I am a huge fan of film noir.
Double crossin' Jakes and shifty dames and dirty doings goin' on in the shadows beyond the neon diner signs.
The last great American film noir was "Chinatown". I had the chance to meet Robert Towne, the writer of that movie, a few weeks ago but had to beg off the party because it was so late and I was beat. Besides, why would he want to meet ME at 11PM at night? But it got me thinking about the movie, and that the central tragedy revolved around a great taboo and the shame one of the central characters felt about it.
You see, you cannot make a great modern film noir anymore. All of the things people once felt shame about, like illegitimacy, sexuality, poverty, being mixed-race or non-Protestant and on and on, no longer exist. Great film noirs often had plots which turned on these very things. "The Killers" and "Chinatown" and "Out of the Past" all had secrets to be kept desperately hidden.
Often plots to get great amounts of money were involved, like in "Asphalt Jungle" and "Double Indemnity". Characters used their dishonesty and lack of scruples and sexual powers
to get what they wanted when they wanted it, regardless of how it affected
others. Stealing vast amounts of money was another great shame that we no longer seem concerned with.
Bob Dole, in a desperate attempt to get votes and shore up his base
late in the 1996 campaign, railed to the farmers in Kansas about the
absence of shame in society. Of course, he wasn't talking about lying
bankers ... he was appealing more to the people who don't like girls
showing their belly buttons, gays holding hands in public or minorities
marrying white women. It came across sounding like an old man yelling
at kids to get off his lawn, hence the ploy gained no traction.
And so behold the Age of Madoff, fueled by the fungible ethics of the past eight years. Not only is it OK to steal to get ahead, but it is encouraged. And if you get caught, why you just wear a beatific smile with your index finger to your lips and say something like, "Woopsie!" But never, never do anything to give the money back.
In fact, apparently it is socially acceptable to argue that you deserve the money and its un-American to give it back. Do everything you can to gain more money and more power so that you can keep that appointment at the exclusive health spa, via private jet, to have your back walked on by sinewy Thai boys (with wealth and power often comes an avid exploration of one's options for strange. See: J. Edgar Hoover).
This has given rise to a very healthy new practice called Name and Shame.
If you rip people off, we tell everyone and make you give the money back. No doubt it has it's detractors, especially amongst the thieves. They rail against the government, and with good cause ... you'd rail too if Uncle Sam forced you into bankruptcy or made you sell out for cents on the dollar after you had essentially stolen billions and then been bailed out with taxpayer money many times over.
The latest silly distraction the thieves promoted was the so-called Taxpayer Tea Parties held in states that take in three times as much tax money as they pay out. Actually, because of a decline in viewership due to the shifting political winds, the conservative networks and others promoted this in order to boost their ratings during sweeps, and thus try to shore up ad dollars from an already depleted general pool. I didn't read that anywhere; being in the media I just know. Marketed in combination with Twitter, it was an admirable promotion. Unfortunately, once again it was conservative interests using the faith of their supporters as a plaything for their own amusement, and that is getting a little tiresome as well. (See: Obamacans)
But people aren't buying it. They see the difference between your standard government
waste, fraud and abuse on the one side, as opposed to being extorted into using taxpayer money to bailout
white collar criminals who threaten to drag us all down to the muck
with them. The latter is far more blasphemous. Heinous. Give me a minute with the nearest holy book I can grab and I'll find some more words to really put a fine point on the matter.
But in these uncertain times, how do we know anymore what to be ashamed about, if at all? It could be argued that people just don't know the difference in a society where everything is deemed OK. In the times of film noir, when nothing was as it seemed, it all seemed so simple when in fact it was incredibly complicated. The torrent of rules was astonishing when you think about it. One wrong step off the tightrope could mean ruin and desperation.
Ironically in these modern times probably a strict constructionist interpretation of the original Ten Commandments is the new way to go. After all, they say simple solid things like "Thou shall not steal" and "Thou shall not Covet", which are perfectly reasonable and sensible requests.
Nowhere in them do you find exhortations like "Thou shalt not hold hands with Another Race" or "Thou shouldest cover thy Belly Button".
