Unfortunately we don't have to wait to whet our whistle on the entertainment industry's full court press to gin up anti-war sentiment in preparation for next year's elections. It seems that they are delivering on that promise already as hinted by last night's 10 separate "anti-war" solos that were performed on the Fox TV reality show, So You Think You Can Dance. (see Video here)
The solos were choreographed by occasional judge and talented choreographer Wade Robson. He put together a fine routine and all 10 dancers performed them exactly as scripted. But after 10 renditions of the exact same anti-war dance step, each performed to John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change", it seemed a bit preachy and hokey to me. I got the point after the first dance.
It's not that I don't understand that people have anti-war views, I get that. In fact I would seriously question the character of anyone who is pro-war. Nobody in their right mind wants war. It would be great if we could all just "give peace a chance" and actually have the bad guys play along. Unfortunately life is not that simple. 2,996 innocent people who were murdered on 9/11 can attest to that, as can the estimated 2 million people who died at the hands of Saddam Hussein, the more than 60 million people who died as a result or World War II, and on and on....
But the focal point of Hollywood's anti-war stance is squarely aimed at U.S. military intervention. While that focus is not confusing given Hollywood's past it is a bit of a contradiction. Many people in the Hollywood establishment and on the American left show nothing but disdain for most religions with a characteristic tendency to openly slam those rooted in Christianity and Judaism. Yet these very same people ignore the simple fact that radical Islam is a primary source of today's global strife. It is a hatred and violence born of radical religious indoctrination as opposed to being a product of U.S. military intervention. Likewise, the anti-war left doesn't seem to put a whole lot of emphasis on the dangers of rogue nations such as Iran, North Korea and Venezuela.
There is a difference between an anti-war protest and a protest against radical Islam; a difference that is not lost on the Hollywood message brokers in the least. They are vocally anti-war, i.e. anti U.S. military, but they are not anti-radical Islam or anti-despot in my view. It is almost as if they are irrationally sympathetic by their mere silence. Thus I take offense with the anti-war manifestations of Hollywood types as was my interpretation of the dance number here. (You can hear it all in Wade's explanation anyway, the allusions to not being in power is very much in line with the anti-establishment crowd).
After reading the Matthew Sheffield article I believe that this was no coincidence. I fully expect to see more of this as the election nears, and it will not be as generic as last night's performance on Fox. Only time can tell whether or not it will make a difference.
This is a shortened version of an article originally published on Webloggin earlier today.
