy fighting the long
defeat (a phrase from someone in the 60s), and then after they
see what they have done, we can say we told them so.
Calvin, just out of curiosity, how many dead bodies have to pile up
before you can admit it's the liberals that should be telling the
conservatives "I told you so." Does conservative mean "complete
disreagard for human life"?
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Da Vinci Code: This Movie Is A Kick In The Teeth For Conservatives |
24 May 2006 10:35:32 PM |
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Calvin Rice wrote:
Long before now it has been made clear that the left will 'win',
though what it will win won't be worth having. They will get
their precious world government and socialist utopia. But
it will be a dull and dreary affair, with everyone equal in misery.
All that conservatives can do is work to impede their progress,
just for the fun of it, knowing that they wont be stopped, only
slowed down a little.
So cheer up, conservatives. Let's just enjoy fighting the long
defeat (a phrase from someone in the 60s), and then after they
see what they have done, we can say we told them so.
The trouble is, as someone recently said in this newsgroup,
reality has a liberal bias. Fundamentalism has arisen in the
Middle East, the United States and many other places to
deal with the pain caused by this fact. The result will not
be a world socialist government but a slow descent into
a hell of religious and ethnic warfare, already begun, to be
followed by the extinction of most of the human race when
the devotes of the One Truth Faith (whichever One True
Faith) turn to nuclear weapons and the like.
However, that has nothing to do with the _Da_Vinci_Code_,
which cannot be a kick in the teeth, because it is light
trash.
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| User: "John Baker" |
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| Title: Re: Da Vinci Code: This Movie Is A Kick In The Teeth For Conservatives |
25 May 2006 02:29:04 AM |
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On 24 May 2006 20:27:10 -0700, "Calvin Rice" <oscwr@netscape.net>
wrote:
Long before now it has been made clear that the left will 'win',
though what it will win won't be worth having. They will get
their precious world government and socialist utopia. But
it will be a dull and dreary affair, with everyone equal in misery.
All that conservatives can do is work to impede their progress,
just for the fun of it, knowing that they wont be stopped, only
slowed down a little.
So cheer up, conservatives. Let's just enjoy fighting the long
defeat (a phrase from someone in the 60s), and then after they
see what they have done, we can say we told them so.
Has anyone told you lately that you're an idiot?
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| User: "John Baker" |
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| Title: Re: Da Vinci Code: This Movie Is A Kick In The Teeth For Conservatives |
25 May 2006 02:29:48 AM |
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Yeah. Ain't it great? LOL
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Da Vinci Code: This Movie Is A Kick In The Teeth For Conservatives |
26 May 2006 02:29:49 PM |
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You mean Hollywood is behind all those pedophile priests? The bloody
crusades? The inquisitions? The burning of "witches"?
Hollywood has no more an agenda then any big business. It made The Da
Vinci Code because 45 million people bought the book. It's a good
"story" and people like it. Get over it!
Jim
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