When the Sum is Less than the Parts

But Mr. Spicoli doesn't want to share his pizza. m/r

Articles: Sean Penn Sums Up the Left

January 14, 2016   By Jonathan F. Keiler

As many know, actor Sean Penn recently revived interest in his career by interviewing notorious Mexican outlaw Joaquin Guzman for Rolling Stone magazine shortly before the murderous drug lord’s arrest.  About a year before Penn’s article about Guzman, in a fawning Esquire magazine interview, Penn defended several similar “journalistic” endeavors up to that time. These had come under criticism as little more than vanity projects for a privileged Hollywood star, largely focused (like the Guzman piece) on glorifying Latin American caudillos and/or bandits who are heroes of the left. Penn’s distillation of his motivation for the projects was remarkably revealing. “I’m just another asshole trying to feel good about himself” said Penn. “And why shouldn’t I?  That’s what everybody should try to do.”

Though Penn threw the line out in an obvious attempt to be both humble and funny it actually pretty succinctly describes the left/liberal attitude toward life. Penn was born into good fortune, grew up in Malibu with well-connected parents, and achieved personal success, wealth, and admiration early on his career. He’s dated a bevy of Hollywood starlets, lives large, and won a couple of Oscars. In sum, it doesn’t get much better for anybody, and Penn feels guilty about it. ...

... People like Penn are reminiscent of the famous German existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger, who has greatly influenced academia and leftist elites by philosophically underpinning their extreme moral relativism, which allows them to pick and choose causes worthy and disreputable, without any care for logic or consistency. Believing in nothing (his masterwork is Being and Nothingness) in 1930s Germany, Heidegger, like Penn, was just an asshole trying to feel good about himself. At that time in Germany, you were more likely to feel good about yourself as a Nazi, than as say a Jew, a Christian or a Communist, so Heidegger became one. I suppose if a cult of radical Hassidic matzo makers had managed to seize power in Germany Heidegger might have joined them instead -- what difference does it make?

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