Loyalty Oaths at Sundance

     Ever since the dawn of civilization, new citizens have been required to take some sort of "Oath of Allegiance" to their country. Most of them, including ours here in the United States, require certain promises to protect what is most important. Our "Naturalization Oath" requires that one must renounce allegiance to any "foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty..." from whence you came. You need to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, as well as bear arms in defense of said country when required by law, etc. All reasonable requests for citizenship.

    There are a myriad of private organizations here (and I assume in other nations) that have oaths, as well. Take the Cub Scouts, for instance. I was a Cub Scout for one whole, uh...week! Really, Peter? A week! You mean, you could only last a week? In the Cub Scouts!! Well, Sancho...even back then I had a little trouble being told what to do. Over and over again! And I just felt the uniform was not a good look for me! Really. The uniform. Let's not get off track, please? The point is, even they had an oath, which I took; do your best, duty to God and country, help others, and "stay physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight."

    On the ugly side, loyalty oaths have also been used to stifle free, independent thought and expression. Here in the United States, stringent loyalty oaths were commonplace during and immediately following not only the Revolutionary War, but the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the two World Wars...and the drama and nightmare surrounding Joseph McCarthy and The House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the loyalty oaths that are part of the totalitarian DNA from Russia to China to North Korea. And I don't mean that in a good way. 

    Which brings us to the Sundance Film Festival (which is currently in progress from January 19-29, in Colorado). Hmmm...the Cub Scouts to Joseph McCarthy to The Sundance Film Festival. This ought to be good...I hope. Keep the faith, Sancho! The Sundance Film Festival was founded in 1981 by that Hall-of-Famer, Robert Redford. According to its website it encourages, sponsors, and supports independent film and thought, and has given us some of our finest motion pictures as well as quality short films in its 42-years of existence. Sundance has brought us great films such as The Falcon and the Snowman and The Killing Fields, just to name two. And as far as I can tell, nobody loves and respects what a film can do like Redford. Unfortunately, Mr. Redford has become what he and others of his philosophical persuasion have long detested. He's become a totalitarian. Well, that's a little harsh, Peter. Hey, if the film reel fits, Sancho.

     Gary Geipel writes in today's op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal that when attempting to watch a Sundance film on-line, he was stopped at "the virtual door." It seems that in order to "buy a ticket" to watch a film, he was told he had to affirm the festival's "Community Agreement" by clicking in the appropriate box. "Community Agreement" is a nice euphemism for "loyalty oath." And I don't mean the good citizenship kind. Although Mr. Geipel briefly describes a few of the do's and don'ts of the "Agreement”, I decided to see if the website had a page devoted to this McCarthyite-sounding document. To its credit, or not, depending on your political philosophy...it does.

     This thing is 7 paragraphs long, which doesn't include the bulleted sentences that are the heart and soul of this "crazy" and "stupid" document (you knew I had to get "crazy" and "stupid" in there, didn't you?). To be fair, it's not ALL bad. There are the usual artistic bromides about respecting moderators, audience members, and artists. But then it just becomes a banal salute to the progressive agenda; to be (take a deep breath) "inclusive and respectful of every race, ethnicity, gender identity/expression, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, age (hold on, take another deep breath), physical appearance and body size, language spoken, and immigration or economic status by refraining from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior or speech." And that's just the FIRST of 9 bullets! I'm offended they didn't include "children of divorced ministers families!" Wait until they get MY letter! 

    At the end of these bulleted orders, you are told that any reported potential violation can result in expulsion from the organization. "Potential", violation? Really? What the hell does that even mean? If a neighbor who is a member, sees another neighbor who is also a member, buying The Collected Works of George F. Will, is that a POTENTIAL violation worthy of suspension, and said neighbor is obligated to rat the other guy out (I'm just assuming R. Redford is not a big George Will fan)?! So now, people of a certain ilk (and you know who you are), are punishing others for things they HAVEN'T EVEN DONE YET! Welcome to the Orwellian world of anonymous informers, enforcement teams, and punishment for what you MIGHT do! The Sundance Film Festival KGB can't be far behind. C'mon, Bob. I'm a fan. You're better than this. The two most important things are freedom of speech and freedom of thought. And you know that. You protested your ass off back in the day. And it's why I bore people to death spending so much time writing about it!

    In the end, unfortunately, where people like Robert Redford, and organizations like Sundance go, so go a lot of other people and institutions. I fear that our cultural venues (museums, concert halls, playhouses, and movie theaters) will take up this "Loyalty Oath" idea and beat us over the head with it until people of good will - with only differing philosophies - will stay away from our cultural institutions, or worse yet, not be allowed in. At that point, will our cultural institutions just become echo chambers for a certain strain of thought, or point of view? And if that happens, I fear for what will come next.

write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com