[FRIAM] Revising the American Revolution

Sat Oct 23 22:00:35 EDT 2021

Wil Wheaton - best known for playing Wesley Crusher on Star Trek, and
related appearances on Big Bang Theory - turns out to be a really cool guy,
who went through some traumatic stuff during his childhood celebrity days.
He gave a relevant answer to a fan question on this topic:

Q: I have more of an opinion question for you. When fans of things hear
about misconduct happening on sets/behind-the-scenes are they allowed to
still enjoy the thing? Or should it be boycotted completely? Example: I’ve
been a major fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer since I was a teenager and it
was currently airing. I really nerded out on it and when I lost my Dad at
age 16 “The Body” episode had me in such cathartic tears. Now we know about
Joss Whedon. I haven’t rewatched a single episode since his behavior came
to light. As a fan, do I respectfully have to just box that away? Is it
disrespectful of the actors that went through it to knowingly keep watching?
Answer: I have been precisely where you are, right now. In fact, we were
just talking about this a few days ago, as it relates to a guy who wrote a
ton of music that was PROFOUND to me when I was a teenager. He wrote about
being lonely and feeling unloved, and all the things I was feeling as a
teenager.
He grew up to be a reprehensible bigot, and for years I couldn't listen to
one of the most important bands in my life anymore.
But this week, someone pointed out that he was one member of a group that
all worked together to make that thing that was so important to me. And the
person he was when he wrote those lyrics is not the person he is today. And
the person I was when I heard those lyrics doesn't deserve to be shoved
into a box and put away, because that guy is a shit.
This is a long way of saying that Joss sure turned out to be garbage.
Because of who I my friends are, I know stuff that isn't in the public, and
it's pretty horrible. He's just not a good person, and apparently never was
a good person.
BUT! Buffy is more than him. It's all the actors and crew who made it. It's
all the writers who aren't Joss. Joss is part of it, sure, and some of the
episodes he wrote are terrific.
At least one of the episodes he wrote was deeply meaningful to you at a
moment in your life when you'd experienced a loss I can only imagine. The
person you are now, and the 16 year-old you were who just lost their dad,
are more important than the piece of shit Joss Whedon revealed himself to
be.
His bad behavior is on him. He has to live with it, and the consequences of
it.
16 year-old you, who just lost their dad, shouldn't have to think about
what a shit Joss Whedon is for even a second. That kid, and you, deserve to
have that place to revisit when you need to go there.
I can't speak for the other actors, even the ones I know. But I will tell
you, as an abuse survivor myself who never wanted to be in front of the
camera when he was a kid: it's really okay for you to enjoy the work. The
work is good and meaningful, and if nobody is going to watch it because of
what one piece of shit did two decades ago, what was it all for?
I'm not the pope of chilitown, so take this for what it's worth: I believe
that when some piece of art is deeply meaningful to a person, for whatever
reason, that art doesn't belong to the person who created it, if it ever
did. It belongs to the person who found something meaningful in the art.
If it feels right to you to put it away and never look at it again, that's
totally valid. But if it brings you comfort, or joy, or healing, or just
warm familiarity to bring it out and spend some time with it, that's
totally valid, too.
I've written a lot of words. I hope some of them make sense and are helpful
to you.

<echarles at american.edu>

On Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at 2:09 PM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, everybody,
>
>
>
> I know.  Who has time to listen to podcasts.  Most of them are redundant
> and so can be listened to while making chicken pot pie.  But every once in
> a while there is one I have to listen to twice because it acquaints me with
> a bunch of stuff I never will dive into but which I really want to know.
>
>
>
>
> https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-story-of-americas-founding-you-werent-taught-in-school/id1548604447?i=1000539039484
>
>
>
> The interviewee here Woody Houlton, a promoter of the 1619 Project, whose
> goal is to recast the American revolution and particularly the constitution
> as counter revolutionary moves.  It puts me in mind of Charles Beard, an
> American historian who wrote in the 30’s a materialist history of the US
> which was largely buried during the McCarthy era.  (I hope I have this
> right, John)  The REAL revolution, on this account occurs after the Civil
> War with the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.   What I love about this is
> that illuminates for me what is going on in our current debates over
> textualism.  The Textualists are trying to get us back to the pre-Civil War
> constitution which was dedicated to preserving the prerogatives of the
> privileged classes.  That’s the world they hanker for.   Another bell it
> rings for me concerns “cancel culture”.  Washington and Jefferson were in
> many ways, vile men:  Both were voracious land speculators in stolen Indian
> land and Jefferson, in his Idyllic Monticello, literally lived on top of
> the underground habitations of his slaves.
>
>
>
>
> What do we do when we discover that people who have achieved great things
> have also done great harms.  Basically it comes down to, Am I allowed to
> watch a Woody Allen Movie?  Perhaps, if I were to watch a Woody Allen
> movie, it would mean that I was NOT watching an equally good movie by an
> unknown film guy, that our worship of Lee and Washington and Jefferson
> crowds out the accomplishments of lesser known figures.   Shall we instead
> worship MLK, who I guess was an infamous philanderer?
>
>
>
> I think the problem here is with WORSHIP, full stop.  But, then, if we
> don’t stand together in admiration of other people, how do we stand
> together.  How do we achieve coalition without charisma?
>
>
>
> Nick
>
> Nick Thompson
>
> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
>
>
> .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - .
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn UTC-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
> archives:
>  5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
>  1/2003 thru 6/2021  http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20211023/4524a8f9/attachment.html>