This article was written by our good friend Brian Spirito.
Actor Sean Penn recently left the United States to visit Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela. Chavez has spent the past several years administering his “Bolivarian Revolution” in his native land. Championed by everyone including Communists, Socialists, Terrorists and Hollywood, Chavez has slowly stripped human rights from his people on their behalf. That is the tragic irony of socialism: all the atrocities happen in the name of “The People.” He has shut out foreign businesses that employed his people, shut down media outlets not loyal to him, supported terror groups throughout Latin America and partnered with rogue terrorist nations such as Iran and Syria. Sean Penn, Danny Glover and a whole slew of Hollywood actors have lent their support to this Socialist/Communist takeover of Venezuela. After Sean Penn’s embarrassing rescue mission to New Orleans, maybe he should leave the rescue of the underclass to someone else.
“When I see an American flag flying, it’s a joke.”
Robert Altman
1/21/2002
What is it about America that has made these people wealthy celebrities and has them so diametrically opposed to freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly and capitalism? This is nothing new; in fact, it would seem to be part of a pattern that has pervaded the past 200 years. Artists, actors, writers and academics rallied behind Communists on several occasions. In 1848, Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky was arrested in St. Petersburg for joining a radical group with other academics who were plotting to overthrow Czar Nicholas I. In 1917, writers like Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky championed Communism and motivated Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky while Russian producers wrote anti-government plays leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, Hollywood actors, writers, directors and film executives were questioned by the House Unamerican Activities Committee (including Sean Penn’s father Leo Penn) and some were blacklisted for their ties to the US Communist party.
“I think the U.S. is terrifying, and it saddens me.”
Tom Cruise (not his real name)
6/27/2002
 
“I think scientology is terrifying, and it saddens me.”
Brian Spirito (my real name)
8/17/2007
To be fair, numerous actors keep some class when they talk about politics. Acting is not easy work and takes a lot of talent to be great, but when Hollywood carries a general disdain for the great unwashed citizens of the world (except for the hand picked mascots of their charitable work), they cannot be taken seriously. Along with academics, they carry what Thomas Sowell describes as “The Vision of the Anointed.” In his book of the same name, Sowell describes how self appointed visionaries arrogantly lecture society about how they should think and act rather than being open minded to the fact that most people do not believe in Socialism. They contend that anyone who disagrees with them must be evil, dumb or otherwise ignorant. Another sad irony: the very people who complain most about the American Government seem to want to give the government more power via health care, the “Fairness” Doctrine over broadcasting and increased welfare programs.
Let us put these celebrities into perspective. They make a living out of telling fictional stories and acting like other people. They embellish real events, exclude inconvenient facts and rewrite history for the sake of broadcasting a more interesting story. Why wouldn’t they do this with their politics? Their children are in private schools and raised by nannies, their accountants handle their money, their agents find their employment and their housemaids clean up after them. Face it, they do not live in the world that 99% of us live in. How can they tell us how to think and vote? How can they lecture us about our lifestyles? How can they pretend to understand what people in poverty are really doing? They don’t even go to the same rehab as other citizens, they go to luxury spas, we go to jail. When mainstream society disagrees with their altered reality, Hollywood begins the lectures to the masses.
“I don’t know of a country [America] where the people are so ignorant of reality and of history, if you can call that a free world.”
“Hanoi” Jane Fonda (Viet Cong Artillery Expert)
4/8/2003
So how do we handle celebrity politics? For one, ignore them and stop giving them your money. Stop buying silly celebrity magazines, stop going to movies featuring socialist actors, educate yourself and vote using logic instead of groupthink. Know your beliefs and read history. None of the issues facing America are new; they’ve been rehashed over and over again. We can see the Socialist policies advocated and championed by the Hollywood elite have proven disastrous for every nation that has adopted them and we will see over the next decade how their support for a future dictator will destroy Venezuela. The condescension toward their country and support for a totalitarian such as Chavez is not without precedent. Writers, academics and Hollywood have had sympathies for Joseph Stalin, Che Guevara, Mao Zedong and numerous other ‚Äúrevolutionaries‚Äù throughout history.
Some excellent books I recommend:
“Can America Survive” by: Ben Stein, Phil DeMuth
“The Vision of the Anointed” by: Thomas Sowell
*this article was featured on August 29, 2007
