Friday, June 26, 2015

Entertainment Now Is Moral Authority

Film and [other] visual entertainment are a pervasively important part of our culture, an extremely significant influence on the way our society operates.  People in the film industry don't want to accept the responsibility that they had a hand in the way the world is loused up.  But, for better or worse, the influence of the church, which used to be all-powerful, has been usurped by film.  Films and television tell us the way we conduct our lives, what is right and wrong.  When Burt Reynolds is drunk on beer in Hooper and racing cops in his rocket car, that reinforces the recklessness of the kids who've been drawn to the movie in the first place and are probably sitting in the theater drinking beer.

George Lucas, cited by Ron Rhodes, The Culting of America, p.125

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