McCarthyism?

Elton John has given an interview that the BBC is reporting on in which he speaks of the reluctance of celebrities to speak out against the Iraq War to the situation of McCarthyism in the 1950s. According to the story:

Elton John has said stars are scared to speak out against war in Iraq because of “bullying tactics” used by the US government to hinder free speech.

“There’s an atmosphere of fear in America right now that is deadly. Everyone is too career-conscious,” he told New York magazine, Interview.

Sir Elton said performers could be “frightened by the current administration’s bullying tactics”.

The singer likened the current “fear factor” to McCarthyism in the 1950s.

“As of this spring, there have been virtually no anti-war concerts – or anti-war songs that catch on, for that matter,” he said.

“[T]he Dixie Chicks got shot down in flames last year for criticising the president. They were treated like they were being un-American, when in fact they have every right to say whatever they want about him because he’s freely elected, and therefore accountable.”

Assuming that the BBC is being accurate in its reporting of what John said, what the heck’s going on here?

I don’t know how much Elton John knows about U. S. history, but the McCarthy Era (1950-1953) was a period in which the U.S. Congress was conducting hearing (led by Sen. Joe McCarthy) into alleged Communist infiltration into the U.S. government and military. McCarthy went too far and destroyed his own reputation (hence his name is now a by-word for government-led bullying). He was censured by the Senate and retired in disgrace. Ironically, McCarthy was right that there were Soviet infiltrators (Duh! You don’t think the KGB had anybody working for them in the U.S.?), and recently declassified intelligence indicates that McCarthy actually underestimated the number of Soviet agents there were. We now know that there were at least 349 such agents, only half of whom were ever identified.

Several years before the McCarthy Era, in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated the Communist subversion in Hollywood and ended up citing the Hollywood Ten for contempt of Congress for refusal to cooperate with the investigation. So there was a case in which the government could be perceived as “bullying” entertainment inductry figures.

However, as far as I am aware, nothing remotely like that is happening now. The celebrities who have spoken out against the administration’s prosecution of the War on Terror, including the Iraq War, have been entirely unmolested by the government as far as I can tell, and Elton John’s reference to government “bullying tactics” is remarkably short on specifics as to what those tactics are–at least as it is reported by the BBC.

The fact that “as of this spring, there have been virtually no anti-war concerts – or anti-war songs that catch on” is due to three factors: (1) major hostilities are already over in the Iraq War and the clean-up phase, as difficult as it has been, has not turned into the kind of morass that Vietnam did, (2) unlike the Vietnam war, the Iraq War was prosecuted as part of self-defense campaign to ensure national security in the wake of a devastating sneak attack that galvanized the American public, and thus (3) the American public supported and largely continues to support the war–at least to the extent of not being interested in organized protests or buying anti-war songs.

The problem Elton John has is not with the government, it is with the public.

Those celebrities who have encountered problems with their careers have done so not because the government hauled them up before a congressional committee and cited them for contempt of Congress but because the public decided it didn’t want to buy their records or watch their shows.

I happen to be one of the people who stopped listening to the Dixie Chicks after their comments last year. For those who may not be aware, while on tour in England the Chicks’ lead singer made comments about the Chicks, as Texans, being ashamed of President Bush. My initial impulse was to be dismayed at their remarks but not to stop listening to them. I figured the Chicks would quickly be brought to their senses and apologize and there would be few long-lasting repercussions.

They had to apologize. The comments that they made displayed no grasp whatsoever of who their core audience is (i.e., country-music fans). Managers and record company officials would quickly sober the group up to the potential career implications of directly mocking the sensibilities of one’s core audience, and an apology would be forthcoming.

However, instead of apologizing, the Chicks issued a series of smouldering, defiant non-apologies that made a pretense of being apologetic. I mean, they couldn’t even muster up the wherewithal to give an acceptable phony showbiz apology to their fans. Every time they opened their mouths to “apologize,” they only made it worse. While this string of non-apologies was happening the Chicks did the absolutely bizarre thing of responding to the controversy by appearing on the cover of Entertainment Weekly stark nekkid with politically-charged words written all over their bodies (e.g., Traitors, Hero, Boycott, Brave, Dixie Sluts, Free Speech, Saddam’s Angels, Peace).

It was at that point that I decided–all on my own, without anybody from the government telling me what to think–“Okay, these people are too bizarre for me. Whatever skills they may have as singers, I’m not going to be able to listen to them sing for the foreseeable future without having to think about all this unpleasantness, and as I don’t want to do that, the simple solution is to stop listening to their music and stop buying their CDs. Perhaps increasing age, maturity, or business-savvy will prompt the Chicks to rethink their position and at some point in the future issue at least a passingly sincere apology and I can rethink my decision, but for now, that’s it.”

So the Dixie Chicks weren’t shot down in flames. They shot themselves down by mocking the sensibilities of their core audience at a nationally sensitive moment and then–like defiant children–repeatedly refusing to apologize to their fans and then doing the over-the-top bizarro stunt with the Entertainment Weekly cover.

There’s no government bullying here. People decided all on their own that the Dixie Chicks’ behavior was sufficiently unacceptable that they didn’t want to support them anymore.

Elton John, your problem isn’t with the American government but the American public. I wonder why it is that you don’t say so?

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin