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March 02, 2005
The Death of Life
WARNING: This post contains a spoiler about the film Million Dollar Baby. Skip it if you have not seen the film and do not want to know the plot.
I was not surprised that Million Dollar Baby garnered so many Oscars. By any definition, Hollywood is a liberal town and Million Dollar Baby addresses one of the more fashionable issues consuming the Hollywood elite: the so-called right to die. In the film, Clint Eastwood kills Hilary Swank; this is presented as an heroic act of compassion and loyalty after she has been greivously wounded. Make no mistake, and as Hugh Hewitt pointed out on his radio show, this is murder, not even suicide-assisted death where a pill is left on a night table. Kervokian was put in jail for exactly this act. Hollywood has found its next "progressive" cause and you should expect to see many more stories with this theme.
Last night, Karen and I took our Huff break. I have the full season of the ShowTime series Huff on disk. Hank Azaria plays a decent and compassionate psychiatrist going through various crises. The writing is superb and the acting is of the highest level. Padgett Brewser, a subtle and riveting actress, plays Azaria's common sense wife. Oliver Platt steals the show as Azaria's sex obsessed, drug ingesting lawyer. Most television bores me, but Huff has captured my imagination. I look forward to sitting on the couch with Karen and watching an episode after a long day of work.
But last night, Huff betrayed me.
In the episode we screeened, Blythe Danner, who plays Huff's blue blood Pasadena mother, euthanizes a close friend who has suffered a massive stroke. The screenwriter makes sure to tell us that there is no brain activity, no hope. And so, when Danner pulls the plug, sits on the edge of the bed and whispers, "You can go now, darling, you can go." We are meant to breathe a sigh of relief. We are meant to see Danner's action as compassionate and courageous. I literally got up from the couch and walked away from the TV. I felt betrayed. I felt sick.
But I should not be surprised. Hollywood is filled with people who play G-d every day. They are so insulated from reality that it's not a big leap for them to advocate murder and justify it with hardly a flicker of doubt.
It would be well for us to remember that the first victims of Nazi murder were not Jews, not Communists. The first people crammed into mobile gas chambers were the mentally ill, and those born with birth defects. It is not well known but this practice of state sponsored murder was halted because of wide spread civic protests by mothers and relatives.
The liberalism of John F. Kennedy, who vowed to pursue freedom at all costs, has morphed into a moral relativity where murder is not only justified but glorified. Pay close attention for we are entering a new era of political thought. The signs are unmistakable: the obsession with health has spawned a new cultural figure: the health Nazi; the rise of PETA, the so-called animal rights movement, founded by Professor Peter Singer of Princeton, a man who advocates the morality of parents killing their babies who have severe birth defects, but protecting "the rights of animals."
Yes, pay close attention, for a new era of political thought is at hand. The signs are clear, freedom is under attack, not from the right, but from the left. It is the left who would banish gun ownership. It is the left who will eventually ban cigarettes -- everywhere. It is the left who see abortion as an unrestricted right. It is the left who worries more about prisoner abuse than terrorism. It is the left who are more concerned with global warming than with the mass graves of the middle east. It is the left who would ban capital punishment, but blithely turn a blind eye to the genocide in the Sudan. It is the left who force the city of Los Angeles to erase a tiny cross from the city seal, yet say not a word about the persecution of Christians in Arab countries. And, of course, it is the left who claim that the Jihadists hate us and kill us for the supposed injustices the West has perpetrated, rather than for who we are--a freedom loving people.
Yes, pay close attention, we are entering a new era where much of classic liberal ideology becomes virtually indistinguishable from totalitarianism.
Karen adds: A related conversation with Robert as we are driving, listening to soundbites on the radio. Hunter S. Thompson, the "gonzo journalist" was lauded as "heroic" as well as "poetic" for shooting himself in the head. The so called "intelligensia" of Los Angeles rallied around this act as a glorification of choosing death rather than endorsing the courage and fortitude it would take to fight life's battles.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at March 2, 2005 08:10 AM
Comments
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1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Robert, very well written!!
Hollywood not only betrays with its liberalism of morals, but it also betrays with its liberalism of poor quality of writing & directing. Almost every time I have left the movie theatre, I am left scratching my head, thinking, how on earth did the producer see the final product, and say "I am proud of my work!" Lately, there have been a slew of cookie-cutter scripts, where there is no originality, and is written under the assumption that the audience is a bumbling idiotic mass, where their typical boy-meets-girl plot will strike a doglike Pavlovian response of its viewers. A backwards roller skating blindfolded monkey could write better script! Perhaps it is cheaper to produce, but it causes a dumbing down of humanity. Where are the Shawshank Redemptions of today??
Posted by: Rachel at March 3, 2005 05:56 AM
The problem with liberals is thier inconsistency. My brother likes to say that "true liberals would be proabrotion for dolphins."
The bottom line of course is, liberals really don't accept everyone. Anyone who's lesss liberal than they, are treif. They by definiton have inconsistencies in thier doctrine.
Posted by: Avi Stewart at March 3, 2005 11:25 AM
I am more worried about the right. This is a typical post that means very little to anybody. So you attack people and ideas because you don't care about these ideas very much. Wow.
I am more worried about what the right is doing to this country. How they have ruined so many lives w/ their lack of an economy plan whatsoever. Instead Bush directs the country into a war that is a huge cost of American, and Iraqi lives, thousands dead, and many more wounded.
OK so that is what you care about, the Iraqi people who were suffering under Saddam. God bless you and I mean it. That they are still suffering, is only temporary perhaps. I grant that perhaps, eventually the murders will stop there.
As an American, I am more concerned w/ the lack of real government here. To make sure that all Americans can afford to live here. To do something about the environment. These are important to me. I don't need to be called names because what is important to you, is different.
Posted by: Frank at March 8, 2005 04:55 PM