Roger L. Simon: Why do Sean Penn, Danny Glover and now Kevin Spacey love the dictator Chavez?

Maybe they crave a mean director (not as many of those in Hollywood as there used to be).

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And don't forget Harry Belafonte. He is one of the most outspoken. You can read about his outrageous statements here: http://gopvixen.blogs.com/gop_vixen/2006/01/harry_belafonte.html

Roger's right --if the world is a movie, the Reds have the corner on the great imagery.

Red banners, shirts, hats, all struck against the blue sky and the seedy, frowning background of capitalist mean streets. The big balloons, paper-mache puppets, & parade floats, Uncle Demon Sam striding crazily on circus stilts, and everywhere on heart-filled chests, Che!

Yes yes it's all very filmic --who can blame our poor downtrodden Hollywood stars for wanting a credit on the playbill? Plus they get to do the power-handshakes! Cool!

Roger, that's an easy one, it's BDS, Bush Derangement Syndrome...Chavez Hates Bush, Hollywood Hates Bush, every opportunity they have to stick it to BushCo.,...you fill in the blank.

"In Venezuela, we don't have journalist like in your country... In Venezuela we don't have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it."

i can see that --kevin has a plateful of good empanadas, decides he must be a commie at heart. makes perfect sense.

Tomorrow he'll have a Polish sausage, and decide to be an electrician in Gdansk. Or, a Pope maybe.

A Polish electrician! Then he can threaten to move to France and take their jobs away (or do the jobs they won't do).

LarryD is right, of course, that these people are advanced-stage narcissists. But why do narcissists of this sort seek out the Castros, the Chavezes, the Arafats, the Ortegas?

One reason is that they all spout leftist rhetoric, as empty of meaning as any thinking person can see it is.

Another reason is just the sheer contrariness of it. Robin Williams has a routine where he imitates a Frenchmen who says, "Loook, I am geeving a ceegarette to a babee!" And then looks at the camera for a horrified reaction. The need of the "artist" or "intellectual" to be avant garde, and the need of the avant garde to be simply shocking---they must think ever so much more deeply than the rest of us. This explains a lot of what I call the Law of the Perfect Perversity of the Left.

But I think it is also obvious that, as has unfortunately but obviously become a hallmark of the contemporary Left, the core of it is because the Chavezes, et al, all are outspoken America baiters and haters. Leftists just hate it when the Ann Coulters of the world question their so-called "patriotism." But it's hard to avoid noticing the "blame Ameirca first" tendency. Glorifying tyrants who so flamboyantly denounce the U.S. is a way of "giving a cigarette to a baby,"---to be the contrary cool kids in high school, but for them it has to have an anti-American valence or it just doesn't count. These people love America. They just hate Americans and everything they do, say or stand for. So of course, the Chaveses are their pals.

freetotem, had the same thought --when they love America, it's the topography they're talking about.

how about... Spacey et al are ACTORS; and good actors, too. Therefore, they aren't thinking people, they ACT their "lives.".

Also. They are SUCCESSFUL, MONEYMAKING actors. Therefore, they are very sensitive to what is "hip."

It is "hip" to shake hands with Chavez. It is "hip" to "protest" the war in Iraq. It is "hip" to say BushLiedPeopleDied. Not that they believe any of that stuff. They don't believe anything much, except what the lines on the script say in their latest movie.

But why do narcissists of this sort seek out the Castros, the Chavezes, the Arafats, the Ortegas?

Narcissists are totally and inflexibly authoritarian. In other words, they are suck-ups. They want to be authority figures and, short of that, they want to be associated with authority figures. In their hearts, they know they can't think well, have no judgment about what matters, are not connected with the world they inhabit, so they cling fanatically to the opinions of people they regard as authority figures ... it's really an admission of weakness: they really mean it: they said what they said because someone they admire or fear said it and they're trying to borrow that person's strength.

Of course, they prefer authoritarians of their own stripe, and America is the enemy of their brand of authoritarianism. America, by it's very existence, is a rebuke to the economic and social rational of their authoritarianism.

Good stuff, LarryD --and maybe there's another thing. It may not be an overt front-of-the-mind notion, but the importance and power of the entertainment industry may be inverse to the power and dynamism of an economy--and a society.

The evidence is empirical--the so-called "Golden Age of Hollywood" was during the Depression--when folks most wanted distraction & escape, and when movie stars were thus at their zenith of power and influence.

I know--a stretch. But there must be some reason that business enterprise, the importance of being earnest, and all the other Jack Armstrong traits are so universally ridiculed out in Lotus Land.

you know --never ask a barber whether you need a haircut, never ask a celeb if you need someone glam to fix on 'cuz your own life is so gloomy.

Who says Penn, Glover and Spacey are good actors? They were all overrated, are now past prime, and it's doubtful any of them had any great chops as thinkers. The last movie I saw Glover in, the deplorable Shooter with Markie Mark, he seemed like a man recovering from a stroke. These guys are aging, they spent their careers pretending to be people they are not and feeling things they don't feel, they memorized the words somebody else wrote and were led along by whatever director was on the set, and now they pretend to be progressive by fawning over this cheap caudillo. They're fools.

Actors gravitate to socialist tyrnats becasue they are postmodern leftists; they are drwn to postmodern leftism because of two reasons:

1 - they are drawn to drama and play-acting because they want to get out of themselves, be someone else and be the center of attention - like a tyrant. chavez id not the "mean director" on their lot, he is the star. the star they want to be. a benevolent star, of course - one who rules center-stage for the common good and pleasure and edification of the audience.

2- they are trained to "become" the character they play and to completely empathize with the character regardless of whether the character/role is evil or good or how mixed it is.

this desire to be the star and this trained ability to empathize by identifying with the role makes actors very morally and culturally relativistic. these are core values of the postmodern left.

this is why they look at international conflict as merely about power relations and not values - because values are relativistic, and therefore something you never fight for EXCEPT if there cross-cultural unanimity; (which is why the left over-values the UN).

they see the USA as the bully who has no right to "inflict" our morals on to any other nation.

they do not see the USA as defending anything noble - like Universal Values, because they don't exist for the postmodern left.

they existed for the Old Liberals - the classical libs like FDR and Eleanor and Truman and JFK, but not foe the Penns and Moores et al.

I have nothing but contempt for Glover, Penn and Spacey as citizens, but Penn was quite good in Mystic River, and Spacey was exceptional in The Usual Suspects and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, to name just a couple (KPAX and LA Confidential also come to mind).

Yeah, I thought Penn and Glover have turned in good performances but I've never really cared for Spacey as an actor. Always something struck me as false in his performance.

Glengarry Glen Ross --he was pretty deadly playing a hyper-ambitious, cruel, amoral backstabber.

September 25, 2007: Why do Sean Penn, Danny Glover and now Kevin Spacey love the dictator Chavez?

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