The Workshops Of Identity
by Bill WhittleI. The Heartbeat:
Step back with me for a minute. Back out of Hollywood, out of America, out of the Western Tradition. Sit in the middle of a darkened crater at the south pole of the Moon. Sit back, look down and back into time, and watch the rise and fall of Civilizations on the Big Blue Ball.
If you could see human activity and genius, if you could watch poetry and medicine as points of golden light in the darkness of fear and superstition, you would soon detect a rhythm: a pulse, a heartbeat – the Heartbeat of Civilization.
It would begin in the Land Between the Rivers – a place known only in the last instant by the inhabitants down there as “Iraq,” but for almost the entire beating EKG before that it was called “Babylon” and then “Mesopotamia.”
That culture grew brighter, flourished and then suddenly winked out. Then, a little to the west, the Nile delta slowly blossomed, peaked, and fell. Then Greece, a brief, brilliant burst like a strobe in a dark room, blinding you long after its sudden extinction. Rome. Constantinople. Arabia. Italy. Spain. France. Britain – and with Britain, that spark of medicine and architecture and government married to science and steam literally remade the world.
And from your perch on the frozen, bone-dry lunar sand you would see the same pattern, the same pulse, the same heartbeat: a slow, steady rise, followed by a precipitous, shockingly quick fall… and then centuries, or even millennia of darkness, fear, superstition, disease and ignorance before the spark took hold again elsewhere.
One thing in common these patterns bear: the rise slow, the fall seemingly precipitous, and in every case we find the loss of nerve and strength and will comes not from the bottom, not from the common people at all, but from the rulers, the philosophers, the most affluent and educated who, in their comfort and Narcissism, abandon duty for self-absorption and self-gratification and who in boredom or self-loathing decide to fling open the gates of the city to the barbarians beyond, while the common man still stands at the walls prepared to die for the people in his charge.
And now here stands America, inheritor of that great tradition, astride that same cycle in its most dangerous and dire moment. And by any measure America is by far the most brilliant light the world has ever seen. And I can prove it, too.
Sean Penn recently wrote a piece for the Huffington Post in which he described America as a country much like any other, without any special claim to glory and indeed with an overabundance of sin to repent. Having visited Cuba and Venezuela, and having been enlightened by deep-thinking humanitarians such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, he implores his countrymen to give socialism a try and take its rightful place as simply one of the 200 or so other members of the great family of nations. “Viva USA!” writes Penn. Ironically, he says this unironically.
Reading his remarkable and lengthy article I was, at the close of it, reminded instantly of Lincoln, who once wrote, “He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.” But Sean Penn is not only perhaps the most gifted actor of my generation… he also has the courage to come out and openly say what so many in Hollywood really and truly do believe.
And there’s the problem. Because like Sean Penn, almost all of this industry is composed of people whose intellectual, reasoning and analytical skills are fifty miles wide and a quarter-inch deep. Hollywood’s Chattering Classes despise their Uncle Sam, but they are deeply, deeply in love with Auntie America.
But Hollywood’s Chattering Classes are thoroughly, completely and spectacularly wrong. And therein lies the source of a looming tragedy so great it would take a thousand movies to simply sketch it out… were it not for the fact that if Hollywood as it now exists continues to do what it is doing unopposed, there will be no more movies because there will be no more electricity.
II. The Reactor:
America is the greatest nation in the history of the world.
This sentence – verifiably true as we are about to see – fills me with a burning pride so great I cannot get through the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium without getting misty at the awe-inspiring scope and the terrible cost of it.
Consider this:
Militarily, the United States is not only unmatched on the world stage, but its relative strength is unmatched in history. And without question, this juggernaut is the most benign dominant military force the world has ever seen – and by a very large margin.
Consider modern history, which many consider the time since the end of World War II. At the end of 1945, the only military force of any real substance remaining in the world was that of the Soviet Union, and while they had large numbers of troops and tanks, they had no navy and no strategic air force to speak of. The United States possessed, intact, the most awe-inspiring, battle-hardened navy the world had ever seen. It possessed sky-darkening clouds of B-29 strategic bombers. And it possessed, alone, the atomic bomb and the will to use it.
Betty Davis at the Hollywood Canteen
The United States of America could have planted its flag anywhere it wanted and no one would have been able to do a thing about it.
And what did we do with this arsenal? We scrapped the ships, drove steel bars through the wings of the priceless bombers, and began the largest de-militarization in the history of the world.
And in all of the years since then, despite what Michael Moore may want you to believe from the comfort of his editing room, the United States has deployed in response to aggression – not to cause it. Berlin, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland – all of it Soviet — that is to say Communist – Leftist – aggression. Ask a 17 year old indoctrinated with Hollywood’s portrayal of America as a world-striding bully who started the War in Korea, or Vietnam, or Nicaragua or any of these places, and I will bet you a Xbox 360 Elite that they will not reply that it was in fact worldwide socialism, but rather America. Tell them that communists started Korea and Vietnam and pretty much everything else and they will likely ask “what is a communist?” Actually, come to think of it, they probably do not even care enough to ask.
And for those who feel that such a once-noble America is dead and gone, let’s talk about the last time we heard about “Imperialism” and “a war for oil.” In 1991, after destroying the army that Saddam Hussein sent into Kuwait to steal, rape and murder, the United States sat alone and unchallenged on top of the richest oil field on the planet. What did it do? It put out the fires and went home.
Unlike today’s screenwriters who credit themselves as intellectual and creative giants, some of us remain humble enough to not only read history, but to actually understand it on some fundamental level. And those of us who actually know people in the military, who research weapons and tactics, supply and strategy, can tell you that a war for oil consists of placing an armored cordon around the remote oil fields, providing overwhelming air cover for armed convoys direct to port facilities, and then shipment via US tankers escorted by naval assets until out of the region.
None of this is happening, of course. What has happened is that we have spent 4000 and more lives building schools and hospitals and protecting a people against fellow Muslims who show day in and day out that they will kill as many children as they need to in order to terrorize their own people into submission.
That story, apparently, holds no interest for today’s Hollywood.
