The Decline of the American ideal in film as evidenced by the recent riots in the Muslim world

(protesters in Cairo burn the American flag. This image is a staple of the Middle East in recent years)

I made the observation earlier in the year in a post entitled 'Film in 2011: The Year of the Romantics.' that the American ideal can no longer be posited as the cultural ideal in film. This is so because we are now witnessing the relative decline of the United States of America in comparison to the rapid rise of China. US debt is expected to rise in excess of 16 trillion by January 2013.. As other nations come to the fore, particularly from the developing world, the expression of the cultural dynamics within those territories will be of primary importance. I mentioned that the Arab world is in a state of flux and that as people become exposed to the medium of film the more they will use it to express their own livelihood. This relative development will spell the inevitable death knell of the US film industry unless it seeks to expand its reach into other nations and embrace other cultures thereby finding new sources of inspiration for the film industry and then releasing them at the box office and so increase the revenues of the industry if only by a relatively small margin. This would encourage the exportability of US  film companies. The trend has started but only slowly. Eventually film will get a more cosmopolitan feel and there will be no culture posited as an ideal. In today's world the dominant cultural standpoint posited in film is that of the United States of America, and Europe to some extent, and we have seen an absurd example in the recent riots in the Arab world regarding the negative portrayal of the Islamic religion in a small christian biased film particularly as it makes the prophet Muhammad look like a playboy as opposed to a genuine holy man. I am not religious but the film made from the point of view of fundamental Christianity is an American ideal embodied in capitalist virtues and there has been a long history from the crusades of significant tension between the two religions. Islam is younger than Christianity and is rapidly increasing its following in the West. The Islamic culture is embraced primarily by the Arab world from which it sprung and so the negative portrayal of the religion would naturally incite the people to riot. The Arab world has been seeing significant social tensions particularly as there is the process of conversion from the rule of monarchy to democracy with the aid of Western infiltration. It's like someone said you cannot have democracy without capitalism and not all the Arab states are fully developed capitalist nations but are largely agrarian and primarily only exporters of raw materials. These social tensions in the Arab world funded by the West will make it easier for investment from foreign capitalists in the Arab world. Until then however the Arab world will embrace their religion as the be all and end all. Most of the Arab spring is aware of Americas intention to dominate the sphere however Islam remains the last great buffer between sanctity of culture and its eventual dissolution under American and European capitalist values. We have seen this in Syria, Libya and Iran earlier during the year. The Libyans have used the derogatory  film as an excuse to burn out the US embassy and so kill the ambassador in the process. We have seen riots in Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan and elsewhere in the Muslim world. The president of Yemen attributes the tension to the royalist factions and quickly offered an apology to Obama particularly as they are in keeping with the democratic ideal, supposedly. You can bet there is a lot of US investment in that territory. The Americans have condemned the video but have stated vehemently that the video was made on the basis of free speech. Typical contradiction for when you bad mouth America you will be punished particularly from the perspective of the poor countries that bow down in face of US military and economic might. These poor Arab countries will soon come to the realization that US investment is a vital cornerstone to their poor economies however idealism is necessary if one wants to resist this capitalist invasion. It is strange that there are no riots or protests in those Muslim territories where either US military bases or companies have been set up. Saudi Arabia remains a key area here especially as it is supposedly the leader of the Arab world from a religious  and economic point of view. Iran cannot protest at the moment because there are more pressing matters than a mere film. The tensions with the US and Europe are building and these states that are rioting should be wary of US invasion by subtle means. The deployment of ships and the marine corps so as to offer protection for their citizens is the first step and should the rioting continue then the US will use it as an excuse to set up military bases which will then pave the way for peaceful investment. The US might speak of free speech but it is this same warped christian fundamentalism that has been the justification for European invasion of those territories considered inferior economically. There is a historical basis for this fact. Having been driven out in the fallacious Crusade expedition the Europeans were forced to respect the Islamic culture since the only thing they respect is strength having been defeated. After the final ousting of the Arabs in the Iberian peninsula in the late 15th century the way was paved for colonial expansion into Africa and the Americas by Spain and Portugal and the eventual decimation of those cultures (particularly as other European powers joined the fray) and their way of living in favour of christian values. The last great bastion of the decadent Roman Empire is the Catholic church, which held considerable sway in those days, and still does, as we see the hapless pope being shepherded on behalf of the Vatican to quell tempers throughout poor countries and promote order so that investments may pour down like blessings on a particular territory and aid in the expansion of markets for the international capitalist class. The Americans inherited christian values from the protestant charging, colonizing Britons which broke with the Catholic church despite adhering fundamentally to the same values. Under the guise of Puritanism the moral foundations of America were laid and the Native Americans were driven to the reserve lands as a token from their conquerors. The landing of the Puritans is now commemorated with a national thanksgiving holiday. The reality is that this is not reflective of free speech for the Europeans along with Americans have used Christianity as a civilizing force and we have seen its effect on the petty bourgeois groups in the west and in Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. They discard their Muslim garb in favour of tuxedos and only nominally adhere to the original religion for politics must still go on. This film is no example of free speech.

