Success Quote by Jack Valenti

Valenti’s line lands like a scolding, but it’s really a power move: if “no one” can define indecency anymore, then the people who get to define it should be the gatekeepers. Coming from Jack Valenti, longtime head of the Motion Picture Association and architect of the modern ratings system, it’s less a lament about cultural decay than a justification for institutional authority. He spent decades mediating between Hollywood’s profit motive, politicians hungry for moral panics, and parents anxious about what screens were doing to their kids. “Indecent” is the perfect word for that role: elastic enough to frighten donors and lawmakers, vague enough to keep regulators at bay, and moral enough to sell the industry’s self-policing as public service.

The subtext is strategic nostalgia. By implying there used to be a shared standard, Valenti conjures a lost consensus that never quite existed, then positions himself as the adult in the room capable of restoring order. It’s also a quiet swipe at pluralism: when communities disagree, the claim becomes that the culture is confused, not that the culture is diverse. That framing turns debate into pathology.

Context matters because Valenti’s era saw mass media explode, the culture wars harden, and obscenity law wobble between censorship and free speech. The line exploits that instability. Indecency becomes not a category of content, but a category of control: who gets to draw the boundary, and who gets to profit while appearing responsible.