Economically, the United States is – and remains – the engine of the world. Much has been made of the recent meltdown, but any impartial look at the rest of the world shows their economies took a proportionally greater hit than we did, and if history is any guide – and it’s the only guide we have – we will recover faster, too. In the last twenty years almost half of the world’s population – India and China – have been lifted from the darkness of stone-age, grinding poverty into almost the same sort of light taken for granted by those who live in Malibu and Pacific Palisades. This was not the result of massive government programs; on the contrary – those had and continue to keep entire populations in a state of mental slavery and dependence. No, this most remarkable advance in the quality of human life on earth was simply due to America channeling some of its stunning wealth into phone banks in India and factories in China.
Much is made on the left about how five percent of the population consumes twenty-five percent of the world’s resources. But that same five percent has produced almost fifty percent of the world’s wealth and prosperity in the years after World War II, and the decline in that percentage is simply a reflection of the economic growth and prosperity of our former enemies and allies, who can now afford a few decades of socialism because they do not have to pay for their own defense.
And yet is it businessmen, and “corporations,” that are endlessly cast as villains and murderers when all they have done is transformed the world from poverty to relative health and prosperity. You don’t have to take my word for this. Statistics on life expectancy, death by disease, and infant mortality do not lie. Free Trade and Free Enterprise – championed by the United States – has brought to billions some small and growing taste of the kind of life enjoyed by Hollywood liberals so blinded by mental cataracts that in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate the villain was remade from being Chinese Communists into The Manchurian Corporation. How unimaginative. How pathetic. How deep in denial.
Scientifically, technologically and medically the remarkable ownership of world-changing ideas produced by the United States is simply astonishing. That five percent of the world population could produce such staggering advances in knowledge, medicine, agriculture, instrumentation and basic research simply boggles any mind open enough to read a page.
Which narrows down the numbers of minds quite a bit.
Each year, scientists all around the world write research papers. These papers produce scientific citations. It’s fair to call these citations “units” of science, that is, a measure of how much ground-breaking science is being performed.
Listed by countries, China comes in sixth, preceeded by France, England, Germany and Japan, which produced, at number 2 on the list, 6,612,826 citations in a ten year period. During that time the United States produced 39,027,838 – more than six times as many as the runner-up.
All of those images of the deep structure of galaxies and nebulae are provided to the world at the expense of the American taxpayer and through the American genius that produced the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes. Every image of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune was sent to the world by American grad students at Cal Tech. The American university system is the envy of the world. Nowhere is there better science being done, and no where is there anything like the numbers of people receiving advanced scientific and engineering degrees.
But that is not all they are receiving. They are also receiving lethal doses of anti-Americanism and anti-Capitalism, main-lined directly and administered by morally blind charlatans like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky – men who repeatedly acknowledge the “relativity of truth” and who distort and select facts so frequently and shamelessly that I will paraphrase Mark Twain by saying that the omission of the works of Chomsky and Zinn would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it.
And finally, Culturally it is America that the world watches, that the world listens to, that the world emulates and copies to the degree that suicide bombers wear Lakers t-shirts and the most virulent anti-American Euro kids look and dress and act and talk like kids from Compton or Detroit.
There was a time when America broadcast its virtues to the world. Films like It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, even Star Wars and Spider-man, were films about common, decent people – Americans, obviously, for we all know that even Luke Skywalker was an Iowa farm boy – who find themselves in dangerous and evil places and whose fundamental decency corrected this wrong in the world and restored a sense of hope and optimism, a sense that we are masters of our own destiny. It is an idea so powerful that even French intellectuals, who seemed then and seem today to be incapable of a single positive or upbeat thought, could watch in wonder and contempt as legions of their countrymen flocked to see them.
Those days have gone. No longer does Hollywood broadcast America’s mythic virtues to the world. No, the flow is reversed now. Now the great creative driving force of Hollywood is to present to America the anti-American hatred of the intellectuals watching in impotent fury out in the rest of the world.
Of the six or seven war movies made during the last few years, all – save one – were spectacular failures. Many were the reasons given for this, but perhaps, someday, while sitting in a hammock in the Cayman Islands, even a studio executive might be just intellectually aware enough to catch a flash of what is obvious to a pharmacist in Des Moines: that maybe, just perhaps, these films failed not because of war weariness or denial or rank stupidity on the part of the American people, but rather – are you sitting down? – that most of the country, unlike Hollywood, has sons and daughters and fathers and brothers in the military and know for first-hand fact that they are not rapists or murderers, hicks, dullards, losers, or broken and victimized children but rather the bravest, the most capable, the most decent and honorable and just plain competent people we have.
And perhaps, just perhaps, it might enter that navel-gazing, self-centered, dim little brain to reflect that the one war movie that did out-of-the-park business was the one that showed the Marines as the good guys, winning on the battlefield, defending their people and their culture against long odds and full of the heroism and sacrifice that used to be so commonplace in this city… even if the Marines in question wore loincloths and funny helmets and advanced with spears and round shields.
If America simply led the world military to the degree that it does today, well, that would simply be historical. That it should have both economic and military might, and use them so much more often for good than for ill, would unique and awe-inspiring. That it could couple military and economic strength with such leadership in science and medicine is simply unheard of in the annals of history, and for it to be the military, economic, scientific and cultural beacon that is is not only unheard of, it simply almost defies imagining – would, in fact, defy imagining to anyone who had not grown up in it, as we have, and seen it with their own eyes.
I have said all of that simply to say this: I know my people and I study our history. The single thing that makes America so exceptional is the belief of its people in American exceptionalism. It is a simple cause and effect relationship, easy to understand from using your own common sense and the examples in your own life. The confident and the bold do bold and confident things. The shameful and self-loathing? Not so much. And Hollywood as it exists today is using all of its vast talent to turn us from the former into the latter.
America is not just a cauldron, but a reactor. From all over the earth, men and women have risked their lives to immerse themselves in this great experiment in freedom and individuality, and the results, by any measure, have produced more goodness, more security, more prosperity and more raw happiness than society or combination of societies in history.
Stars, like our sun, are reactors too: the tremendous, monumental energies and pressures they generate would blow them to pieces in a millisecond, but for one thing… the immense gravity that holds these fiery atoms together and strikes the balance of force and pressure that creates all the light and life in the universe.
