March 8, 2006
UNAMERICAN AFFAIR (via Raoul Ortega):
Missed Tributes (Ben Stein, 3/6/2006, American Spectator)
Now for a few humble thoughts about the Oscars.I did not see every second of it, but my wife did, and she joins me in noting that there was not one word of tribute, not one breath, to our fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan or to their families or their widows or orphans. There were pitifully dishonest calls for peace -- as if the people we are fighting were interested in any peace for us but the peace of the grave. But not one word for the hundreds of thousands who have served and are serving, not one prayer or moment of silence for the dead and maimed.
Basically, the sad truth is that Hollywood does not think of itself as part of America, and so, to Hollywood, the war to save freedom from Islamic terrorists is happening to someone else. It does not concern them except insofar as it offers occasion to mock or criticize George Bush. They live in dreamland and cannot be gracious enough to thank the men and women who pay with their lives for the stars' ability to live in dreamland. This is shameful. [...]
Hollywood is above all about self: self-congratulation, self-promotion, and above all, self-protection.
It's European. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 8, 2006 1:45 PM
Knock a tower or two down at Century City and they'll be demanding we nuke half the Middle East and probably any other nation in the world not advanced enough to have a Guchi outlet, or at least a Starbucks with a drive-thru.
Posted by: John at March 8, 2006 2:52 PMJohn -
No they don't think that way. They'd announce plans to build new, more Islamist friendly buildings with separate working quarters for men and women and kiosks handing out free prayer mats.
Posted by: Shelton at March 8, 2006 3:20 PMShelton: Kinda like Gitmo.
Posted by: John Resnick at March 8, 2006 3:28 PMShelton --
That would be true if the knocked a town over in downtown L.A., a plan mentioned by Bush a couple of weeks ago. Only low-to-moderate income people (mostly Hispanic) live around there -- nothing to work up a concern about, the same way the three-mile distance between Ground Zero and the New York Times' editorial offices make their op-ed writers think they're on the other side of the Earth. So in that case, you're probably right about the reaction.
But if they hit a big building in Century City, well, that would be way too close to their own neighborhoods of Beverly Hills, Bel Air and the hills around the Sepulveda Pass. In that case, a major response must be instigated, because now they're threatening really, really, really important people (and ... oh yea .. Bush should be impeached for not keeping the west side of Los Angeles safe. There has to be some sort of ideological consistancy here).
Posted by: John at March 8, 2006 3:41 PMHollywood the capital of the Overweening Ego? Land of the Perpetually Stuck-Up? Home of Narcissus?
Say it isn't so!
Posted by: Mikey at March 8, 2006 4:38 PMThe cobbling together of resources to make a movie - money, talent, production, location - is capitalism at its most predatory.
Very weird that those very people can be among the most left wing.
Posted by: John J. Coupal at March 8, 2006 7:00 PMI see it more as another example of the treason of the intellectuals.
Posted by: PapayaSF at March 8, 2006 7:51 PM"treason of the intellectuals"
Treason, yes, it is, or at least sedition...but intellectuals, no...
To be an intellectual implies the ability to reason, to use your intellect to look at problems and develop rational solutions...these tinseltown folks only know how to memorize the lines cleverer people write for them, and then emote them and mimic what a real person feeling that emotion might look like. Projecting from an empty shell or living as parasites of those that have this ability...that's the Hollywood crew.
Doug: the alternative translation of the word in the title of the book is "clerks," meaning (in short) the educated. In Benda's terminology, Hollywood types are "intellectuals" or "clerks" in the sense that they are educated and don't work with their hands on farms or in factories, etc. He's not saying they are intellectuals in the sense of PhDs or professors.
Posted by: PapayaSF at March 9, 2006 12:06 AMdoug:
No, it doesn't.
http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/530/
Posted by: oj at March 9, 2006 7:17 AM