Magic Statistics

The Asia Times columnist known as Spengler looks at two new films, Brokeback Mountain and Munich, and thinks they illustrate why both Hollywood and the Democratic Party are not doing so well lately.

Liberal Hollywood is the heart of America's Democratic Party, and its offerings for the Christmas season explain why the opposition to the present administration remains weaker even than the flailing White House. A red-state cultural revolt won the last election for President George W Bush (It's the culture, stupid!, November 5, 2004), and Hollywood presents a view of the world that Americans find-–well, revolting. This is not an accident, but a nasty prank by the Zeitgeist.
. . .
"Bareback Mountain" portends commercial disaster. In the young-adult demographic group that sustains the American cinema, on-screen anal sex draws limited interest. Young men find it embarrassing to watch a star like Jake Gyllenhaal in this context, while young women find it disappointing. But no film of the first decade of the 21st century will flop as miserably as Spielberg's Munich, a "prayer for peace" derived from the 1972 terrorist attacks on Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games. Spielberg's theme, as he explained in the Time story, is the futility of the Israelis' subsequent retaliation.

Futility makes poor theater. If Spielberg had portrayed a moral equivalence between the great white shark and its hunters, Jaws would have bombed at the box office. American audiences sat on the edge of their seats waiting for Roy Scheider to wreak vengeance against the toothsome monster. Indiana Jones' enemies meet hideous deaths, to audience cheers. The director who made his reputation pandering to vengeful bloodlust now wants moviegoers to ponder the moral equivalences in war.

Spengler includes a quote from Tony Kushner, "the world's worst playwright" whom Spielberg chose as the screenwriter for Munich:

Kushner identified with the Soviet Union until its collapse. Afterward he told an interviewer, "The collapse of the Soviet system does not mean that capitalism has succeeded … Socialism is simply the idea that people are better off if we work collectively and that the economic system we live in is made by people and therefore can be controlled intelligently rather than let loose. There's no way that can't be true."

Kushner's child-like faith in Soviet-style collectivism is so at variance with the empirical evidence as to constitute a form of cognitive dissonance. I've met social scientists with a similar view: If reality does not conform to my model, so much the worse for reality.

Read the whole thing.

And in not unrelated news: Kong crashes.

In the vicinity of Smithfield Market are three institutions dedicated to St Bartholomew: two churches and a hospital. In the early 12th century, the Church of St Bartholomew the Great was constructed as part of St Bartholomew's Priory. (The priory was closed by Henry VIII as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but the church survives.) St Bartholomew's Hospital, London's first hospital, was built at the same time.

Both the hospital and the priory were founded in 1123 by Rahere, a courtier of King Henry I. After falling ill while on a pilgrimage to Rome, Rahere vowed to build a hospital for the care of the poor if he recovered. After his health had been restored and he was returning home, he had a vision of St Bartholomew who instructed him to build both a hospital and a priory church on the Smooth Field just outside London's city walls. During construction of the buildings, Rahere was ordained a priest and then became the first prior of St Bartholomew the Great.

When the priory was dissolved in 1539, the hospital's future became very uncertain because the closing of the priory took away its source of income and most of its staff. The people of London petitioned the king to grant this and three other hospitals to the City. The king agreed to re-found St Bartholomew's Hospital and endow it with property and income. At the same time, one of the former chapels, Holy Cross Chapel, dating from about 1184, became St Bartholomew the Less, the hospital's parish church. (The Less was added to distinguish it from its much larger neighbour St Bartholomew the Great.) 

St Bartholomew the Less is found just inside the gate of the hospital–the only hospital in Britain that is also a parish in its own right. It thus has no Anglican chaplain; that role is filled by the Vicar of St Bartholomew the Less. In past centuries, the hospital precinct included some rented houses but, now that those are gone, the only parishioners are resident Hospital staff.

This photo of the hospital gate shows London's only outdoor statue of Henry VIII. It was placed there in recognition of the king's granting the hospital back to the City of London following the closing of the priory.

(As always, click on photos for larger views.)

The tower and part of the west wall of the church date from the fifteenth century and are the oldest structures within the hospital precinct. The church fell into disrepair and the interior had to be completely re-built in 1793 by George Dance the Younger. Dance's wooden structure, however, soon rotted and the church was again re-built in 1825 by Thomas Hardwick, who retained Dance's design but built using stone and iron.

This photo shows the church entrance at the base of the west side of the tower.

A lunchtime service was about to begin when I visited, so I was not able to take any photos of the interior. For the benefit of Catholic staff and patients and their families, the church shares its space for Roman Catholic Mass, and that was the service scheduled for the day of my visit.

A photo of church's interior is posted here. Click here for a street map showing the location.

Click here for a more complete history of the hospital.

Links to all my blog posts about British churches and Christian sites can be accessed through the box located at the top of the page.