Ingrid wrote: [ on 07:25 PM 11/23/2006 ]
while we're on the subject, should celebrities have opinions on
political, social, economic issues? should they voice them?
especially in a media market that will pay scant attention to the
issue unless they do? even if all they're bringing to the party is
their celebrity?
Rhetorical questions, but I'll answer anyway. Yes. Sure. Absolutely.
It's a free country. That includes the freedom to be dumb. That does
not mean there is a moral imperative to exercise said freedom.
Moving from the realm of the abstract to the specific, I claimed that
I remember previous discussions about the WSF [1], which got
derailed by discussions on publicity hogs like Arundhati Roy.
I see no reason to change that opinion (The discussion got derailed.
The cause was Mlle Roy, who is a publicity hog.)
And while on the topic:
It is not clear to me that the WSF is a "movement". A patchwork of
separate movements, perhaps, with no internal coherence. I encourage
you to educate me further on this.
Assuming for the purposes of argument that it is indeed a movement,
however: it does not say much for a movement, to my way of thinking,
to allow its most audible voices spout the kind of specious, toxic
rhetoric that Arundhati Roy specialises in. Just to be clear, I am
not suggesting silencing their voices, but developing Alternative
Voices. Isn't that a Good Thing?
Udhay
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