The American reactor of individuality and freedom of expression would also fly apart too, but for one thing: the deep love of country that has bound it together and liberated the best of the human spirit. Destroy that love of country and the idea of America – for that is what she is, in the end… simply an idea of freedom and the pursuit of happiness – eliminate that binding love and the reactor will explode. And when it does, there will be no more light – no more medicine, no more art and poetry, no more iPhones and MRI scanners and jet travel, no more Fifth and First Amendment rights, no more security and peace… in fact, no more hot running water.
Cut those cords of love of and pride in country – as the elites have cut them in every civilization before us – and from your seat on the moon you will see the brightest light in history wink out. The rest of the world will soon follow.
You think I exaggerate? When has this not happened in the heartbeat of civilization? We once stood among a family of nations dedicated to fighting oppression in the form of fascism and communism. Now, we and one or two others, but for all intents and purposes we – America alone – stands against the tide of 7th Century repression and submission. Civilizations rise and fall. Barbarism is eternal. If you think the threat is not an existential one you have some reading to catch up on.
How long will the next darkness last? A few centuries? All of the readily available tools to build a new civilization – the ores, the coal and oil – all these are gone. Monks in stone cloisters cannot build photovoltaic cells. If this civilization falls, as have all others – from a lack of belief in itself – then civilization and medicine and science may very well never return.
Those are the stakes.
And how – pardon the profanity – how ironic is it that those libertines, those most determined to be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and at no cost to themselves… how ironic, how pathetic, how tragic, how infuriating and indeed, how insane is it that they – they alone – now control the mythology and the message of the workshop of our identity?
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631 Comments
Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
Nice to see you here, Bill.
Brilliant!
One more try….
Thanks for the great piece….
This is a truly stirring piece. Talk about getting a man fired up!
What a great article. Every liberal should be forced to read it. Would it open their eyes? Probably not. But it could save a few.
Wow, this is one of the best commentaries on this subject that I have ever read. I have a folder where I keep examples of the type of lunacy of which you write, entitled appropriately my “Blame America First” file. I suppose I can stop work on that now, for you’ve said everything I might ever have said on the subject and then some. Bravo, and thanks for sharing. There are many of us out here who still believe, and still struggle against the darkness. Keep up the fire.
A truly fantastic piece of work here!!!
Bill, you have nailed both the trends and the likely outcome (should things continues as they are).
For a long time I was confused by the Lefty’s advocacy of Socialism and cultural nihilism. Why didn’t they start a social movement, setting the example for others and just start the voluntary Socialists society? They could be the model, the standard bearers, the vanguard, the game changers they so desperately desire to be. They could give away most of what they own and still have comfortable middle-class lifestyles. They could claim the moral high ground and prove theirs’ was the better way. Or as they themselves would say, they could “live simply so others could simply live.”
Then I had an epiphany. No matter what they say, Socialism and the welfare of others is but a smokescreen for their true goals. For the ambitious the actual purpose of Socialism is the same as the Jacobin Club, tearing down and destruction to achieve power. For the Lefty herd and fellow travelers it’s more a mixture of career opportunism and moral preening. That’s why irrespective of actual results, both of these groups are so enamored of the likes of Castro and Chavez.
Unfortunately, the Left has a poor memory. Should they actually achieve their goals the movement will eat it’s own as it has in every Lefist revolution since Bastille Day.
Sadly, they will take a lot us with them.
Thank you.
Hear, hear!!! What a great rant. I’m going to e-mail it to my two kids, currently taking AP US History in a very liberal-dominated high school.
Very long, but necessary to read. Thanks for your insider’s insight.
Damn.
Now if that isn’t a call to arms*, I don’t know what is.
*in the figurative sense of course, nobody here calling for rifles and ANFO … sheesh, the fact that I even had to type that…
Bill, I’ve always enjoyed your insightful articles. I’m glad to see you here at Big Hollywood. Hope to see more of you.
Very enlightening article. Thank you for leading the way.
Bill Whittle has written a praisable commentary that is at once patriotically uplifting and culturally pragmatic. I read the piece feeling the pride of being an American, like so many others I know, that have indeed worked hard, served their country, raised their children, held to an inner moral compass, and have been rewarded with the American Dream.
I am truly baffled by the Hollywood antithesis toward America. I understand the counter culture, having been in college during the late 50’s and early 60’s. Heck, I was a Beatnik in San Francisco digging guys like Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Kafka, and Camus. Then the Baby Boomers arrived in the mid-60’s. Probably the most spoiled, self-absorbed generation in history. Suddenly it was uncool to be patriotic, to have a defined morality. Everything became relativistic; morality, truth, honesty, behavior.
This moral relativism is perpetuated in political, cultural, and social constructs on a daily basis, thrown in our faces by the MSM, Hollywood, and, sadly, by some of our own leaders.
I, like you, have great and enduring confidence in the American people to renew and restate those precious and powerful virtues that have made America the finest force for civilization the world has ever known.
Thank you for the fantastic article, Bill. Another data point to look at are the raw statistics of migration numbers. Just like the numbers of citations by US scientists far outnumber the next runner-up, the numbers of people who migrate to the US in comparison to ANY other country is also far ahead of the next runner-up. It’s a simple and powerful argument: people WANT to live in the US, people want the freedom of speech, the freedom of opportunity, and the lifestyle this country can offer them. However, many foreign governments see the flood of their people to American shores and our envious of our position. Instead of promoting American style opportunity and freedom in their own countries, which is difficult and will bring these leaders less control, they prefer to pay to install a regime which will pull us down to their level. Once again, great article. Thanks and keep fighting the good fight.
Bill Whittle is the single most underrated voice in the blogosphere. When I launched this site I had recurring dreams of reading pieces like this. And here it is, a reality. This is the message that needs to be sent to Hollywood. And it will only help the bottom-line. If only they would listen.
Amazing article. Every thought is on point and absolutely valid. Bravo, sir. Great to know there are people who can articulate this point of view so wonderfully.
For years, leaving my church in a mildy prosperous town. I could see the doorway across the street of an old high school built in the 1940’s or 1950’s. It had this great big ornate sculpted cement entrance. No longer used as a school but should be used as an example because sculpted in that concrete above the doorway so that every child would see it starting off the day it said “IMPOSSIBLE IS UNAMERICAN”….
