Author Archive
Human Decency and Hollywood: The Voice of America
Posted by Chris Burgard in Featured Story, Politics on October 8th, 2009
I work in Hollywood and many in my industry consider my views to be pretty radical. I blame my father and the values that he instilled in me: Never hit a woman and protect your children.
Over the past few years, throughout this country I have heard the same thing from audiences over and over, “Why doesn’t Hollywood make the kind of movies that we want to see? Why don’t movies represent our values?”
This is an outstanding opportunity for lessons learned. To everyone outside of this community, I implore you to take a long and hard look at the people who are standing up for Roman Polanski. The stars. The studio heads. Many of these people are the powers that be who green-light projects. These are the people that we pitch to. These are the people who decide whether or not our films get distribution. These are the people who decide what product should be available to you and your children.
Hollywood is the voice of popular American culture. Control Hollywood and you can steer the direction of the country.
Roman Polanski is a talented director. He has many friends who do not want to see him go to prison. He has many friends that do not want the eye of judgment to be turned on them.
Let’s put the workplace, friendship, history and the passage of time away for just a moment and look at the facts:
At age 43, Roman Polanski drugged a 13 year old girl. He plied her with alcohol and then he sodomized her. She was 13. She was a child. He was an adult, a powerful Hollywood player. She was in grade school. After confessing his crime, he ran away.
She was 13!
If you cannot look at this and say that this is wrong, if you cannot recognize an act of rape and pedophilia when you see one, then I submit that you have not lost your moral compass, you never had one.
I believe the rule of law needs to apply to all Americans equally. I do not support vigilante activity. But if Mr. Polanski had done that to my daughter, and had I found him first, I do not know that I could have guaranteed his safety. I do not know a father among my friends and family that does not feel the same.
Yes, I am probably shooting my career in the foot, again, by writing this article, but if we say nothing, then we are complicit in the perversion.
Edmund Burke wrote, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
How about it Hollywood? Do we still have a few good men? Are there any other fathers out there? Has this town completely forgotten who we are?
We are Americans? We are supposed to stand for something. We are supposed to lead by example. How can we face the threat of Sharia and say that abusing women, killing gay people and marrying prepubescent girls is wrong, if we do not protect our own children.
Where are we headed as a nation, as a culture, if we do not make a stand?
The War on Propaganda
Posted by Chris Burgard in Entertainment, Obama, Politics on October 5th, 2009
“The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.” Joseph Goebbels
There is no shame in artists receiving monetary compensation to sell ideas, products or a presidential agenda. When everything is transparent and contracted above board, this is called advertising. When this process is whispered into being, strategized and set into motion from the shadows of government and from behind closed doors, it is propaganda.
From Sun Tzu to Psy Ops, propaganda has won wars, toppled cultures and changed civilizations. As a self-identified enlightened and educated culture, we thought ourselves beyond such base manipulation. We were wrong.
Where were the voices of dissent on the NEA conference call when so called “artists” were asked to further the President’s agenda?
I have danced ballets and I have done commercials; one side art, the other side business. What side were the NEA recipients on?
Art for propaganda was an essential tool of Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung. What the heck is it doing in the White House? This should outrage freethinkers, citizens and artists from every corner of America.
The National Endowment of the Arts strategy has been traced straight to Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s policy facilitator and Grande Dame of his inner circle. As disturbing and possibly illegal as this is, it becomes truly frightening when you connect the rest of the dots:
1) The Democrats repeated commitment to implement the Fairness Doctrine and destroy conservative talk radio.
2) S.733: The bill that would give the President control over the internet in the event of an “emergency.”
3) On Sept. 20, 2009, President Obama stated that he would look into bailouts for print newspapers because he is concerned that blogs will take over the world and be a threat to democracy.
Imagine that: the President of the United States is concerned free speech may be a threat to democracy. Is anybody paying attention?
Thomas Jefferson knew that a free press is essential to a free republic. Control the flow of information and you control the people. This hasn’t changed much since 1933.
Perhaps this is not as visually arresting as book burning, but the results are the same. Joseph Goebbels needed to ensure that the views of the Nazis were put forward in the most persuasive manner possible and make certain that no one in Germany could read or see anything that was damaging to the Nazi Party.
Is this that far removed from the news coverage of Honduras or the under-reporting of turnout for the 9/12 DC rally?
But I submit to you that these propaganda assaults will fail because they are lacking the one element critical to mission implementation: fear.
President Obama and his team are convinced that they are smarter than the average American citizen. They don’t just say Middle Americans “cling to their Bibles and guns out of fear,” they truly believe it. This administration has banked on using fear to push stimulus packages, carbon taxes, bailouts and health care reform. That is their Waterloo.
Fear is not at the core of the American psyche; independence and patriotism are. And when enough Americans step back, take a breath and realize the extent of this manipulation, they awaken with a determination and that is truly frightening to those that would attempt to govern from the shadows.
The fear is now on the other foot.
The Muslim Brotherhood has long taught their operatives in the USA to attack their opponents with charges of “hate speech” and “racism” whenever they were called out to defend their positions in public. The Democrats have called out their big guns: congressmen, congresswomen and even an ex-President to do the same. Why would anyone do this if they were not “afraid” of an informed public debate?
It will not work this time. The sleeper has awakened and she sees the man behind the curtain.
Apathy can no longer be counted on as a tool for those who would seek to control the populace and erode the Constitution.
In this “Constitution Revolution,” the American people are not coming after you with guns or explosives; they are armed with truth, a desire for transparency, a desire for enlightened and informed public discourse, a demand for civic responsibility and a call to politicians to honor their oaths to the US Constitution.