REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, By: Abdullah Sammy

Did you know three most powerful weapons of the United States that could make the Soviet Union collapsed? That said, the three weapons were far more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The three most lethal weapons belonging to America were a cartoon series of The Simpsons, Knight Rider, and Rambo movie.

Rambo movie, for example, became an American propaganda in the cold war against the Soviet Union in 1980s. Rambo movie was able to hit moral of Soviet youth who witnessed their country as antagonists. On the other hand, a movie starred by Sylvester Stallone showed heroic side of American soldiers.

It also happened in Knight Rider series that told a story of a hero, played by David Hasselhoff and his super sophisticated car. Again, in this series Soviet was often displayed as antagonist. Other side of this film was a form of propaganda about sophistication of American technology, described in an automobile named Kitt.

Meanwhile, the cartoon series of The Simpsons by Matt Groening became one of the destroyer of the Soviet. Since it was first played in 1989 until the early 1990s, The Simpsons was often featuring jokes about Soviet. It ultimately made Soviet youth felt ashamed over their country. The series was again deployed by America to Soviet territory, especially to the border region, which still could access signal from other countries.

Indeed, the Soviet had an attack against the American movie by making another Rambo, through a movie titled Odinochnoye Plavanye by Mikhail Tumanishvili. However, the lack of quality of cinematography, made the movie was not able to be a protective shield for Soviet against Rambo, Knight Rider, and The Simpsons.

At the end, the three American movies were success with its political propaganda. Then, there was movement from 12 Republican in the Soviet Union to secede. Soviet was disbanded in December 1991, or two years after the series of The Simpsons premiered.

What happened in the Soviet, illustrated how powerful the influence of culture in lifting or destroying a nation. Hollywood actor, Nicholas Cage, once said, "A movie can change a person's thinking. And that is something that is very powerful."

Indeed, it was not just a movie that could affect people's mindset. All popular culture industry became a weapon that could tear apart someone's mind and someone's real world.

For example, looked at how Rhythm and Blues (R&B) music could be a tool of struggle of the black community in America in 1960 until 1990s.

Initially, this kind of music was seen only as African-American ethnic music community. R&B along with rap and hip-hop were identified as the streets and gang music.

However, by artists such as James Brown, the music was undergoing a metamorphosis. Brown combined vocal quality, gestures, and fashion that made this music started to popular. Slowly but surely, R&B had expanded from street clubs in African-American neighborhoods to large building which was packed by various ethnic groups in the United States, including whites.

So that R&B was morphed from African-American ethnic culture into popular culture (pop) of America. Along with that also, the existence of American blacks began to be accepted politically.

Ultimately through cultural weapon, in this music case, Afro Americans could undermine segregation in American society. One of the influential figures in African-American society movement, Malcolm X once said, "Culture is an important weapon in the struggle for freedom."

America had shown that cultural force was able to change situation in the world. How about Indonesia?

Indeed our proclaimer, Ir Sukarno, had to think for long term. Through his Trisakti concept, Bung Karno had confirmed the importance of Indonesia's sovereign in culture.

Long before the release of Rambo movie, Sukarno had already warned the threat of 'attack' of western movies, that he described as 'dar der dor movie.' Also attack of music, which appeared as anti-'ngak ngek ngok music.'

However, the movement was in fact exploited by political power at the time, such as PKI through People's Cultural Institute (Lekra). There was antithesis from Lekra, namely Cultural Manifesto (Manikebu) which stated that culture should not be co-opted by politics, but rather universal.

In the end, culture in Indonesia became another field for political battle between the holders of power. After PKI was collapsed in 1965, the culture, especially movies, held an important role in shaping principles and ideology of the nation.

One of the most memorable was probably a movie by Arifin C. Noer, namely Crushing Betrayal of G30S PKI. The movie that was made in 1984 and spent nearly 1 billion US dollar, became a must-watch movie since it was first launched at 1998.

Outside a movie about G30S PKI, Indonesia also had a nationalism movie, such as Janur Kuning (1979), Serangan Fajar (1981), and Tjoet Nja' Dhien (1988). However, apart from that era, Indonesian movies changed to become mystery, adolescents love life, and soon.

Now, the era of Jokowi seemed like to revive the ideals of Bung Karno through Trisakti concept. One of ideas of Bung Karno's Trisakti concept was sovereign culturally.

However, if we opened the television today, the Trisakti concept of Jokowi style might be still merely a joke. TV in Indonesia had become a mirror of how the advance of Turkish, India, and Korean culture. Even if there were Indonesian soap operas, all of them were still far from educating, even it were damaging.

Indeed, on the other hand, Indonesian movie industry began to rise. But, it was hard to say that Indonesia movies were hosted in Indonesian theater itself. Conversely, foreign movies with its sequels were routinely presented annually.

Not only movies, Indonesian music was now no longer as media that was voicing struggle. If previously, every cry of the people was able to be composed into the lyrics, now some of musicians actually were a lot to write about poems of campaign. Musicians were more often seen in the Palace.

In the end, the true cultural struggle must be the struggle of the 'street', instead of a palace. Culture was not the doctrine of the holders of power.

On this side, the cultural actors played an important role. They held the role of movie as a tool to make progress or even a tool of destruction. They were also able to determine if music remained as a sound of 'screams', or just the sound of power.

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