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March 09, 2006
Forgetting those who serve
In case you didn't know, I didn't bother to watch the Oscars this year.
Ben Stein didn't see all of it, but his wife did, and she pointed out an omission that says everything you need to know about the moral depravity of the self-obsessed Hollywood hoi-polloi.
[T]here 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.
The idea that it is brave to stand up for gays in Hollywood, to stand up against Joe McCarthy in Hollywood (fifty years after his death), to say that rich white people are bad, that oil companies are evil -- this is nonsense. All of these are mainstream ideas in Hollywood, always have been, always will be. For the people who made movies denouncing Big Oil, worshiping gays, mocking the rich to think of themselves as brave -- this is pathetic, childish narcissism.
[...]
Hollywood is above all about self: self-congratulation, self-promotion, and above all, self-protection. This is human and basic, but let's not kid ourselves. There is no greatness there in the Kodak theater. The greatness is on patrol in Kirkuk. The greatness lies unable to sleep worrying about her man in Mosul. The greatness sleeps at Arlington National Cemetery and lies waiting for death in VA Hospitals. God help us that we have sunk so low as to confuse foolish and petty boasting with the real courage that keeps this nation and the many fools in it alive and flourishing on national TV.
Disgusting. Shameful. But not surprising.
Can we question their patriotism, now?
Read the whole thing.
Posted by Mike Lief at March 9, 2006 12:57 AM
Comments
Beautiful - or should I say "amazing" (since that is the most overused word at awards shows). Thank you for this post, and also for putting it so close to a post regarding the Jacksons. I find that to be a most appropriate spot.
Posted by: Thin Ice at March 9, 2006 09:59 AM
Ben Stein, what a resume this guy has. Brilliant is just too general a description for his accomplishments.
The way he wrote about the Oscars made it probably my favorite essay ever on Hollywood.
I did watch a little of this year's show. The George Clooney junk was just nauseating. Ben Stein nailed that hypocrisy perfectly.
I immediately thought of 30s Hollywood and a quote from Hattie McDaniel (who in my opinion holds her own star power onscreen to this day). Upon being cast as second-class help in a variety of roles she said, "I'd rather play a maid than be one."
Stepin Fetchit also lived the height of elegance and comfort. Beverly Hills home, proper household staff, butler, cook, everything. These people knew how to work the system. Lemons into lemonade. Although obviously nobody will deny that the system was weighted against minorities for decades.
Ben Stein. One of my favorites.
Posted by: Vermont Neighbor at June 25, 2006 05:47 PM