Cameron and Mao

I shall attempt to pre-empt Assistant Village Idiot here by commenting on the recent flap over Cameron Diaz and her communist handbag. The scandal here isn’t her so-called cultural insensitivity. It is the concept that communism was benign enough that we can turn it’s symbols into fashion accessories. Why is it cool to wear an image of Che Guevara? A hammer and sickle? A portrait of Stalin? Or a Maoist star. It should be like wearing a swastika. A tyrant is a tyrant, a murderer is a murderer whether he murders with his left hand or his right. To turn symbols of these monsters into fashion accessories is reprehensible.

Lydia the tattooed lady did it the only acceptable way

When she stands, the world gets littler
And when she sits, she sits on Hitler.

I’m not sure which thing bugs me more. People (including but not limited to celebrities) make political statements that are passionately held but which amount to so much wind filling a bag. Other people think they hold a political view, but in actuality their politics are nothing more than fashion – they really have no concept of the broader or deeper implications of their view. I think that the latter bugs me more. At least the former have sincerity on their side. Sincerity alone isn’t much but as a motive it is preferable to mere posing.

I don’t comment much on politics, but I do like to occasionally comment of fools and their foolishness, not matter what area of life and culture they come from.