Notes from a Strange Continent, Part 2

With Hollywood only a short drive away, it’s difficult to give an impression of what life is like in one of America’s poster cities and not to draw parallels to the movies and TV shows that made it famous – and I shall not even try to evade what seems to be so irresistable about this part of the country or maybe even the whole country: the subtle threshold that divides preposterous dreams from expectations that actually have a chance of being met.

The sphere of Hollywood has an air of illusion surrounding it which is symptomatic for a specific way of life. Although its creative society writes unpreceded stories of success, the figures these stories are about – writers, actors, and so on – are not as steadfast as their image wants to make us believe. As local therapists would probably be willing to confirm, they move back and forth rapidly between moments of excitement (brought about by personal and professional achievements) and depression (when these successes can’t be replicated). Such a state inevitably leads to manic personalities, with critical self-reflection and steady improvement on one side and the proud display of achievements on the other. Little room is left for austere orientation among peers, which, since Plato, has been a hallmark of a good politeia, i.e. the reconciliation of ones own life with the lives of others. (Striking writers come to mind.)

“He has a smile worth a million dollars” is probably not a very uncommon line to be heard in Los Angeles. And indeed there seems to be something about that smile which might be worth pondering. It is what people yearn for and what they would like to see in others as well – the distinctive smile of someone who manages to stick out of the crowd, the selling smile of a selfmade man. The incentive is clear and probably does not need to be mentioned since it is so intimately associated with the American Dream: compete and promote happiness. Everyone who takes part in a competition wears a smile along with it – whether he has a reason to do so or not. Those who do not smile apologize. Or maybe they just do not want to sell anything.

Wherever a question of greater concern is put on the table or business is done everyone involved is aware of the show aspect of their performance. The show aspect has a huge psychological impact not only on employees and citizens but, as it were per definition, on everyone watching. Thus the mode of representation is made just as important as the message delivered, and political life is pushed closer to Hollywood. Though this is nothing new, there is a strong tendency to exploit these tools of representation when the popularity of some does not merely brush up but detaches certain aspects of the political life and creates for it a new arena of its own. Then it is jeopardizing the credibility of people’s public opinion and what can be legitimately drawn from it. What makes this tendency so worrisome is that it enables many spokesmen who are floating with the tide to take a stand on issues that lie beyond their field of competence, and on which they should not be trusted. This way the subject matter blurs and a sincere discussion becomes a combat for attention. At the end of this spectrum we find George Clooney, acting as U.N. messenger of peace in an acclaimed and well advertised mission to “Save Darfur”. Through his appointment, ad hoc aspects of public opinion may interfere with actual political developments. Some still feel uneasy about an directive that keeps Clooney from articulating his worries on behalf of other U.N. officials. The deep seated irritation from which this uneasiness flows makes Clooney’s appointment as questionable as it would be if Carla Bruni were nominated to declare the next amendments of France’s foreign policy.

Last week the endorsements of many canditates running for the presidential elections this year have been made public. Among others the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Mr. Universe and known to us through numerous action movies, supported John McCain, the current senator of Arizona as another Republican canditate drew out of competition. He gave his speech in a solar roof factory in downtown Los Angeles and after he had paid his compliments to McCain the latter ventured to return the favor and called Schwarzenegger “a role model and guide to millions of Americans”.

When I first watched the movie Gladiator my thoughts on the ending were mixed. A slave puts his life on the line during cruel fights, staged in the Colosseum in Rome, because he wants to prevent corrupt senators from taking over the Roman Empire. To save the democratic ideas on which it was built, he decides to fight fire with fire and exploits the lust for sensation of the masses, the same thing the Emperor appealed to in the first place with the invention of the games. At the end of each game the Emperor has to pardon the slave if his distraction from the actual ongoings is to succeed in the long run. When the gladiator finally gains the upper hand and has overthrown the Emperor, the masses celebrate him as a hero, not having the faintest idea of what consequences that change would have. Their interest is strictly limited to the confines of the arena and this is what is turning the wheels of the entire campaign. Does giving the power back to the people on this premise really foster the political ideals of freedom and equality? If public interest in political issues increases in proportion with the number of celebrities involved, i.e. the entertainment factor, one might question whether a democracy deserves that kind of attention or whether it would perhaps be better off without it.

Even if the answer to this is to the positive, Hollywood cannot be blamed for watering down political programs because, as everyone knows, in Hollywood authenticity is everything - or rather, the appearance of authenticity is everything. A film that the audience can believe, even if it’s unbelievable. Nobody likes euphemistic promises or flawless characters any more than pretentious story-lines. And yet one can make a real fortune with it. Somebody counts as a hero only in so far as he embodies certain character traits that help him to forge his destiny, and no doubt loyalty and gratitude are among the materials role models are made of. Technically, however, societies produce their heroes according to their own standards – while the media merely reflects them.

A few days ago a friend of mine told me that he graduated from the community college where Schwarzenegger once used to take English classes, long before he began to pursue his career as a politician. Later, I was told Schwarzenegger authorized several cut-backs on the financial support for the college by reallocating government funds.