Some young grad student 100 years from now will garner a PH.D on a dissertation explaining how Hasselhoff and Baywatch REALLY brought down the Iron Curtain. He'll be the talk of the academic world.

And we'll all be dead.

Oy.

SMG

So there is a bright side to mortality after all.

Yet another BBC oversight.

To be fair, in the same era, we had Michael Bolton.

My guess is that David Hasselhoff deserves a little bit of credit for bringing down the Berlin Wall. We should never underestimate the role culture plays in advancing freedom. I seriously doubt, though, that Hasselhoff played a major role. Singing about the virtues of freedom during that era certainly didn’t hurt anything. Still, it was Ronald Reagan who implored:

“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/wall.asp

“Some young grad student 100 years from now will garner a Ph.D. on a dissertation explaining how Hasselhoff and Baywatch REALLY brought down the Iron Curtain. He'll be the talk of the academic world.”

I actually think that a number of serious studies could be written concerning the role played by the entertainment industry in overthrowing Communism. Has anybody attempted such a necessary task? It would really be a good idea. David Hasselhoff is indulging in a major ego trip. But there’s likely a modest bit of truth in his claims. Western rock artists almost certainly did encourage the youths residing in the Soviet controlled countries to desire more freedom.

A celebrity who uses the power of music to bring two warring factions together ... that sound like THE VIDEOGAME I'M PLAYING.

It reminds me of the guys on "Friends" watching "Baywatch."

Maybe the thought of seeing Yasmine Bleeth on first run TV instead of all those lousy 3rd and 4th generation bootlegged tape is what caused the wall to come down.

Was it just conincidence that most of those we saw tearing down the wall were in that coveted 16 - 30 year old age group?

I dither, you deny.

This just goes to prove my theory - Germans love David Hasselhoff!

Hasselhoff may have a point about the power of music. I knew the Soviet Union was doomed when I heard in the early 80s that Gromyko's grandson was in a Rolling Stones cover band.

It seems to me that the real point here is the power of celebrity . . . in the minds of celebrities. Pathetic, yet illustrative.

One of the ironies first noted (I think) by William F. Buckley was that one of the darkest periods for the West during the Cold War was the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. It did indeed appear at that time that the "future" was in their hands; that the West was falling behind the progressive forces advancing quickly ahead of the disorganized Occident.

But history is a brutal teacher and the very same launch systems that could boost nuclear tipped missiles into space half a world away could also launch satellites which would beam television and radio signals through and beyond the walls. And so while we were watching them, they could start to watch us without state control. They would learn about our, yes, vices but our virtues as well. And we offered an alternative to their system.

In the "Power of the Powerless", Havel pointed out that it took the individual to say no to the lies of the Communist system. That he or she would not blindly accept the propaganda in the store windows. But in order to find that strength, another vision would have to be offered.

Interesting as well that Havel places great credit to Western rock music in his own journey towards freedom and anticomunism.

SMG

You appear to have "Dreznalanched" the FHM server into submission.

Instead of filling in for Andrew Sullivan I suspect you are dreaming of "guest-blogging" for Scott Baio.

P.S. - Donna D'Errico is a sharper interview than GWB was last Sunday on MTP.