How can they tell?

When former President Calvin Coolidge (aka “Silent Cal”) died, the witty Dorothy Parker cruelly asked “How can they tell?”  I had a slightly similar question when I heard about the screenwriters’ strike in Hollywood:  “Why should we care?”

I know that the strike is not a good thing for the Hollywood economy, in that it will affect thousands of jobs.  Nevertheless, in terms of the product Hollywood pumps out to Americans and the world, I simply can’t weep any tears that the people who have been writing that stuff are going to stop writing.

I think we can use fewer shows such as Aliens in America, which ridicules Americans by having them play the fools in front of a Pakistani Muslim boy (read my post here to know what I’m talking about); the vapid, shrill show The View; or the violently hostile Brian de Palma flick Redacted.  Perhaps we need a break from Hollywood’s angry, amoral vision of America.

If it were up to me, I’d have the writer’s strike last a good long time — and this despite the fact that it hurts the handful of conservative screenwriters lurking in the background there or any other people who work in Hollywood put don’t share the industry’s out-stated political views.  Sadly, when there’s a cancer, removing it usually causes collateral harm to innocent tissue as well.