Amendment
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
First Amendment to the U.S.Constitution
The People vs. Larry Flynt was marketed as a dirty picture when it first came out. I remember because as an adolescent I wanted to see what all this sex was about. Who was Larry Flynt? I didn’t know, all I vaguely remember was mention of sex, lewd pictures and a curly-haired guy. I first saw the film my senior year in high school. I confidently walked into the Video Americain shop in Takoma Park and rented it. What I watched was not a dirty movie, but a rather serious movie about the publisher of Hustler Magazine, and his tempestuous relationship with his lawyer.Having been raised by lawyers and judges—and at that age totally not interested—I didn’t understand half of what was going on. What I’ve remembered all these years was Courtney Love’s simply superb performance as Larry’s wife Althea. (Her performance still holds up.)
Fast forward to 2026, 30 years after the film was first released. I’ve lived in the United States a while, I’m older and more learned. Directed by the Czech Milos Forman, The People vs. Larry Flynt is about more than the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: it’s about the United States of America. Who and what it is at it’s core: a fairly conservative, self-righteous, and cleverest-takes-all enterprising nation. Only an outsider could look at Larry Flynt's publishing journey through that lens and get to the duplicitous core of what the so-called American dream is about.
Larry Flynt may have been a self-described pervert—god bless him—but Larry Flynt was a maverick. So, he built an empire on the lewd and obscene, so what; sex makes the world go round. That he took a case to the Supreme Court and fought for a freedom that we take for granted, ischampion. The irony was not lost on me that Jerry Falwell, a supposed man of God, was battling against the right for freedom because his image had supposedly been hurt. The story is almost Biblical: a pornographer has more integrity than a man of God. Fictionalized as it was, I cried when Alan Isaacman defended his case Hustler Magazine vs. Falwell before the nine Supreme Court Judges. Thought he judges may not have personally agreed with Flynt’s publication, they were able to listen to the argument set before them and interpret the law in a meaningful and intelligent fashion. As conservative as Antonin Scalia was, he could hold a respectful discourse with Isaacman. What a time that was to live in, when you could disagree with your opponent yet continue to hold them in high regard so as to engage in a little Lincoln-Douglas. I cried for a such a time, just as much as I cried to see the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of press be upheld.
The United States of 2026 is devoid of respect. The pendulum has swung to a such pole that rationale seems like an archaic Oxford dictionary entry rather than legitimate reasons to run a fair and functioning society. Our beliefs, those rooted in the faith and not, have been tainted by the black bile of unchecked greed. We can no longer see and in our blindness American’s are losing the parts that made their insufferable arrogance tolerable.The hard work ethic, the creativity, the optimistic spunk that anything is possible, the crass, unsophisticated sense of humour, to many those were charming traits. The most charming of which was the freedom to say whatever they wanted and be protected. To lose that privilege, is to lose what makes the United States of America fundamentally itself. And it’s shocking to see how hollow snake-oil salesmen are using that trait to silence and destroy the nation. Quite frankly,I’d take a million pornographers over what we have sitting in our positions of leadership today. At least they’d be pandering to our most basic and enjoyable human pleasure: the joy of commune.
Image: Free Speech Center-MTSU
