Super essay. Sad, too. Thanks, though.
anne | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 11:10 am | #

Makes me wonder if the line about "at least I don't work for a Jew" was meant as a joke or not.
Robert Crawford | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 12:56 pm | #

How about this: Works of art stand by themselves. I can be reminded of a great thought by a painting, film, etc. created for negative reasons. It's what we bring to it.
BH | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 3:23 pm | #

I have repeatedly developed an affection for a painter, only to study more closely and find that what he was trying to accomplish is something I would only partly agree with. Or worse.
Assistant Village Idiot | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 3:30 pm | #

BTW, Jay Nordlinger over at NRO spent many years in Ann Arbor -- grew up there, I think -- and often references it in his writing.
Assistant Village Idiot | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 3:32 pm | #

I feel betrayed. It's like their morally relative attitudes are erasing any meaning.
susan | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 3:35 pm | #

And of course the Islamofascists have no sense of humor and Gilliam and the rest of the Pythons would be the first to be beheaded under the new regime. Let him try to be subversive in Iran, or Saudi Arabia.
Junior | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 4:41 pm | #

I had a similar reaction when learning that Viggo Mortensen was against the war in Iraq. He had just played Aragorn in a 3-part 10-hour epic about the spread of an evil empire that brought civilization down and covered the land with blight and slavery.

What the f*** did "Aragorn" think Lord of the Rings was all about?

Answer: Well, OK, LOTR is a metaphor--but Islamofascism and jihadism fits that metaphor rather neatly, doncha think???
Promethea | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 5:02 pm | #

Even better: Mortensen said LOTR was an antiwar book! As for Gilliam, it's not his fault: he doesn't know a single person who would admit to supporting Bush/Blair.
jeff | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 6:21 pm | #

While England slept, Monty Python lulled us all into dhimmitude.
Sissy Willis | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 6:24 pm | #

Enjoy the art, ignore the artists.

#1 - It's not that they don't know anything, it's that they know things that are false. This is much more dangerous. The worst part is that if you show them the facts, they go back to the drivel the next week. The person who solves THAT one will save the world.

The reality is right there for that woman in Mr. Elders' article, but she won't believe it because it means her comfortable self-superiority is based on a lie.

#2 - Mortensen is a great actor, so he doesn't have to be good at other things - like living in the real world.

The real problem is people who give a damn what actors say about politics (or physics or economics or plate tectonics). I want to hear actors talk about acting and moviemaking, I don't want to hear geologists talk about acting and hairdressing!

Like a young Elvis Presley is reputed to have said when asked a political question by a reporter, "Ma'am, I don't know anything about that, I'm just an actor."
Merovign | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 9:35 pm | #

Yes people do show an astounding amount of ignorance as well as rudeness but I question Mr. Elders numbers. If you add all the percentages up, slices of pie so to speak, the pie is 200.11%. Hmmmm unusually large pie...
Irregardless, I understand his point, "rich" people do pay taxes. Which reminds me of the rich Democrat Mr. Kerry, who only paid 9% of his declared millions (in 2003?)compared to Mr. Bush paying 28% of his considerably smaller income. But, hey we all know Bush favors the rich...
Personally, I'm an advocate for the flat tax.
ljmcinnis | Email | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 11:55 pm | #

Um--I think the percentages add up to 100% (96.54% + 3.46%). The other numbers were two different equations; one looked at the how much the top 1% paid (34.27% of taxes paid by top 1% of taxpayers + 65.73% paid by bottom 99% of taxpayers = 100%) and the other how much the top 10% paid (65.84% of taxes paid by top 10% of taxpayers + 34.16% paid by the bottom 90% of taxpayers = 100%)--two different comparisons, not meant to be added together.

Hmmm--I probably made things worse. *shrug*
Cathy | Email | Homepage | 10.23.05 - 12:59 am | #

We give actors and their WORK way too much credit.
susan | Email | Homepage | 10.23.05 - 7:20 am | #

> Answer: Well, OK, LOTR is a metaphor--but Islamofascism and jihadism fits that metaphor rather neatly, doncha think???

Unfortunately, the illusion of American Imperialism is equally fitting and fits much better into their own liberal guilt and self-loathing.

> I want to hear actors talk about acting and moviemaking, I don't want to hear geologists talk about acting and hairdressing!

Ah, me. Would that all people had such sense. Well said. People give too much shrift to the ideas of people who did not have the intellect to attend college even for a couple of years.
ObloodyHell | Email | Homepage | 10.23.05 - 2:19 pm | #

There I was, right in the middle of my own living room, watching a film from the 80's and suddenly listening to a diatribe against current American foreign policy.

On my English Lit final I argued that just because an author says "this is why I wrote something" doesn't mean that is the best explanation. I justified my contention with examples backed up by additional facts and psychological analyses.

The teacher wrote on the exam, "This is interesting, but WRONG. F"
Solomon2 | Email | Homepage | 10.23.05 - 3:28 pm | #

Thanks Cathy! That is the only way the numbers make sense.
ljmcinnis | Email | Homepage | 10.23.05 - 11:49 pm | #

I bought the DVD last month too and didn't notice the Gilliam comment. Sadly, I did notice that Terry Jones come out favouring Sadam earlier on.

Look at it this way; we all loved Python because the articulated the absurd. They haven't changed a bit.

Cheers,
blair | Email | Homepage | 10.24.05 - 4:16 pm | #

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