This small film has highlighted the role of propaganda in film. It can be used to promote cultural virtues of the supposed master race. You can be challenged along similar lines of propaganda. The nature of the film clearly propagates the virtues of the christian religion, which  is not as virtuous as once thought, in contrast to the lifestyle seen in Islam. In earlier days the Arabs would not have been aware of such a film being issued for mass consumption however in this technologically driven era there is no place the film can hide. The US would normally use this propaganda machinery to poison the minds of its children and reinforce the ignorance of the adults. They did it to the blacks of their own country and they did it to other developing nations where ancient religions were rigorously demystified. It is is the use of negative propaganda in film by US executives during the mid twentieth century which has given Haiti a negative impression during the 20th century re its voodoo religion. It is US filmmakers that constantly painted a picture of Africans as savages and the heroes as white crusaders. The justification for this is the propagation of christian values alongside capitalist ones. Seeing that the US and Europe are technologically advanced they make it appear as if this is the reflective of their christian values for when they portray other cultures references to their religion is always key in the presentation. The state of their religion would normally comply with the lack of development in technology. The Muslims have good reason to revolt with reference to one film that is typical of Western virtues in the Middle East, Lawrence of Arabia. This is the only example I will give here because this film represents the first scourge made by Europeans into the Middle East during the early years of the twentieth century. The film erroneously portrays T.E Lawrence as a saviour of the Arabs in their war against  (Ottoman) Turkey. Lawrence is credited with the plans to liberate Aqaba and for the the liberation front directed against Damascus. After World War 1 the Europeans divided the Middle East much like how they divided Africa in the late nineteenth century. Many critics and Western citizens have taken this film at its face value but in fact it is based on a complete falsehood. T.E Lawrence played no role in the Arab war against the Turks; he was merely an observer. He created much falsehoods in his travelogue, Seven Pillars of Wisdom.. The film itself made no attempts to correct this falsehood and so the myth became the reality of the West. Westerners proclaimed the greatness of the film and students of film in the West were made to study its techniques and visual cues. It was based on a lie and still whenever an anniversary comes around they will trumpet T.E Lawrence who was the romantic adventurer that liberated the Arabs. It is much like the turmoil that exists today where western adventurers driven by a false ideology come riding on their high Christian horses with a beacon of light into the darkness. The horse however is now only a small independent film which still has the power to incite mass revolt towards the US and spark the age old struggle between Christianity and Islam. The even bigger horse is US military might and capital investment. This age old battle was brought to the fore yet again on September 11, 2001 and continues with these riots based on a small film created by some warped christian whacko.

The ideal that is America is no more in the world of film. One must now embrace the various cultures of the world which will contribute to an even greater understanding of how we live in an international context.