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Sean Hinchey and Eric Tozzi, the writer and director of DBD respectively, had been friends for years before Hinchey came to Tozzi with the idea of a fictional blog about a unsuspecting individual dealing with the aftermath of a disaster.  Hinchey says that he had “always had a strange fascination with real life disasters” as they’ve always contained stories “about humans overcoming incredible odds to save themselves or help others.”  The team decided that it would be fascinating to explore the emotional toll that a dirty bomb detonation causes, thus raising the stakes even higher.  As Tozzi explained, “a dirty bomb is meant to cause mostly psychological harm on a large population…the initial blast doesn’t cause massive damage, but the spread of radiation…is the real worry.”  Couple that pandemonium with limited access to resources like food and water, and suddenly there is widespread panic and fear.  Out of this inspiration, The Dirty Bomb Diaries was born.

While the idea of a dirty bomb attack was the motivation for the show, the struggle of a young woman in a world she never dreamed of became the heart of the story.  Before writing the script, Hinchey had watched the events of Hurricane Katrina unfold and was taken aback by the numerous failures of the government to come to the aid of the people of New Orleans, making him realized that “you should never, ever expect anyone else to help you out of a tight situation, especially the government.”  While the main character is caught unprepared, as Hinchey put it, rather than “wallow in her misery, she [attempts] to get what she needs in order to live.”  As Tozzi adds, “whether the local or federal government comes through with help or not, she decide[s] her own fate.”

As a conservative, the emphasis of personal responsibility throughout the show struck a chord with me.  The protagonist evolves from a helpless victim of an unexpected terror attack into a fighter who does what is necessary to survive the turmoil and make her way to safety, making life and death decisions at every turn.

As an artist, however, I was even more impressed with the story of how Hinchey and Tozzi took their idea and made it into a success.  Frustrated with waiting on Hollywood to finally discover their talents, the duo decided to take their careers into their own hands, and shot the show for a total of $600; literally in their own back yard.  With no marketing experience, they then promoted their show through online communities dedicated to similar type shows such as Jericho, slowly building their audience over time.  Since posting their show on online video outlets, such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Strike.tv, Veoh and Revver their series has garnered almost 2 million views, and made the team a respected force in the online world.

The success of the first season will allow the pair to take the show to another level in season 2, which the pair plan to shoot in HD.  Hinchey and Tozzi will add more complexities to the show, as they introduce their audience to new characters, new plot-lines, and new locations as they examine the attack further.

New media is still the wild west of Hollywood, providing conservatives with an incredible opportunity to take control of our own fate.  The Internet, coupled with cheaper technology, gives us a chance to stop relying on the old Hollywood system of distribution and allows us to create our own material and take it directly to our audience without ever stepping foot in a studio office.  For instance, it has been asked many times on this site why Hollywood won’t produce content that celebrates the heroics of our men and women in uniform.  Perhaps, instead, we should ask ourselves the same question Hinchey and Tozzi asked themselves: why wait on Hollywood?

I was at the Houston airport the other day and I couldn’t find my baggage carousel. I asked the employee there where it was:

“What does it say on the screen?” he asked grumpily.

“Well, it says Carousel 2 but…”

“Then that’s what it is. You should be old enough to know that,” he said as he went off mumbling about how they weren’t paying him enough. 

Anyway, it turned out that Carousel 2 wasn’t working and I had to pick up my luggage at Carousel 3, but I digress.  I had two more run-ins with airport employees, all of whom were putting out the same vibe that the crumminess of their jobs was somehow my fault.  In this country, people are of such an entitlement mentality that they want to blame everybody they comes across, requiring them to legitimately do their job and serve a purpose. I hate to say this but…

More often than not, people who are poor…. are right where they should be.

Nobody likes being broke. As somebody who’s had to live out of a 1982 Datsun, trust me, I know. I also understand that the first step to improve your situation is to fix the problem that landed you there in the first place.

