Posted on 03/22/2002 2:24:42 AM PST by kattracks
The following excerpt is from a letter by Robert Redford, published in the 2002 edition of the Sundancecatalog of clothing and fashion accessories:
I think of the word - open. How relevant it is in this time. How important to our future. Events of this past year seized us from behind like a mugging in dark alley. Perhaps we were too closed, too preoccupied to see it coming.
Were we too closed in our own self-absorption and self-interest? Not open or interested in others - other cultures, other views, other voices? We seemed closed in our own success and greed.
It is precisely because our society is so "open" that we were left so vulnerable to the attacks of September 11th .
The terrorists who came here to kill us were utterly reliant on our society being open and sensitive to their views. After all, many of the terrorists posed as students or as hard-working immigrants seeking citizenship and a better life.
The actual intent of terrorists is lost in Redford's guilt-ridden rationalization that somehow the American people are to blame for being attacked.
As if the man in the street in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or Iran is "open and interested" in American "culture, views, and voices." The double standard of requiring "understanding" from terrorist victims, while requiring nothing from the terrorists themselves, is classic liberal-elite pseudo-socialist duplicity.
Redford is representative of many Hollywood elites who, remarkably, fail to notice the hypocrisy in suggesting that it is the rest of us who must be self-absorbed and greedy.
But Hollywood elites are rarely, if ever, held accountable for such sermonizing. In part, this is because most of their peers in the media embrace the same double standard.
Take Bill Maher for example. After referring to the American military as "cowards" and the terrorist hijackers of 9/11 as "courageous," Maher was aghast to find that some of his advertisers had decided to abandon him.
Maher proceeded to play the part of apologetic patriot, or victim of censorship, depending on the audience. However, once it was clear ABC did not intend to cancel his show, Maher returned to bashing the American people along the same lines as Redford does in his catalogue.
Because Hollywood elites are so used to being coddled, rather than questioned, they cannot hold their own in public debate. This is why celebrities will only do interviews where they are thrown softballs, and why the overwhelming majority of Bill Maher's guests on 'Politically Incorrect' not only share his ideology, but rely on him to explain it for them.
Redford's inference that those who died on 9/11 were "too preoccupied to see it coming" is morally reprehensible. The victims of the attacks never had a chance to see anything coming, and this was by the terrorists design. Further, Redford's suggestion that being "interested in others" might have saved them is equally repugnant and naive.
Interest in other cultures did not stop the planes from crashing into their targets, and did not stop the terrorists from committing the murders they had been craving for years.
Redford' s argument that the attacks stemmed from American "greed" might resonate more were it not that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on weapons and death, rather than food and medicine for his own people.
Facts really don't matter to Redford and those who share his views. It is easy for millionaire celebrities to blame the inequities in the world on the rest of us Americans because they don't consider themselves like "us" anyway.
The fact that the majority doesn't share their beliefs doesn't indicate to them that they might be wrong, only that the rest of us are ignorant.
It is worth pointing out that Redford chose to publish his letter in the pages of his own company's over-priced clothing catalog. (Check out the "Freedom Necklace;" a bargain at $320.)
In light of this fact, maybe Redford should stop preaching about our "self-absorption" and "greed" and start thinking about his own.
Copyright 2002, Sterling Rome.
Move along, folks. Nothing to see here. CNS does not report News.
"Pardon me, Sir; your bias is showing!"
| White House Secretly Planned Utah 'land grab | |
| Topic: White Water White House Secretly Planned Utah 'land grab The Washington Times 24 July 97 Paul Bedard Administration environmentalists, egged on by allies such as actor Robert Redford, operated 12/30/1999 http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a1005337.htm See |
If he is so GD "aware" how come he didn't organize a group of Hollywood no talent midget tough guys to hunt down Al Queda and put a stop to it?
Wouldn't I love to give this twerp a good backhander while he was right in mid-sentence!
Grrrrr
Easily double or triple the other typical catalog stuff.
All hippie motif and noble savage PC motif.
How funny that he thinks we are preoccupied with material things.
What a hypocrite.
Wow! Nice to see he has taken a good hard look at Hollywood hypocrisy. Maybe he will be more open to conservative views and voices now. Hmmmmm.....
When he says "we" who is he talking about?
I suppose he means that bunch of self-absorbed narcissist in Hollywood
who earn a millions pretending to be real people.
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