So the hot news today (Wednesday,) is that apparently Barbara Streisand made a bit of a plonker of herself, as we would say in England, by quoting some lines supposedly from Julius Caesar, which actually, well, weren't. Lines that didn't, in all honestly, really sound like they were written by Shakespear. Lines that would have been terribly, terribly easy to check had anyone bothered, since it's not difficult to go and find a copy of the collected works of old Bill in, oh, a bookstore, or even on the Internet.
I mean, she's a friend of Al Gore, right? She should know how to use the Internet shouldn't she?
It's easy to poke fun at self-important, whining windbags like old Barbara, and I can understand why those on the opposite side of the political spectrum might get a certain degree of satisfaction from rubbing salt into the wound.
Even so, it all somewhat misses the point.
It shouldn't matter that Ms. Streisand doesn't know Shakespear when she sees it. It shouldn't matter that she made a fool out of herself at a Democratic Party fundraiser.
Frankly, it shouldn't matter if she'd stood up and announced that aliens had given her the secret to eternal life, or that she'd personally seen Elvis only that afternoon. She's an actress. A singer. An "entertainer." Her entire professional career has been reciting lines written by other people. Why does anyone *care* what this silly woman has to say about *anything*? The very people who are mocking her are simply validating the position that we should have any interest whatsoever in 'personalities' and their so-called opinions. Sting says this. Bono says that. Barbara says 'oh, save us from the President.'
If she had any insight on life, if she was someone genuinely interested in public service, if, in fact, she had anything worth saying at all, she wouldn't be an actress. She'd be doing something worthwhile, instead of making quirky comedies or over-charging for concert tickets. Heck, she might even be a writer, although I supposed in that case she might have bothered to check her material first.
The other aspect I find so distressing about this is the position she, and apparently a number of her audience members were taking, that 'patriotism' is just another way of abdicating personal responsibility. Of course, we all "know" it's a bad thing to be a patriot. Patriots are those bad people who think their country might, in some way be, a better place to live. Lord knows, we wouldn't want to actually stand for something as a nation, would we?
I generally try to shy away from making political statements, privately or publicly, because I'm a guest in your country and as a guest, I feel I should shut up, enjoy your hospitality and not mention the fact that your curtains are horrid, or the front door needs a coat of varnish. But this goes beyond one American attacking another. The proposition that we shouldn't be prepared to go to war to remove monsters like Saddam Hussein is one that flies directly in the face of everything that Western civilization has stood for since the end of the Second World War.
I see no difference between attacking Iraq to end the current regime and attacking Nazi Germany to remove Hitler. He is guilty of the same crimes, the same ruthless, self-serving ambition, the same absolute disregard for moral limits, the same sneering, cynical contempt for the rest of the world. The only differences are that he is earlier in his career, and the people he is ruthlessly and bloodily oppressing are Arabic, not Poles or German Jews.
Either we, as a people, believe that the system of government we have chosen to live under is worth defending or we don't. We either believe that there are fundamental human rights or we don't. This isn't about proving that America is right, it's about proving that the way of life chosen by Americans is the right one. It's not ok to abdicate responsibility to the UN. It's not OK to whine and moan and adopt the position that we should all just rub along together, regardless of what those other people do to each other in those nasty, foreign countries. And it's not OK to sit on our hands and do nothing until this man is in control of both nuclear weapons and most of the world's oil supplies.
If it makes you feel uncomfortable that some things in life have to be fought for, fine. Don't think about it. Don't do anything about it. Just shut up and go watch 'entertainers' like Ms. Streisand who will doubtless make you feel how morally superior you are for not standing up for anything. Just let the rest of us get up and do what's necessary, so you can watch your all-day TV specials without a gun to your head.
Lictor (who's currently staring down both barrels of a category four hurricane and not liking it very much at all, in case you can't tell.)