Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Why Do We Listen to Celebrities?

We've all wondered this since the election of 2004 when every Hollywood airhead gave their opinions about who should win (and then lost), but what makes celebrities think they are authorities on foreign policy?

Most of them don't even seem to understand American history, let alone geo-politics. How does playing a guitar give one greater insight into the best way of dealing with Osama bin Laden?

I ask this after reading about John Mellencamp's interview with Charlie Rose.

Singer John Mellencamp on the ‘Charlie Rose Show’ said the removal of the Taliban after 9/11 was wrong, but further Mellencamp stated if the United States knew exactly where Osama bin Laden was it would be wrong to drop a bomb on OBL’s head.
Mellencamp: I think what would have been appropriate is exactly what we’re going to have to do right now.

Rose: What’s that?

Mellencamp: Talk to people.

Rose: Who do we go talk to? Do we call him up and say, "Osama, can we talk about this? We’re not real happy about this. Can we talk about it?"

Mellencamp then said we should talk to “the Muslims” and ask “where are we so far apart here?”

Later in the interview Mellencamp says he doesn’t know how he’d respond to the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II because he doesn’t really know what happened. He says he’s read books, but he doesn’t know if history is always right.

He doesn't know if history is always right??? What the hell does that mean?

I could understand arguing that America should have seen the Japanese aggression coming (there were plenty of signs long before Pearl Harbor. We chose to ignore them). But to say he doesn't know how he would have responded to Pearl Harbor just shows willful ignorance.

If American hadn't gone to war with Japan after Pearl Harbor, what does he think would have happened in the Pacific? And how does he think a conflict with Japan would have ended? Does he think the Japanese emperor would have wanted to negotiate with Roosevelt?

These sorts of statements show how few artists actually think about what they are going to say to reporters before they say them. It's one thing for Mellencamp to privately ponder what would have been a better plan after 9/11. It's another thing to say something as stupid as we should have negotiated with OBL and "Muslims." OBL has written and stated repeatedly what his aims have been. There's no negotiating with that.

How many more artists am I going to have to ban from my house because their stupid political views interfere with my enjoyment of their other talents?