Bravo, Mr. Whittle. Perfectly stated. Perfectly written.
Speaking Irony.
I periodically mention what was said in this article in regards to the reigning in of American might and ask, “what other great power in the history of the world, didn’t take over everyone and everything it could?” “Caring about civilian casualties?” Did the Roman Army care about casualties other than their own? Yet even Jesus praised a Roman Soldier, and did not tell him to quit his post, but told him to be content with his pay and not complain.
Only US had the ability to self-reflect and stop itself, even though it may have used it’s power sometimes in not the most ethical ways, it still did not destroy entire civilizations, even the ones that were melevolent.
We have a media which refuses to allow the US military to fight a fight it can win. Since Korea, the media has fought AGAINST the US in a propaganda war and each war it gets more intense. I was thinking about how in times of old the first thing a Military would do when it was going to fight another country was to take out it’s ability to communicate to it’s people – THE FIRST THING!!! Propaganda is King! History is written by the winners. So can the US win a war in which the media is actively working against it, the answer is clearly NO!!
The media has made it clear that no Conservative President will be allowed to wage a war that he or she believes is in the interests of this country and they will do whatever they need to in order to keep the public from rallying to their cause.
We now have a country which is trying to re-write history, not from the winners perspective, but from the losers perspective.
The saddest part of Iraq is NOT that GW Bush made some mistakes and that there were no WMD in Iraq.. The saddest part is that the loss of life in Iraq was increased 10 fold by OUR OWN MEDIA constantly reporting the war as lost and giving the enemy a reason to fight on. What we have is a media that is tailor made for the Terrorists to get their propaganda and terror out to the masses.
Also, in the left’s desire to discredit our current President and find a way back to power, the Democrats also sacrificed duty to country for political expediency and with the help of said media, they succeeded.
Also sad was how those on the left began, for a time, to almost make Saddam Hussein a better man than GW Bush, including 2 congressman who said SH was telling the truth and Bush was lying. The left will defend a brutal dictator before they will stand by their own country if it’s a Conservative in the White House.
I would end with this. The same study of civilizations has been done by Christian Historians and to add to your post it talks about each decline in civilization was also accompanied by rampant decline in morals by the populace, while the height of their power and prestige was during a time of Spirituality. It’s not a coincidence that all the things you mentioned have been accomplished by a society of which the majority is Chrisitian.
This was a mighty prod for me, and these words will be a gift to my two sons and a daughter-in-law, all of whom are drowning in their liberalism.
I guess this is how Chris Matthews felt. I got a “thrill going up my leg” while reading this extraordinarily moving piece of truth “from the moon”.
This guy is good. Must be an American….
i was glad when i discovered eject! eject! eject!, but gladder now that you´re talents are being noticed by the likes of nro and breitbart. not to mention pjtv. keep up the great work!
What a moving piece; thank you.
**Where is the “post to my facebook profile” button?
Hey Andrew Breitbart, if you’re listening, may I be the first to say…
ATTABOY! (and a hearty WWII foxhole buddy slap on the back) for this great foray and unabashed incursion into the liberal swamp of Hollywierd.
Hope the American ingenuity YOU have shown with this approach, will someday be credited as the OPENING VOLLEY of anti-communist truth that stopped the slide of our great country into the precipice.
But for now….ATTABOY!
WOW. Awe-inspiring. To use a movie advertisement: “MUST SEE!”
To mimic others, it’s just such a well-put-together piece of writing and hits on so many cylinders.
I don’t mean to single out “true Americans” but I have to believe the first sincere measure of one has to start with an appreciation of our military.
In any case, I’m speechless and thank-you for your time, effort, willingness and eloquence.
Batman Begins was the biggest movie of the year. NCIS, the television show, is a huge hit after six years on the air, and it is unashamedly conservative and pro-military. The biggest book of the year is Twilight, a pro-chastity teen book that gently reinforces the worth and value of girls. The biggest book of the decade is the Harry Potter series, a Christian tale whose hero fights against fascist evil.
The barbarians may be at the gates, but we’re fighting hard, Bill. Keep on writing, and we’ll keep on fighting.
BILL!!! WOW!!! So good to see you here!! Now Im REALLY stoked!
Are those Hollywood producers interested in making money?
At all?
Brilliant, Bill, as always. Thank you.
I’ll forward it to my Marine son is Afghanistan.
In agreement with Bill and other comments – Socialism/Communism is merely NEO-Feudalism and should be called such at every opportunity. It isnt about the “little person” – its about elitists regaining the strangle-hold the old feudal system used to have…and they are willing to fight freedom-fighters as well as each other get it, no matter what. Its all about them sitting in their palaces and waiting for the serfs to bring them what they want.
I am in awe of your writing. You sir have hit the proverbial nail on the head. I will be sending this many many people.
WOW!!!
SPECTACULAR article!!!
I just forwarded it to 20 people.
GREAT job!!!
Fabulous article. I feel like I am watching my country slip away, and I am helpless. I wonder what kind of country my children will live in. What can we do to unite and STOP the media & hollywood from destroying our country?
Awesome as usual, Bill.
A key thing to note also is that Hollywood’s audience, like most big organizations these days, is the world, not just the US.
That is why apparent US flops still make money when looked at globally… when much of the world eats up US self-hate pieces (ironically for the same reason they eat up the more positive aspects of our culture … if we make it,it must be good).
Big Hollywood is making a severe dent in my time with so many excellent articles like this.
Once again, I am in awe. These words are wholly inadequate, but: Thank you, Bill. And whatever you do, don’t stop writing.
Fine words, as usual from Bill Whittle, and having (again as usual) as their sole defect the fact that they won’t fit on a bumper sticker, and therefore won’t fit in a Leftist’s mind. Useful for keeping ourselves heartened, and possibly for approaching leaners.
But they, and this whole effort, will be for nothing if Mr. Breitbart doesn’t have something more in the back of his mind.
