THE SAME THING?

by Virginia Postrel  •  Oct 17, 2003 at 12:30 pm

http://www.dynamist.com/550/the-same-thing

Gregg Easterbrook, whose views on greedy Jews and violent movies prompted the apt response "WTF? WTF? WTeffingF?" from Meryl Yourish, doesn't get it. He tells the NYT that he's an equal-opportunity scold:

Mr. Easterbrook said he wrote a column last week about Mel Gibson's coming film "Passion," and added: "I raised the issue that Mel Gibson professes to be an ardent Christian. Maybe he is. But his background previous to this movie is making movies that glorify violence."

"I raised the exact same question about a Christian," Mr. Easterbrook said, and "there was not a single peep."

He said Mel Gibson "worship(s) money above all else"? Where?

Aside from his self-righteous recourse to anti-Semitic stereotypes, Easterbrook's confusion of stylized fantasy violence and real-world slaughter is artistically, morally, and psychologically obtuse. For more on that subject, I highly recommend Gerard Jones's book Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Make-Believe Violence, and Super Heroes. (No, I don't approve of bringing little kids to Tarantino movies. Get a babysitter. But some of Jones's insights apply to adults as well.)