The line between reality and fantasy

By Paul Schratz

Poor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The California governor and movie actor has been wrestling with split personalities for so long on film that he now no longer knows where to draw the line between fantasy and reality in office.

The star of films like Total Recall and the Terminator series said a very strange thing the other day: “I am a Catholic and a very dedicated Catholic, but that does not interfere with my decision-making because I know that stem-cell research ... is the right way to go....”

Now Schwarzenegger is a talented actor, and his heart seems to be in the right place on many issues, but to declare publicly that one is a dedicated Catholic and that it has no influence on your decision-making is to be unclear about a very important point.

Catholicism influences your decision making.

Maybe Schwarzenegger has played one too many roles in which appearance conflicts with reality, such as Total Recall, where viewers aren’t sure whether the scenarios happening on screen are really happening to the Schwarzenegger character, or whether they’re some fantastic alternative events happening in his mind.

Similarly, he now seems to be living in some parallel universe where one can be a “dedicated Catholic” and yet have that dedication subordinated to a different reality, one’s political priorities.

When Schwarzenegger says he has always believed “you should not have your religion interfere with government policies or with the policies of the people,” what he is in fact saying is that he is dedicated to a symbolic and perhaps cultural Catholicism that doesn’t conform to any sort of reality.

It’s rather like saying one is a dedicated supporter of health care without believing in doctors, medicine, exercise, or nutrition.

Or describing oneself as a dedicated artist without believing in paint, clay, canvas, or any medium apart from maybe an Etch-A-Sketch.

Or being a dedicated actor without believing in memorizing lines or appearing in front of other people.

In the end, Schwarzenegger is much like Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, another “Catholic” politician who believes in a faith, that faith being practical utilitarianism, that “transcends all faiths.” This is why McGuinty inked an embryonic stem-cell research deal with California while hosting the governor recently.

Trying to get details of that deal took effort, since most media coverage focused on efforts to make our two countries “greener” and to promote tourism, while relegating the stem-cell deal to a few words, with no mention of the human destructiveness that the research causes.

Needless to say, one suspects McGuinty and Schwarzenegger would have no concern about using their religious beliefs to make the earth a greener environment. It’s unlikely they would have any qualms over letting their faith influence their views on cross-border travel.

Only when the rubber hits the road with controversial issues is Catholicism seen as “interfering,” which is another way of saying it conflicts with one’s personal views.

In essence, Catholicism is fine when it supports the politicians’ views, but not when it challenges them to rethink their positions.

That’s not Catholicism, but instead an alternative experience where one has to struggle constantly to figure out whether one’s beliefs are actually one’s beliefs, or something that can be adapted like lines in an actor’s script.

Just like one of Schwarzenegger’s movies.