Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review Dec. 24, 2001 / 9 Teves, 5762

Diana West

Diana West
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

Taliban Idyll

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- A WHILE back, when the kids were toddlers, I had a conversation with another writer and his wife, then expecting their first child. Upon discovering my deep, dark secret -- that my husband and I denied the lifeblood of Barney, "Sesame Street" and "Rugrats" to our wee ones and had no intention of hooking them up to the IV of popular culture any time soon -- they were shocked. Upon learning we privately hoped our children might develop imaginations unaided by googly dinosaurs, hyperactive alphabet letters or sassy cartoon characters, they began to see this for the truly countercultural act it was. "Now, that's subversive," he said (I think) admiringly.

I liked the notion, never having thought of it quite that way. Such "deprivations" had simply struck us as an obvious course of child rearing. Why institutionalize something we didn't particularly like for tots who hadn't even begun asking (or screaming) for it?

My friend and I talked over the more fanciful extensions of this singular world view, even imagining a colony for people who shared a desire to escape the crushing ubiquity of pop culture, from Barney to Brittany, and seek their own way -- as stimulating or mundane as that might be. In this land, MTV wouldn't set behavioral norms; girls would be free from the tyranny of designer labels; boys could play without Pokemon (or Nintendo; or fill-in-the-fad); and citizens wouldn't be required to prove their cultural fealty by rending all their garments for the late George Harrison.

Colony citizenship would begin with the act of pulling the cable (or junking the dish) and an effort to abstain, with exceptions, from mass entertainments created after, say, 1960. This self-selecting group would come together regardless of race, color and creed; indeed, I have found that a vague yearning for something like this exists across political lines.

Take Disney. I find Disney animation, particularly since the "Little Mermaid," unappealing on an aesthetic level. I don't like the garish palette or the airbrushed look of the characters. (Beyond aesthetics, I once returned some slippers because the plastic Little Mermaids on them had plastic little cleavages--which seemed all wrong for a youngster's real feet.) But left-leaning friends fault Disney for its portrayal (or nonportrayal) of minorities and women. They don't even like Snow White. But there is common ground -- as long as you don't dig too deep. Barbie is another image that iconoclasts on the left and right can disavow together -- libs for its objectification of women, and cons for its sexualization of children. The same may be said for the latest in soft-pornish pop stars.

The culture-colony idea went no further than that conversation, forgotten until recently. One night this fall, CNN was broadcasting the docu-shocker "Inside the Taliban." The bestial stadium executions; the despair of the ghostly women; the misery of brutalized children: These horrific images were unforgettable. So was the truly weird sight of utility poles decked with snarled wreaths of unraveled cassette and videotapes. In order to achieve Islamist perfection, the narrator said, the Taliban banned entertainment --music, movies, books and more -- on pain of something awful. The tangles of tape were reminders that rock 'n' roll was out. Western-style cine-flesh and -violence were anathema. My husband and I exchanged glances: Could we be looking at our retro-topia? A Taliban idyll was not exactly what we'd had in mind.

Experts point to Islam's dysfunctional relationship with "modernity" -- as vividly illustrated by those cassette-tape crucifications. This, of course, is the kind of thing that gives dysfunctional relationships with modernity a bad name. It's one thing not to let your daughter out of the house wearing Christine Aguillera's latest threads (emphasis on threads); it's quite another not to let her out of the house. The fact is, this form of Islam rejects more than contemporary culture; it also rejects both the past and future of anything alien, obliterating the offending symbols -- quite literally as in the case of the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan. That means that not only is 21st-century-Marilyn Manson verboten, so is sixth-century Buddhism, along with Renaissance art, the Bill of Rights, Chanel suits and Fred Astaire. Such a monolith nullifies all individuality -- in taste and expression, not to mention politics and religion.

By contrast, retro-topia, while rejecting what could be described as modernity, seeks a place apart from a different sort of monolith -- the all-absorbing entertainment world that squelches individualism and originality. The idea is probably rooted in an appreciation of the cultural past (another contrast with history-eradicating Islamic conquest) and the realization that our own pop culture has marginalized, if not completely obliterated, that past. Of course, given that great void, it's little wonder retro-topia is an idea whose time has gone.

JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

Up


12/19/01: Right is right
12/17/01: Hillary strikes out
12/13/01: Lost files, lost presidency
12/10/01: Revolutionaries never grow up
12/05/01: Immigration reform talk is not just for 'haters' anymore
12/03/01: A new symbol of justice
11/30/01: Beyond morality
11/26/01: Can't keep a good man down
11/20/01: Tough talk at the United Nations
11/19/01: Hollywood's other battle
11/14/01: What's the matter with Sara Jane?
11/09/01: A beef with bin Laden's Beef Noodles
11/07/01: Facing up to the FBI's past mistakes
11/02/01: A school that teaches patriots to shutup
10/30/01: The gap between Islam and peace
10/26/01: The ties that bind (and gag)
10/24/01: This war is more than Afghanistan
10/22/01: The fatuous fatwa
10/19/01: Left out
10/16/01: Whose definition of terrorism?
10/11/01: Post-stress disorder
10/08/01: How the West has won
10/01/01: Good, bad or ... diplomacy
09/28/01: Drawing a line in stone
09/21/01: Prejudice or prudence?
09/14/01: When our dead will finally rest in hallowed ground
09/07/01: We want our #$%^&*() audience back!
08/24/01: The transformation from Green Mountain State to Green Activist State is all but complete
08/17/01: Enlightenment at Yale
08/10/01: From oppressors to victims, a metamorphosis
08/03/01: Opening the dormitory door: College romance in the New Century
08/01/01: How-To Hackdom: The dubious art of writing books about writing books
07/20/01: Hemming about Hemmings
07/13/01: Justice has not been served in the Loiuma police brutality case
06/22/01: When PC parades are too 'mainstream'
06/22/01: When "viewpoint discrimination" in our schools was not nearly so gnarly a notion
06/15/01: Lieberman flaunts mantle of perpetual aggrievement
06/07/01: Is graciousness the culprit?
06/01/01: The bright side of the Jeffords defection
05/29/01: Campus liberals should be more careful
05/18/01: 'Honest Bill' Clinton and other Ratheresian Logic
05/11/01: Dodging balls, Bugs, and 'brilliance'
05/04/01: Foot in mouth disease and little lost Tories
04/20/01:The last classic Clinton cover-up
04/20/01: D-Day, Schmee-Day
04/06/01: For heaven's sake, a little decency!
03/30/01: The sweet sound of slamming doors and clucking feminists
03/23/01: America's magazines and the 'ick-factor'
03/09/01: Felony neglect
03/02/01: Who's sorry now?
02/23/01: 'Ecumenical niceness' and other latter-day American gifts to the world
02/16/01: Elton and Eminem: Royal dirge-icist meets violent fantasist
02/12/01: If only ...

© 2001, Diana West