Cook: North Korea fought Hollywood and won. Good.

A scene from The Interview
A scene from The Interview
It seems that North Korea fought Hollywood and won.

Good.

Somebody needs to.

Earlier this week, Sony canceled its Christmas Day release of "The Interview" -- a satire about the assassination of Kim Jong Un -- after purportedly receiving hacks, threats and pressure from North Korea.

We shouldn't expect less of the totalitarian government, long considered the most brutal on earth. Kim Jong Un and his cult of personality, just like his father's before him, have created a suffocating and artless world for North Koreans. (I've always imagined them living in black and white).

This isn't, then, a defense of North Korea.

Rather, it's a plea for America.

When will we begin to censor ourselves?

As the North Korea news broke, we sat down around the family TV. You know, just to unwind. Most nights, we don't surf very far, just the big four: ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS.

Here's what the screenwriters and advertisers bring us.

Scenes of murder. Rape. Masturbation. Misogyny. Adultery and infidelity.

All during prime time.

"Crime time," a friend corrected.

Like perverse magi, screenwriters deliver to our household these gifts of violence, social distortion and disharmony. Instead of depicting the noble qualities of ourselves, Hollywood, in a strange act of self-mockery, chooses to degrade and disfigure the beauty of the human condition.

Instead of Anne Frank and Fred Astaire and Grandpa Walton, we get Charlie Sheen and Bart Simpson and Law and Order Special Victims Unit. It's a subtle form of totalitarianism: we are only offered one narrow view of what it means to be human.

"It so happens I am sick of being a man," the poet Neruda wrote.

That's because modern culture has made it so. Name one television show that depicts fatherhood in a noble and respected way. Find one channel that doesn't delve into gender objectification. Locate one theater with at least half its screens not filled with films of violence or baseless humor.

(Today we would commission Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of a locker room, not a chapel.)

It serves as a smash-and-grab theft of the dignity and importance of family and what it means to be an adult, which then damages the psyches and souls of children. The poet Robert Bly compares modern culture to the "Jack and the Beanstalk" giant who wants to devour our kids.

"We don't realize that when we put a computer or television in a child's own room, we are sending that child to be alone with the Giant," Bly writes.

Of course, there are individuals and groups creating powerful and dignified art -- one thinks of PBS -- but they are the exception, not the rule. Doing so is becoming an act of resistance. The most countercultural of all art isn't shocking, but simply beautiful.

Earlier this month, Miley Cyrus performed a poolside concert in South Beach. (You can guess where this is headed).

Next to a topless woman and performers in mushroom clothes, Cyrus wore some silver body thong -- later trading it for silver pasties -- and smoked a joint. Between songs, she spoke about a conversation with a dead cat.

At one point, two costumed sharks appeared near Cyrus.

"And a penis ran across the stage," The Associated Press reported.

The worst of all? Her Miami concert was at a prestigious art show. As if she belonged there.

"Miley Cyrus dazzles," the papers reported.

Dazzles?

Such art can be defined as the cultural equivalent of a gorilla throwing its feces at the zoo walls. Sometimes, it throws food, but most often, it throws its own waste.

And we keep staring.

The Christian anarchist Peter Maurin spoke about building a society where it's easier to do good. A society that encourages kindness. And generosity. And wisdom.

Such a world begins when we stop our passive acceptance of whatever pseudo-art Hollywood hands us.

That is not censorship.

It is love: for self, others and American culture.

Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.

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