I see here writers, actors, directors, and at least one producer. Sometime in the future it’s going to be necessary for Breitbart & Co. to emulate another Andy, and say, “Boys and girls, let’s put on a show.” You and I have as a belief, and the basis of this site is, that the reason for the decay of Hollywood is a combination of ideology and pusillanimity. Movie-makers have preconceptions, and one of them is that if they don’t make movies according to their preconceptions no-one will respect, or hire, them. We think right-leaning films would make lots of money, and films that didn’t lean at all (which would be denounced by The Establishment as right-leaning) would do even better, and think that the Hollywood Powers That Be have fallen afoul of a mistake originally noted by Sam Goldwyn: they have sold their birthright for a pot of message.
But until that is demonstrated, no one is going to believe it. Yes, I know, 300 and Lord of the Rings. They prove nothing because they are partly “big-budget spectacular”, and thus can be treated as outliers. What’s needed is to have a studio (or a producer) regularly make money off light-leaning films. Nothing else will do. In particular, long essays, however inspired and true they may be, are of little or no moment.
Regards,
Ric
Brilliant article, Bill, my friend! Your ability to articulate the obvious (in a world where the obvious is so often obscured) is truly awe-inspiring. Bravo!
Congratulations, Andrew, for attracting the very best contemporary essayist in America. Those who have not read the awesome essays on Bill’s website are in for a real treat! My personal favorite is “Tribes.” Good to see you here, Bill. This blog is going places for sure now. ◄Dave►
Bill,
If there were any justice in the world, college commencement speeches would sound like yours.
[...] Jeff Spicoli Enlightened By Humanitarians Castro and Hugo [...]
Andrew, great move inviting Bill to post here.
Bill, as is often when you a, threat tracking and targeting was locked on tight and your particle cannon insight has pierced the core of the thing. Penetration, armor damage, impact, overload, all off the scale. I wish we could say the target was vaporized…but at least it’s very, very well illuminated. For a little while. Now what are we going to do to next?
Back in normal-speak…thank you. Truly. Your essay is moving and stirring – as others say, surely a call to both thought and action. And to truth. To speaking truths. No PC, no hiding behind the overbearing, soul-shattering layers of societal and political lies. To scream toward the heavens for he unbelievable success the left has had – their feeding of envy and cowardice and results of such horizon-spanning stagnation…oh, how I despise the civilizational stagnation along with all the more obvious threats to it. your worek can be a blow to the sternum, bill. Or the weaker part of the gut. I’m not sure. If I dwell too long I’m not sure if it results in vomit or simply weaping.
But that light you speak of winking out…there is still so much hope due to so many of us who contribute what we cn to keeping it burning, and who feel ocean-deep inspiration from those amoung us under whose beacons we pale in comparison, and those too who came before whose pyres refuse to go out without fighting in immortal valiance whatever the universe has to throw at us.
i’ve come on here and read two essays, today’s and yesterday’s. i also scrolled through the subsequent comments. i have just had my opinion of ultra-conservatives validated once again. you guys are so easily impressed. this is what qualifies as awe-inspiring writing to you? after reading 20 or so posts on the “one pissed off dude” tirade, i thought some of you were going to request a mapquest of that douche-bag’s house so you could go over there and blow him.
“waaaa waaaaa! i’m a right wing nut job who lives in hollywood and feels alienated!”
you want to know why hollywood doesn’t promote the conservative agenda? because nobody wants to hear it. face it, your ideology is on the decline. why? because minorities are slowly becoming the majority. that’s a big problem for right-wingers because minorities don’t trust republicans.
you guys have spent the last 50 years driving a wedge between black/white, christian/non-christian, gay/straight, and now it’s come bite you in the ass. you guys had better get used to liberal, left-wing hollywood. it’s the future of this country. and you guys are slowly becoming a thing of the past.
We’ve spent the last fifty years driving a wedge?
[...] has recruited him to contribute at the new Big Hollywood blog. His first piece there, “The Workshops Of Identity” takes Hollywood to task: One thing in common these patterns bear: the rise slow, the fall [...]
A work of stirring beauty, profound sorrow, and a rousing call to moral arms to boot! Just another day at the office for Bill Whittle.
Once again: Thank you, Sir!
I take it then, Mr Hank, that because you consider us unredeemed and irrelevant, that you shall not be returning, n’cest-pas?
This is one of the most poignant articles and spot on review of our present situation in the world compared with the past, put together masterfully. This should be read by every American. You have brought journalism to a new high, my friend. Bravo, maestro! Mark Christopher
“…you want to know why hollywood doesn’t promote the conservative agenda? because nobody wants to hear it.”
I think you mean, “see it”. No matter. Those stubborn facts…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_in_the_United_States_and_Canada#Highest-grossing_in_the_US_and_Canada.2C_adjusted_for_inflation
http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross
Reviewing the data, one would find it hard to argue the big money flicks collectively push any sort of a contemporary left-wing or “liberal” ideology.
I wonder what social-political slant Mel Gibson will consider for his next film if he sees it necessary to buy another island?
And don’t throw out something like “Evan Almighty”. A poorly crafted film about a savior politician acting as Noah to protect the masses against crumbling, ill-funded infrastructure and adorned with poop jokes to add to the mockery of religious belief is hardly something I would call staple of conservative thought.
Thanks for your great writing Bill. This reminds me of the great short novel by Asimov called Nightfall. The story, briefly, is that a planet with 5 suns is only in darkness on night in 10,000 years. When that happens, the “stars” come out and cause total planetary madness which results in total destruction of society. The story takes place in the last days before the “nightfall” when scientists are trying to prevent the inevitable collapse. We are so close to that collapse, and we don’t even see it.
Outstanding. More please.
nb to Mr. Hanky: The Sarah Palin video has almost 1400 comments, mostly from friends of yours spewing the most vile nonsense. Perhaps you might want to rejoin your herd over there and discuss the only non-private womb in the Left’s America.
A thoughtful, well-reasoned post, Mr. Whittle. And yes, too long to put on a bumper sticker, and blessedly too long for many a leftist liberal to absorb. The lack of knuckle-dragger comments proves as much!
Excellent work, Mr. Whittle!
No one has let commented on the images… but I think they send a very powerful message on their own. THIS is what Hollywood USED to be; this is what it used to be proud of. Where are we now?