The mistake that all “long-term poor people” make is putting others under a microscope in an attempt to set blame. That right there is a true loser’s mentality (or “poppycock” if you will).

When a great fighter loses a fight, he analyzes his loss extensively to look for possible fixes. He’ll watch tape, review the footwork and counter-punches, but most importantly, he’ll take a good, long look inside of himself. He’ll figure out which possible repairs are within his control and take charge of it. That’s what separates the champions from the “bums,” as Burgess Meredith so eloquently put it.

The same applies to life. If you’re unhappy with your circumstances, then change them. Don’t blame the government or your boss or the guy down the street who’s better looking than you (exceptions include Hugh Jackman and George Clooney).  Just take some Pepto-Bismol and be a man (or woman, for all of you bullish feminists).

Until then, how about shutting your mouth and doing the job you’re paid to do?  We don’t need any more Sean Penn’s running around.

Doing your job and doing it well may result in long-term success. What a concept!

Alexis de Tocqueville

In recognizing the importance of associations – that is individuals coming together to celebrate and/or address issues in their communities — De Tocqueville gave voice to the real meaning of personal responsibility.

One often hears the term “personal responsibility” or “personal accountability” used in connection with people taking ownership of the consequences of some (usually bad) behavior. Indeed on the political right, the term is also understood to mean taking care of one’s own business or lifting oneself up with their own bootstraps. There is truth in both definitions. However, as popularly read, both characterizations shade the idea with a negative light when in fact the idea is a positive force that, as de Tocqueville indicates, is just as much about taking care of each other as it is about taking care of ourselves.

It is, as the term suggests a question of ownership, but not only ownership of the consequences of our individual decisions and of the thinking that motivates those choices; it is also about ownership of the duties and privileges that come with living in a “free” democratic society. Who owns our bodies and who owns our communities? The quick answer is that “we” do. Every one of us is as accountable to each other for the health of our communities as we are responsible for the conduct of our personal lives. That accountability manifests itself in associations formed by citizens in order to address the concerns of the community. Happily such associations are not dead…yet. We see them all the time: neighborhood watch groups; church ministries that serve the poor; parents groups that raise money for schools to list but a few examples.

Without question, personal responsibility is also manifest in the pursuit of what the Greeks called “arête” or excellence. It is the striving for excellence in our daily lives — excellence in our work and in our relationships both with our fellow man and with the larger society. The pursuit of that excellence is best accomplished by practicing virtue. So in a larger sense, the idea of personal responsibility is acceptance of the ageless belief in a nexus between virtue and happiness: the better people we are the happier we will be. But it is also recognition that our health and well being are tied to that of our neighbor.

America’s founders of course claimed that not only was there a connection between virtue and happiness, but there also existed one between virtue and freedom.

The most important of the revolutionary ideas upon which our nation was founded is that all men-regardless of race or culture-arrive on earth with inalienable and equal rights to life, liberty and private property. The next most important is the idea that only righteous men can govern themselves. James Madison said that we staked the whole of our republic and all of its institutions on the capacity for men to govern themselves according to the ten commandments of God. Madison, like de Tocqueville, recognized the importance of men’s behavior – their pursuit of arête – in maintaining a free nation. Madison, like de Tocqueville recognized that if Americans couldn’t live virtuous lives then our republic would fail. Americans would not be free. And they would not be bound into slavery by an external enemy, but instead would willingly hand over their freedom to a government that promised wealth, health and equality (as opposed to liberty). Rather than bond together under the righteous banner of loving thy neighbor, Americans would allow their freedom to be crushed under the weight of a constant stream of laws, rules and entitlements designed to deliver on a promise that personal responsibility was designed to keep.

De Tocqueville recognized the enticement of the bargain, but he also understood that in time the resulting subjection would lead men “to surrender the exercise of their own will;” It would break their spirits and sap their character. He grasped the essential truth that personal responsibility is actually the guarantor of our liberty.