A Bigger Asshole
Awhile back a balding, pink-clad man with a closely cropped mustache and glasses hanging around his neck, appeared on “Real Time with Bill Maher” and, armed with a flame thrower of condescension and over-enunciation, completely obliterated any goodwill I had towards Richard Dreyfuss (which, admittedly, was not much). I don’t know where Dreyfuss 2.0 came from, but he attempted to hijack the show by rambling on and on about his new pet cause, civics, which he is apparently studying at Oxford, and by making broad, unintelligible and nonsensical statements about the state of the world, and what, according to him, is needed to right the universe.
For whatever reason, Dick decided that “Real Time” was the best time to climb atop the largest soap box he could possibly find and talk down to the lonely, unenlightened, civically ignorant proletariat of our country. Dick warned Bill Maher and the rest of his viewers that if “we” (which he elongates into three syllables) do not teach our kids “the ideas that make America a miracle” (he’s a little nebulous on what exactly these ideas are), that “we will lose it” to an axis of evil that, in his mind, include “fundamentalists of any stripe,” “stupidity,” and a third, more ominous force that Dreyfuss refers to simply as “the darkness.”
Dreyfuss then went on to frame the United States in some of the most overblown and unnecessarily dramatic terms I’ve ever heard. He states, “What this country represents is a tiny twinkle of light in a history of darkness and oppression and cruelty.” Jesus, Dick, when did you become such a Debbie Downer? The amazing thing is that Bill Maher and the rest of the guests on the show just sat there and let Dreyfuss spew forth his fountain of inanity and condescension uninterrupted. The only time when Bill actually acted like the host of the show was to correct Dreyfuss when he made the incredible claim that democracy is only 200-300 years old.
So how is this newly enlightened multi-millionaire going to change the world? In what I believe perfectly exemplifies how misguided and out of touch a lot of celebrities are, Dreyfuss has decided that he can best serve the community by helping set up a program to teach civics at a school in, wait for it…Martha’s Vineyard! That’s right, one of the richest municipalities in the country and the same place where “Jaws” was filmed is where Dreyfuss has decided to bestow his beneficence. It seems that, while he has been able to ward off the fundamentalists and keep “the darkness” at bay, stupidity has already overtaken him.
thought ya meant Christopher Hitchens. Aw man, I liked him in Jaws!
I did too, and I hazily remember enjoying him staking out homes with Charlie Sheen’s bro, but this new side of him is entirely unlikable.
Have you ever read any of Jefferson’s letters? Jefferson specifically referred to American style democracy as a beacon of light to the world. He didn’t intend for the idea to be bound by our natural borders.
I think you’re being a little disingenuous about the 200 to 300 years comment. I knew exactly what Dreyfuss was talking about. Democracy, in any form all the way back to Greece, only lasts that long in each instance until the populace becomes complacent and “demand” a ruler or king to decide for them. It’s one of the reasons Jefferson felt their should be a “revolution” in our country every twenty years or so. The majority of human history has been in “darkness” to rulers natural and/or supernatural.
Jefferson quotes:
“Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of nineteen years. If it is to be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.”
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.”
“The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. We ought, for so dear a state to sacrifice every attachment and every enmity.”