As Bonnie commented above: your work is very much needed… but you’re not alone. There are others trying to send the same message, and many more who need to hear it.
I agree that the message won’t fit on a bumper-sticker, but thanks to commenter BlaineMono, we have one if we want it: “IMPOSSIBLE IS UNAMERICAN”. I love it!
Mr. Hank: please consider yourself ignored.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Truly inspiring. I am amazed at how eloquently you put to print what has been boiling in my mind for years!
This should be memorized by all children to qualify for high school graduation, thereby halving the capacious holes left in their brains by our modern education system. Bravo!
Andrew, I’m so excited about this site!
A stupendous and jaw-droppingly fine post from Whittle. There’s a shocker. Was so good, knew it’d draw at least one liberal ape who wanted to fling some pooh at it.
And whaddya know?
This, from Mr. Hankie:
“this is what qualifies as awe-inspiring writing to you?”
What, are you stoopit? Yes, this is what qualifies as awe-inspiring writing to us. One should think the raft of positive comments would indicate such. Gads, you lefties are very dim sorts, aren’t you?
And what, the single spaced, deranged hooting and grunting of semi-literate pixies like sean penn is awe inspiring to you?
It continues:
“you guys had better get used to liberal, left-wing hollywood. it’s the future of this country.”
Right, as evidenced by the gangbusters box office performance of all those banal and preachy anti-war tropes squeezed out by you nits.
The author of this post, who is leagues smarter than you and a gross of your doltish lefty pals from clown school, referenced this same point in his missive. Apparently the future of this country does not include reading for comprehension in your purview.
Beautiful piece. I had goosebumps. I am sick of the liberal Hollywood crowd being given a forum by the mainstream media. It’s sad to say that many of Americans blindly follow the lead of Hollywood. It’s time for the conservatives to be just as vocal. This website, and this piece are a fantastic start. Keep it up.
Insightful perspective and well presented. Agree 100 percent, however it is important to point out that dissent in America has been as much a defining force as its people’s belief in exceptionalism.
In Hollywood’s case, just as any other, the context of how such crucial dissent is presented matters. Hollywood’s context stinks.
[...] a quote from Bill Whittle’s new column at the new blog site BigHollywood. He is so right on target. So many aspects of our lives require [...]
Eric,
I agree wholeheartedly with you and other posters. The sentiments presented in the article are those I’ve tried to present to my more leftist friends over the years, but, unfortunately, it always seems to be clumsily at the end of long night drinking and arguing in the “Dem vs. Rep” vein. Bravo!, Mr. Whittle – you and your writing exemplify the ideas you so aptly put forth.
Bill, EJECT!EJECT!EJECT! was one of the first Blogs that I read.. I kept coming back to hope that you would post more when you took your hiatus. Not to sound snobbish, but this is what we all expected out of you. Congratulations and keep it up.
Andrew, you have a nose for talent.
Bill, unbelievably well-done! “Blinded by mental cataracts” indeed! How I experience that daily out here! Thanks for a fantastic essay and I will be sharing it!
Wow, well said and fantastic writing.
I would love to see celebs actually earn their money and then pay the taxes on it. They might not be so liberal.
[...] gives starboard-siders in The Industry a place to spout off, anonymously or otherwise. Bill Whittle chimes in with his usual clarity of vision as he describes the nuclear reactor of creativity and innovation [...]
Great reading and inspiration for that portion of the GWB crowd capable of comprehension beyond scripted phrases! But, do the loftly prose have substance? Who is the real Bill Whittle? What is his concept of “pride”: Biblical, political or …? What has he experienced/”served” beyond his own personal interests and goals – combat vet, peace-time vet, Peace Corp, foundation grants/ affiliations/participations, community/charitable activities …? Any cultural immersion(s) other than “American”? Perhaps just another enticing flavor-of-the-times, corporate-controlled MSM, Monsanto GMO-based bowl of literary gruel, compliments of the global financial elite? How much will the lofty prose and “pride” inspire/sustain the dumbed-down, distracted, divided, debt-ridden American majority of unemployed, hungry, sick sheople/serfs in the soup lines and FEMA camps to come? What will you be doing then, Bill?
Well – look who i stumbled across!
‘nother nice one, Bill!
– MuscleDaddy
Steven Buck,
“corporate-controlled… compliments of the global financial elite”?
(don’t look now, but you missed the obvious “Big Pharma” meme talking-point)
I invite you to start here:
http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000012.html
It’s the beginning and you can move to the next-and-next-and-next from there.
“Who” is Bill Whittle?
That’s the EASIEST question to find an answer for – if you just put in a little effort beyond throwing out knee-jerk whinings about some financial-industrial-complex.
He is my friend, and that’s something I don’t hand out easily.
Follow the url and READ – to learn the rest.
– MuscleDaddy
Thank you Bill, nicely done. I am a Viet Nam veteran and I still struggle with the beating we took, not there doing our duty, but at home from our peers who decried the war. I still hear them holding forth from time to time and I still have that visceral reaction. Having said that I hate war. It must always be our last option. Life is sacred every where and in every culture. However, it is a sad fact that good men and women must stand up to the bullies of the world who will rape and murder with license. I support our troops and I dread Socialism that controls welth and lives and removes incentive. “Men loved the dark because their deeds were evil.” “A lie is always a lie even if everybody believes it and the Truth is always the Truth even if nobody believes it.” Fulto Sheen of blessed memory.
MR.HANK @12:23 am
Somewhere in the great state of New Hampshire, Mr. E.E. Cummings is rolling round in his grave. Why not be a nice fella, show a bit of respect, and stay quiet in your little cave?
Bill Whittle-
Bravo!
The men in the pictures above, Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable were my heroes as a boy growing up, simply because they wore the uniform and willingly went in harm’s way. The same for Tyrone Power and Robert Montgomery.
Hollywood is a fever swamp of socialists, Marxists, communists and America-haters. Senator McCarthy had it right the first time and he was crucified for it. Dimwits like Sean Penn are proof of that. If Hollywood broke off and drifted out to sea where Uncle Sam’s Navy could use it for gunnery practice, I wouldnt care any less about it or its inhabitants than I do right now.
America uses over 35% of the world resources–not 25%.
