Hollywood Hypocrisy

If you have watched any movie in the theater or on DVD in the past year, you have surely seen the new public service ads for honesty. They show hardworking dolly grips and gaffers (at least we know what they do now) doing their jobs and imploring views not to pirate movies on the internet. The appeal to conscience is clear, the message even clearer, "Downloading Pirated Movies is Stealing!"

I applaud appeal to conscience and the ads are entirely true, so no complaint from me there. My problem is the inconsistency of logic. This is an industry that is almost entirely based on selling immorality in all its forms. The actors appearing in these ads are the same ones who go on talk shows and scream about the "Christian Right" trying to force their morality on everyone else. So here is my PSA to the entertainment industry on what they can do to reduce movie pirating:

1. Recognize that movies do impact culture. Your moral code shouldn't begin when someone's ripping you off, but when you create, produce and profit from filth that impacts viewers. You want to change the way people think about right and wrong, start in the editing room.
2. Be logically consistent. Either there is an absolute morality, based on the laws of God, or there isn't. The prohibition to steal (movies, anyway) is the only one of the Ten Commandments you want to accept. If there is no God, then there is no absolute morality. Everyone can do whatever they feel like doing and it doesn't matter who it hurts, because, life is meaningless.
3. The shield of legality won't work either. Arguing that stealing is wrong because it's illegal is weaker than a Lindsey Lohan movie. Your industry should know better than any that laws change constantly, that's why you contribute so much money to politicians. So what if stealing pirated movies is illegal? Doing drugs, driving drunk, contributing to the moral decay of minors is illegal too, but that's everyday life in the movie business.

I confess here on my blog, that I have watched pirated movies. I can honestly say I've never downloaded them because I; a) don't know how b) my husband won't give me admin rights to the computer and c) my moral code (based on those antiquated stone tablets given to Moses) says its wrong. I am challenged though, that I don't want to be a hypocrite, so I won't watch pirated movies any more. I won't lecture others who do (I learned from Hollywood to live and let live, after all), but I'll set my standards a little higher. If it means I watch fewer movies, that's OK, because even though I'll miss those hard hitting PSA's I'll still know right from wrong.

Author's Note: In reference to the above letter b) (my husband won't give me admin rights to the computer), that is not technically true since I have admin rights on my computer, just not on the computer that stores our pertinent financial information, etc. I, in no way meant to imply that my husband is some sort of ogre for denying me these rights on the main computer. In fact, I have never actually asked for them and don't even want the responsibilty of knowing the admin password as one day I might be tempted to use it to install some fabulous free-ware which would open up some back door, trojan horse, spyware, hard-drive deleting monster into our midsts. And for all of you who don't know this already, you should always create user accounts even for yourself and only use those accounts (without admin rights) to surf the internet. That's my PSA .