Entertaining America – The Staggering Cost in Dollars and Lives
By Michael Bresciani (05/25/06)
It would seem that the citizens of the richest country in the world are
bored to tears. To offset these doldrums Americans give up cash, health
and security with ease. Why are we so driven to be entertained at any
cost?
Movies are now produced at costs that rival the gross national product of
some small nations. Media including TV, music, internet, games, and casual
cell phone use cost as much as it would to feed nearly every person in
Africa. But there is another cost that cannot be calculated in dollars.
It seems like a competition between film producers that has no top end.
The Da Vinci code cost a whopping $125,000,000 while Harry Potter cost
$150,000,000. The Chronicles of Narnia comes in at 180,000,000 but falls
short of the heaping price tag for King Kong which was $207,000,000. This
is big money but after all it is only money.
All media has a by product that costs far more than money, they all pedal
influence. That product costs more than the unsuspecting American may ever
know and in many instances is more than they want to know. It is hard to
believe that the debate about how media influences our young still rages.
Hollywood remains aloof while it awaits the final definitive scientific
study that proves that our children are worse off for the influence of
media. Their fear is that a final answer would at last make them culpable.
If they really cared perhaps they’d be willing to give up the cost of the
next big movie to do a study of their own, say about $200,000,000. Not
likely you say? You would be right about that.
It takes no rocket science to look at Hollywood’s record. It is hard to
deny the effect even if you can vociferously defend the cause. The effect
is the raping of the minds of our youth and people with a low capacity to
discern what is moral, decent, safe, and in some cases healthy. While
Hollywood still insists that not all the facts are in on this subject lets
peruse what is known about it.
Children see between eight and ten thousand murders on TV and films before
they graduate from elementary school. Add to that upwards of one hundred
thousand acts of violence and aggression. These figures are doubled by the
time they are eighteen. Actors and movie makers claim they can’t make the
connection between those pictures and the behavior of our children even
while countless studies and reports have concluded in no uncertain terms
that they do adversely affect our children.
Do the sponsors ascribe to the movie producers view of how much their
movies, TV programs and games influence youth or the weak minded? Not for
a second. If they did they would not foot the average $10,000 dollar a
minute cost of producing a commercial. They would not pay upwards of
$500,000 for a thirty second spot on the next TV broadcast of the Super
Bowl. As Hollywood waits for science to prove whether their wrecking young
minds the sponsors are using the humble science of mathematics to
influence the buying habits of millions of people throughout the world.
Put another way, can a thirty second spot influence millions of consumers
while one hour and a half of murder, pummeling, dismemberment and
slaughter have no effect on a young persons mind and spirit? I think we
all need to do the math here!
Studies don’t need to prove what has run parallel in equal and direct
proportion to the pro-active influence Hollywood has had on our children
and our children’s collective behavior. Hollywood pushes sex and close
behind that rape, molestation and pornography run rampant. Switch to
violence and kids start killing each other at an alarming rate. Witness
Columbine and similar incidents. All the best minds in education and
science are debating what if any the negative influences of a few sharply
defined and explicit images have on our children. As if it was just not
possible to find a real and tangible connection. An obscure Chinese man
only one generation behind us was not so naĂŻve. Mao Tse-tung mustered the
youth of the most populated country in the world in a revolutionary rage
that brought to dust centuries of previous dynasties and culture. He did
this with a little book full of comic figures. A far cry from TV and
films but this little doctrinal comic book nevertheless raised the
youthful ire of an entire continent to act in unison against everything
the Chinese once held dear. Why didn’t someone tell Chairman Mao that
youth wouldn’t be influenced by his little picture book? Maybe someone
from Hollywood should have volunteered to tell him that he should wait
until the definitive study was in from the halls of science. They could
have saved an entire nation from the ensuing mayhem. Another not likely
goes here.
Not just hiding behind their feigned ignorance of the facts, Hollywood
often resorts to the old “It’s just entertainment” excuse to wrangle out
of any responsibility. I doubt that “I didn’t know the gun was loaded”
will make a very good defense when all the dust has settled. I received an
e-mail recently from someone who took exception to an article I wrote on
Dan Brown’s movie The Da Vinci Code. He said “Surely you must be joking
when you ask how so many people can “believe” what’s in the Da Vinci code.
Putting aside the fact that I have seen no numbers on how many people
actually do believe what’s in Dan Brown’s entertaining bit of historical
fiction, I find what he has written no more or less believable than
another bit of historical fiction has been translated and retranslated by
countless authors over the centuries”
Twenty four major translations later the book I believe he was referring
to still has only one main message. Last time I looked it was the same as
it was in the first century, put simply “For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life” John 3:16 Hollywood’s message should be
this immovable, this hopeful, and this comforting. On last check I heard
only death, sex, and mayhem coming from the entertainment bunch.
Whether someone believes in the bible or not it doesn’t alter the fact
that the best Hollywood has ever done cannot make up for the wholesale
damage it does to the collective psyche of a nation. But let’s get more
specific. If even one life is adversely affected in the flimsy name of
entertainment isn’t that one too many? Or have we become so comfortable
with statistics that we can allow media to ruin the lives of just a few
people, because after all it’s just a few. Is it OK to accept the
percentages or are all people equally important in this land where Abraham
Lincoln dared to think that all men are indeed created equal.
Media may indulge itself by touting the low percentage of people who
actually did their worst because of the media’s influence, but is that
acceptable. The media influenced Charles Manson through a Beatles song to
engage in one of America’s goriest murders. John Hinckley influenced by a
Jodie Foster movie tried to murder one of our most beloved presidents Mr.
Ronald Reagan. In 1994 Oliver Stone released his movie “Natural Born
Killers” after which a young couple from Oklahoma deeply inspired by that
film went on a killing rampage. One person was killed and another was left
paralyzed before they were stopped. This extreme behavior was undoubtedly
caused by the media but it is tucked away in the Hollywood conscience by
the soothing idea that it’s just a few extremist, just a very few people
out of a nation of three hundred million souls. Let’s examine this kind of
thinking.
In Luke 15:7 Jesus said “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in
heaven over one sinner that repenteth…” Conversely can anyone argue that
if one sinner’s repentance brings joy, then one sinner’s final demise
would bring sorrow? Would we try to placate God’s sorrow over the loss of
one of the creatures he made in his image and offered his Sons life to
redeem by saying it was just one or perhaps a few out of the whole bunch.
If a woman had six children she loved dearly and you destroyed just one
could she be assuaged or comforted by the fact that after all it is only
one sixth of her family.
No, a whole nation is not likely to go awash because of the Da Vinci code
movie. The God of this world will get whatever mileage he can squeeze out
of it. Someone who is teetering between decision and indecision about
Jesus Christ will be made to doubt. Some souls somewhere will start down a
path to judgment because of this film. How many may do this is not
certain. What is certain is that if only one is lost it is far too many.
To lead even one of God’s creatures to perdition has a price tag no one in
media could ever imagine. The online Wikipedia encyclopedia has a list of
over one hundred of Hollywood’s most expensive movies. Those top one
hundred are in the list only because they spent $100,000,000 or more.
Millions of people along with the media crowd have chosen to hide behind
the old adage that “the Bible is open to too many interpretations.” I will
offer yet one more interpretation for them to doubt. Luke 15:7 is clearly
saying that in the end the price of all one hundred of the most expensive
films cannot cover the loss of even one lost soul.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Michael Bresciani
