We find ourselves aghast at these so-called polls which tell us that, somehow, despite the carnage of the past eight years, that John McCain is points ahead - today, yesterday maybe it was? - of Barack Obama. We wonder how anyone except a religious zealot or a temporarily insane horndog could be impressed with the shrewish, inexperienced, and possibly quite corrupt, Sarah Palin. Yet we feel our nerves alternately jangled and calmed by these numbers, and we wait to see which side has crafted the best image to push buttons.

I labored in Hollywood for thirteen years as one who - according to many - was quite promising as a writer-director. Thanks to the glut of infotainment and shows about Hollywood, most twelve year olds now know that Hollywood is driven, now, by connections, hype, weekend b.o. tallies, and sensationalist hype. "Story" or "content" seem to be at the bottom of the list for the last decade-and-a-half, and this sorry condition wherein the "idol" - the beloved image - is exalted, rather than the spirit, has wholly usurped Politics. I would argue that the ascent of this idolatry has been happening at the same time on both coasts in both businesses (Entertainment, or Entrainment, and Politics) for quite some time, and the cumulative effect makes some of us despair.

How do we break ourselves and others out of this Orwellian hypnosis? Ambinder posted about "competing narratives" (which I understand) and how they may or may not aid a corpo-fascist shill like Ms. Palin and, possibly, catapult her to stardom, and sigh: why can't people trust their gut instincts, consult the Golden Rule, and know that the rest is just mind candy handed down from that old huckster-showman, P.T. Barnum?

One says to a kid, "That film was totally empty, nihilistic, and nothing but CGI special FX." And the kid raves, "But man, it made $400 million dollars the first weekend! It's great!"

Britney Spears has a great figure and sex appeal, to some, and her music is manufactured and soulless, but, hey, she is worth $80 million (!!!) and flashing her privates gets her a mention or a picture in almost every publication, which makes Britney and her handlers richer, and moreover, telegraphs to youth that sensationalism and marketing is ALL that matters.

We read that Herr Palin could win because of this and that, but little addresses her merit as anything other than a calculating politician framing herself - and allowing handlers and Rovesters to frame her - as whatever can galvanize the zealots and theocrats to vote, while, of course, keeping her "sexy" in the minds of those horndogs who want to 'nail' her, perhaps, because she's a good fantasy. Ann Coulter doggy-style, anyone? She's vicious and you could tame her! Never mind she'd just as soon make lampshades out of human flesh if she could sell a book.

I wish I had answers. How do we teach a mass of people to distrust the lure of images, to detach, to analyze, etc. It's that last thing the media wants anyone to learn, because, then, their powers of obfuscation and hypnosis wither.

Christmas of '99 I was driving down Sunset Boulevard back to my former L.A. home. I was disgusted not only with the truth of Hollywood staring me in the face (it's who you know in Hollywood '99 and how willing you are to stab someone and go for the jugular and behave like a Bush-era American Psycho all the while identifying yourself as a liberal), and just as disgusted as I glanced up at the billboards (that once lined these streets with worthy, thoughtful films like "The Conversation," "Apocalypse Now," "Kramer Vs Kramer", on backwards in time to the heyday of edgy classics full of humanity like "Midnight Cowboy") to see nothing but board after board advertising Vivid Porn XXX videos. Any pretensions to Hollywood fashioning a memorable story or art --- oh, how naive, how dated, how yesterday.

Money and Numbers as God. I have nothing against porno, per se, but it does not belong on a pedestal above Literature or real Cinema JUST because it makes LOTS OF MONEY, and it doesn't need to be reiterated that money, and getting it any way you can, is the new GOP God.

I left Hollywood that December. At a certain point, even the most committed artist cannot abide his environment when every image around him provokes revulsion and contempt. And I have not missed the place except for the Pacific view on a clear day. The people, the business were blinded, foolish, and corrupted, just like Washington D.C.: The Pied Piper whistling everyone along to their own doom.

I abide, for now, fringe recognition in my North Carolina sanctuary as a composer-singer and filmmaker, but I don't have to wake up every morning vomiting -- unless I turn on the television, which, of course, I do not.

Silvanus Slaughter