Brilliant observations and a great piece of writing!
As always Bill, I have learned more from reading one of your articles than from all of my years sitting in a classroom. You are truly gifted and I hope you will continue leading all of the “reformed Liberals” and conservative patriots through the next 4 years. I really wish you would consider running for office; we need more people like you to help rebuild the mess that that is surely to be made soon.
[...] now Bill Whittle’s writing for Big [...]
I will take the XBox 360 Elite bet. I have no doubt I can find a 17 year old who will, without knowing me or having been coached, answer that question differently. Draw up a contract, I’m totally in. I accept the challenge, completely seriously, and am more than willing and able to pay up should I lose. We can set ground rules, do some kind of on-the-street deal with both persons present, whatever. Let’s do it. I will find a 17 year old who thinks opposite to what you believe they do.
Very impressive and profound. How sad that those who are the CAUSE of the problem cannot understand that it is their desires and agenda that are at fault. The ones who bring down civilization are always the ones who think they are smarter than history.
Thank you for articulating in this well thought out piece what all patriots can see. Unfortunately, your observations are all spot on.
I wonder how much Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon or any of the other great leftist Hollywood stars gets for 6-12 months work on a movie. And I wonder if they would really be willing to trade in their mansions and Manhattan condos for a 2 room flat with cold water and no heat and stand in line for basic necessities at the state-run store that hasn’t had toilet paper for three months. That the greatest propagandists for socialism in America are the richest in the land has to be greatest hypocrisy of all time.
Brilliant writing. I somehow stumbled upon this page and bookmarked it after reading the first 2 paragraphs. It is refreshing to see a deserving and underrepresented subject – pride in America – expressed so eloquently.
Thank you.
Yo, MuscleDaddy.
Okay, so much for Bill’s eloquent eulogy of his father’s military service to the “greatest country in/over the world”. As a fellow foreign war vet, I have nothing but respect. So, let’s get on with a brief review of your buddy Bill: literary accomplishment, check; video graphic accomplishment, check; aeronautical accomplishment, check; distinguished family military heritage, check; PERSONAL national/military/community “SERVICE” – still wondering and waiting???????? – along with the relevancy of your “obvious ‘Big Pharma’ meme talking-point” comment still sitting out there in left field.
Everybody on this blog knew my name, right from Jump Street. How many of your fellow back-slapping bloggers here know your real name? Oh, and how about YOUR “service” record? Am I addressing a fellow foreign war Vet whose uniform nametag read “MuscleDaddy”? At least we have one thing in common: I don’t have many friends either preferring, instead, to practice the Lao Tzu dictum of “keeping friends close, but enemies closer” – friends usually only impose/irritate but enemies destroy. Perhaps I’m wrong or mis-informed – won’t be the first, or last time – but why do I get the impression that many of the regulars on this blog are way too focused on bitching about the Hollywood’s and Libs, and bragging about the American “myth” (Bill’s own word), while the likes of draft-dodger Sick Cheney and crew are sacking our Constitution, building FEMA camps like there’s no tomorrow, filling the ranks with foreigners and felons having little hesitancy in killing resisting REAL American militia, forcing State and local law enforcement/security orgs to incorporate federal goons and, last but not least, cleaning out the Treasury before they bug? You don’t think I was absolutely devastated when forced to face the ugly TRUTH about all the blatant deceit, lying, hypocrisy, bullying, false-flag/syops, massive killing/destruction, dis-info/media manipulation and other myriad absolutely diabolical criminal activities of this United “Snakes” criminal enterprise?! WRONG! I’m crazy sick to have to admit what may very well be the only truism ever uttered (and probably accidentally) by the incomparably inept GWB with respect to what is probably the current state of – perhaps arguably – the most important document in the world, the Constitution, by stating that, “it’s just a damn piece of paper”. Watching one of the greatest bastions of individual liberty, ingenuity, enterprise and wealth self-destruct onto the same smoldering heap of other “greatest civilizations the world has ever seen” reminds me of how agonizing it was watching the life of my Thai wife painfully ebb away fighting pancreatic cancer. First, the end of a 25-year partnership and now the end of a what was once a wonderful country, unbelievably blessed an now just one big lie after another – it’s Constitution, liberty, prosperity; once admired by much of the world, now more discredited and hated than even feared. So, while many here may choose to continue on in the same warm and fuzzy glow of Bill’s literary American patriotic rhetoric while the country is being set up for the final gutting with several trillion dollars of the privately-owned Fed’s off-shore funds and script in foreign hands, I choose the “4G” scenario: Guns, Gold, Grain (storable food), Garden in community with persons of the same ilk. And when the looting, shooting and mass internments likely begin sometime within the coming 2 years, and the establishment/implementation of Benito Obama’s “million-man” “austerity compliance” and snitch youth brigades, I wish all you fellow liberty-lovers safe sanctuary, health and common community in pursuit of continued individual liberty. For those in need of an occasional escape from our grim reality with a little comedy and enlightening twists on American myths and the “Founding Fathers”, check out Robert Wuhl’s “Assume The Position” video.
In closing, regarding the current very dire plight of the American experience, both financially/economically and politically, I do not find Bill guilty of George Santayana’s dictum, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”, but cavalierly declaring the American paradigm not applicable to history, replete with encore performances of empire crashes, may very well again serve up another big, unwanted helping of very distasteful humble pie. And to those who still want to simply ignore or laugh, snicker and continue supporting either the same ole tired liberal or conservative line – bon appétit.
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” – Samuel Johnson
“They, who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Ben Franklin
Great article. All one has to do is watch some of the old Flicks on TCM, and then watch some of the garbage on HBO or the current-run at the local cinema.
There is no comparison.
“If” the world thinks poorly of America (any more so than ‘the Ugly American’ days), then it is from the vulgar, despicable, trash that dominates Hollywood products. Clean that up and we are all better off.
