As reported in the Los Angeles Times today, George Bush is going to set aside a vast sea-based preserve near Hawaii. Why has Dubya -- presiding over an administration that has ravaged the environment for cronies' enrichment and set aside less land than any administration in decades -- all of a sudden gone seal-hugger on us? Because of a Cousteau movie that inspired him!!!!
http://www.latimes.com/...
As the Times notes:
"The decision is a turnaround for the administration, which five years ago considered stripping more limited protections from the area that President Clinton had declared a coral reef ecosystem reserve. It's also a sharp departure for an administration that has pushed to privatize some federal lands and has designated less wilderness than most presidents over the last 40 years.
A turning point came in April, when Bush sat through a 65-minute private White House screening of a PBS documentary that unveiled the beauty of -- and perils facing -- the archipelago's aquamarine waters and its nesting seabirds, sea turtles and sleepy-eyed monk seals, all threatened by extinction."
This isn't the first time a White House resident has come out of his bubble, or turned fantasy into policy because of cinema; indeed, Hollywood creations were reality for "B" actor Ronnie Reagan. As a 1999 Atlantic Monthly review of Neal Gabler's book "Life The Movie, How Entertainment Conquered Reality" noted:
Gabler rolls out dozens of examples of the transmogrification of life into stock drama, as entertainment techniques have relentlessly leached into non-entertainment venues. In politics the quadrennial political conventions have changed from real dramas to pageants staged for the purpose of winning the votes of television viewers. Ronald Reagan turned the presidency itself into a procession of scripts and images."
http://www.theatlantic.com/...
So, with Dubya actually inspired to do something truly good because of a movie, what other movies can he be exposed to -- unbeknownst to his handlers -- that we can hope will also result in some good? Remember, we have to sneak them past the Cheney thought police and Rovian Guards, so anything by Michael Moore probably won't make it. But we have finally found a way to reach the Oval Office, or more accurately, the 1600 Pennsylvania screening room. Let's not blow it!
The LA Times, amazed at Bush's feat of conservationist zeal. today (June 19) editorialized its pleasure with his "atypical" decision. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-hawaii19jun19,0,170530.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials
The Times noted the limitations of the Bushian protectionist vision:
"One reason (for his decision), not surprisingly, is politics. No major industries, such as logging or oil, have a stake in the Hawaiian preserve. Fewer than a dozen commercial fishermen will be affected by the establishment of the Hawaiian preserve. Another reason is that Bush was apparently inspired to act after he saw a spellbinding PBS film on the region made by the son of the legendary Jacques Cousteau, whose underwater cinematography equally thrilled and informed a generation of TV-viewing Americans. After viewing the film, according to The Times, Bush rose from his seat, congratulated Jean-Michel Cousteau and asked administration staffers how to protect the region." And the Times noted further, "Not every worthwhile cause has its own filmmaker. So Bush's legacy of conservation may not extend to the Lower 48 or Alaska."
So, get your video cameras out, people, and find something worthy of (secular) salvation!