Decline and Fall of PG-13 Civilisation

Sometimes I worry that the natural process of becoming conservative and right-wing with age went too far in my case.

Then I read piece like this and I realise that there aren’t any reasons for such worries. At least not yet. I’m not going to be on the same wavelength with those people, at least when Hollywood movies are the issue.

Somehow, I find hard to accept the whole idea of contemporary Hollywood promoting gratuitous sex and violence in its products when the overwhelming majority of those products happens to be rated PG-13.

But those films, despite being products of castrated industry, somehow fail to have the same “moral values” with the majority of American people, at least judging by the opinion polls. Majority of Americans find those films to have too much “unacceptable” content.

Yet, as every movie connoisseur would tell you, today’s “unacceptable” content is kindergarten material compared with what was the norm in Hollywood two or three decades ago.

Imagine, for example, major studio release revolving around lesbian relationship and featuring full male and female frontal nudity. Or an action film where protagonists routinely dispose of helpless adversaries in cold blood. Or horror films where there is blood being spilled.

All those films were made in the period which Hollywood had what from today’s perspective looks like amazingly liberal standards.

And, yet, most people who complain about contemporary Hollywood, MTV and rest of American entertainment industry “poisoning” the minds of children and wrecking future generations were exactly the people who grew up watching even more “venomous” material and were supposed to have their moral values shaped according by that “poison”.

Yet, this didn’t happen.

Just like the presidential election of 2004, power of Hollywood is way overrated.