Mr. Whittle: you are, as ALL the other adoring comments observe, the greatest thinker the world has ever known! I’m going to put away all my silly books and periodicals and look exclusively to your incomparable insights for wisdom and truth. Because, as you well know, everyone on the Left is as shallow as the cretinous Hollywood actors and greedy producer/writer/whatevers you (rightly) castigate. But consider: looking for meaning and virtue in Hollywood is probably a lot like looking for, well, water on the moon. So why treat Hollywood’s little minds as worthy adversaries? It’s a company town whose main product is dreck and where the straw men are really such easy targets, don’t you think? Maybe you should be more aware of what’s coming out of Cambridge MA or, God forbid, the Bay Area. Last time I looked, San Francisco had far more of the innovative American genius you laud than just about any place on the planet, as measured by, say, Nobel Prizes, MacArthur awards, writers and researchers and thinkers. Also one of the most Progressive places in the U.S. What can this mean?
Please someone put this article in a pamphlet form so I can distribute it to every waiting room, coffee shop, library, and school library in my area.
There will be dark days ahead. What will it take to restore the rule of law under a (small ‘r’) republican form of government? I hate to play the mugwump after such an inspiring piece from Bill, but America has just surrendered to an oligarchy. Our new rulers are busy making plans to ensure they will retain their power permanently at our expense. The antidote to this poison is as horrific as the disease. Yet if the restoration does not occur soon, it will not happen at all. Prepare yourselves.
I have a theory. When someone gives you a compliment, the appropriate response is to be modest. When someone gives you fame therefore, people turn to self-hate. They identify with the rest of America enough to feel comfortable blaming everything on them alongside themself – and the only way to relieve their pain is to go against their self – that is, America.
[...] hatred of America Fantastic piece in Breitbart’s new effort ‘Big Hollywood’ by Bill Whittle here. It’s long, and the more you disagree, the more you need to read it all. [...]
Wow!
Class!!! Bravo !!!
American identity is being lost in out schools. Time for conservatives to start their own schools.
American identity is also being lost thanks to Hollywood. Time for the writers here, like Mr. Whittle, to join creative forces with the likes of Dennis Miller, Gary Sinise, Jon Voight, Andrew Breitbart, James Woods, Adam Sandler, etc., etc., and start their own Hollywood to replace the disgraceful old one. Time to squash it.
Inspirational writing, my friend!
[...] The Workshops Of Identity By Bill Whittle Step back with me for a minute. Back out of Hollywood, out of America, out of the Western Tradition. Sit in the middle of a darkened crater at the south pole of the Moon. Sit back, look down and back into time, and watch the rise and fall of Civilizations on the Big Blue Ball. [...]
A wonderful piece of work. Thank you Bill for the history lesson and the wake-up call. I teach poli-sci and this essay just became required reading for all my students.
Hi Steven Buck.
I disagree with Bill Whittle on some things, but I can assure you that he is no mere mouthpiece for a Republican agenda. His passion and his belief in America are sincere and honestly held. He is not blind or unmindful of wrongs committed in the course of American history – but its people, and the ideals it represents – however short it may fall in achieving them – obviously moves his soul and inspires him to a faith and hope in the basic goodness and decency of the average citizen that is forged in fire and proves all-sustaining. His rhetoric does not ring true with me in all ways, but he has much wisdom, and I have learned quite more than I would have originally imagined from the essays he has provided over the years.
I personally tend to view the Democrats and Republicans as flip sides of the Corporatist coin – parties principally concerned with corporate wealth and health, who have parlayed the _Culture Wars_ into a masterful system of permanent distraction and nitpicking; trivia to be endlessly debated and fought over whilst they take their turn at looting the vault and passing the buck. This is a gross generalization, of course, but one that I believe contains the core truth that, unless somehow checked and reversed, will be the principal cause of the fall of the fifty states.
Mr. Whittle and his fellow Ejectians – no matter how you may differ from their political views – are anything but apathetic; they are fierce defenders of an American ideal. Their belief and passion is something I admire in them, even if I sometimes despair at what I perceive to be a blindness to certain essential realities. However, as George Orwell put it:
“All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labor, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral color when it is committed by ‘our’ side … The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them”
There are propagandists on both sides of our two-party system. Mr. Whittle is most definitely _not_ one of them.
Cheers.
Mr. Whittle:
Thank you for a monumentally profound, thoughtful, and caustic piece. If the broad sweep of history tells us anything it’s that a nation’s preservation is by no means guaranteed. It is, indeed, a fragile and largely evanescent phenomenon, with culture on the cutting edge of its tectonic demise.
As you also note, history tells us that great ideas which build great societies typically decay from the inside, that the structure of their government and economy, don’t guarantee their perpetuation, regardless of how advanced they may seem. That some in our midst appear to be degrading the exceptionalism that saw us through the travails of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, etc., is as astounding as it is dispiriting.
I have a political blog which you et al might enjoy: http://www.clearcommentary
Best regards,
Phil Mella
ClearCommentary.com
The irony in these responses. As a conservative, I’m embarrassed by remarks below about “the lefty herd” and similar nonsense. Diversity in thought and passion comprise America’s cultural greatness. I have met many liberals in my time, and few can fairly be described as power-hungry sheep.
That different perceptions of life can coexist in such narrow geography is truly remarkable, and it was all that was left out of this article.
I still pray for the day that public discourse becomes as grounded.
Who is Bill Whittle?
You might as well ask, “Who is
John Galt?”
[...] Recovery – Robert Tracinski, TIABigger Government: U.S. Can Learn From Europe – Jeffrey Sachs, TimeThe Importance of American Identity – Bill Whittle, Big [...]
[...] Bean hearkened to a time when the film industry inspired people even in the bleakest of times. Bill Whittle showed off his effortless brilliant writing skills. (I’ll challenge anyone at the Huffington [...]
I’ve always found it funny that conservatives are more then willing to come at white liberals about refusing to acknowledge american superiority but they tend to mind their business when discussing other races. Even in this article, a big reminder of american exceptionalism would have been the election of Barack Obama. But that isn’t mentioned. Why? Because even the author knows that the second you open the pandora’s box of race, all notions of american exceptionalism vanish for most. And no one wants to hear some rich white hollywood conservative tell black people or hispanics or native americans they don’t realize how good they have it.
AWESOME!!! Im sending this to my liberal, surrender monkey friends.
thank you,
Paul Hargraves
Does all this mean that John McCain really would’ve been a better president? Just Wonderin…
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