In a recent essay on humility, Christopher Caldwell reminded readers of the Jonathan Franzen brouhaha. When Oprah vaulted The Corrections into the sales stratosphere by recommending it to her loyal army of viewers, Franzen, clumsily and haltingly but with no malice, thought out loud about what commercial success means for a writer “in the high-art literary tradition.” Critics blasted Franzen for elitism, and one couldn’t help but be sympathetic. But in a very neat pamphlet, Revolt of the Masscult, Chris Lehmann wonders why. At what point did we identify market imperatives with cultural democracy? Lehmann is an egalitarian of the left, and yet he raises serious questions for conservatives.
Is it fair to say that Hollywood is giving “the people” exactly what they want? By criticizing the entertainment-industrial complex for its excesses while cheering robust increases in shareholder value-all the while watching Desperate Housewives-are conservatives engaging in rank hypocrisy? By now, Thomas Frank has turned this line of attack into a cottage industry, and with good reason: there’s something to it.
FREE THE CULTURE: For Frank, at least, the “culture war” is so much posturing, a sideshow. The real struggle is class struggle. Lehmann, I believe, would like to see a politically engaged criticism that sees through the false populism of “popular culture,” more a transmission belt designed to maximize profits than a truly “popular” phenomenon.
Conservatives ought to take a different route. Recognize that the culture industry is an industry, no more evil than the others, but no less so. Media conglomerates are as opportunistic as the rest. Unchecked, Hollywood’s coarsening influence is a problem, and something should be done about it. Rather than go down the route of censorship and intimidation, the best move-very much in tune with the best conservative instincts-would be to democratize the culture. Break the stranglehold of Big Media by reversing copyright laws that stifle free expression. Strengthen the hand of the innovative entrepreneurs behind peer-to-peer networks, spread-spectrum radio, and other technologies that have the potential to restore creative power to individuals and communities. Over time, you’ll see a more diverse media culture that will be far more in tune with-here it comes-our shared values. Larry Lessig‘s notion of a “free culture” has a lot to offer conservatives vexed by the cultural hegemony of a narrow corporate elite.
ODE TO ENLIGHTENED DESPOTISM: One has to wonder-why are conservative Republicans kowtowing to Big Media? The obvious, and largely correct answer, boils down to political economy. Campaign contributions make a difference. So does ignorance or indifference. Industry flacks line the corridors of K Street, but congressional staffers aren’t being harassed by deep-pocketed Lessig epigones, so why bother exploring alternatives?
This is cynical, but it approximates reality. Still, it begs the question: Why wouldn’t conservative Republicans tether themselves to emergent technologies? Big Media incumbents have deep pockets now, and yet that directly derives from an industrial policy gamed to their benefit. Besides, those deep pockets tend to benefit liberals. Is it crazy to cut them loose, relying on, I don’t know, contribution from oil and gas companies to tide you over while you cultivate smaller, nimbler media outfits by creating a framework for open competition?
For that to happen, you have to be far-sighted, and you need centralized corruption rather than decentralized corruption. (Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny wrote the book on this stuff.) If Karl Rove really could quash the hopes and dreams of every two-bit state legislator, he might be able to maximize the take from saps and suckers.
As Nixonian as this sounds, an Enlightened Despot could do a lot of good for the Republicans or the Democrats. She could expel the MoveOn.org gang from the Democrats and the Starve-the-Beasters from the Republicans. (“Who’d be left?” The rest of the country minus a few thousand rich people.) That or we could think about effective campaign finance reform.
— Reihan
The Dish 