By Kevin Banet
Guest contributor
While my son was researching Boston’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919 as part of a school lesson, I realized that there was an eerie parallel between this and Hollywood.
Now, hold your horses, because what I’m about to reveal won’t likely be taught in your child’s high school history class in their discussions about the evils of the industrial revolution.
The odd explosion of 2.3 million gallons of the sticky mess was due to poor design of a huge tank to hold the sweetner, and ignoring obvious warning signs. The fifty-foot high tank was made of very thin sheets of steel, and was not even designed by engineers. Furthermore, over the months, the gooey stuff oozed through leaks, but those in charge made the leaks less obvious by painting the tank brown – the same color as the molasses.
Today we have thousands of regulations to make sure factories are built with safety in mind for the workers. When a government agency cites a manufacturing plant with violations, what happens? Heavy fines, or worse yet, screaming headlines. When that happens, you can bet that the owners and managers are yelling at someone to fix the problem.
Any high school history class will tell you about the robber barons of the nineteenth century who took advantage of people in various ways in industry to amass great wealth.
But will they tell you about Hollywood’s soul-stealers?
The lack of safety policies led to such disasters as the Molasses Flood, which caused 21 deaths. The badly-designed tank came from one thing: they didn’t give a hoot about personal dignity. Workers were considered dumb immigrants meant to be taken advantage of to make others rich.
Yet, when industry refused to regulate itself, there was a public outcry that led to regulations and rules.
Hollywood spews it
Hollywood works today in the same way. It spews out vulgarity, promotes sexual license, mocks Christianity (or ignores it) and makes money off those it considers dumb clucks – us.
These media moguls have stretched their tentacles all the way to Congress, the Supreme Court, and to prominent secular universities. They are playing the same game as the industrialists of one hundred years ago. Both played footsie with the government, media, and yes, even the churches. They’ve got the American public backed up against a wall of excuses, such as a call for freedom of speech and artistic expression.
Like the molasses, Hollywood’s poison is oozing out of the cracks – and our culture is painting over our eyes so we won’t see it.
Who will join the public outcry against those behind the camera and microphone who despise human dignity? When will we see wholesome, quality entertainment that won’t pervert our children and college students? Will we see this issue in the next presidential campaign?
We can’t let history repeat itself. Show the country that this is the same wolf in different sheep’s clothing.