In the
wake of the terrorist attack after Monday’s Ariana Grande show in Manchester, England,
which killed almost two dozen people, celebrities from Katy Perry to Cher to
Ryan Seacrest to Ariel Winter all took to social media to express
their horror and condolences. Nearly every tweet was some variation
of “sending thoughts and prayers” to those affected by the bombing. It’s the
same after every such attack. There is certainly nothing wrong with such sincere,
well-meaning sentiments, but they are ultimately impotent and reactive rather
than proactive. Isn’t there something celebrities – the most influential people
on the planet – can do about
terrorism apart from simply following up with a sympathy note and a hashtag?
Fame is
the biggest megaphone in the world. A superstar like Kim Kardashian has
the virtual ear of over 50 million Twitter followers – twice that on Instagram.
The worldwide influence of celebrities is incalculable, and
immeasurably greater than that of any politician (by contrast, President Trump,
infamous for his Twitter activity, has “only” about 18 million followers). If
any segment of society is well-positioned not only to spread awareness but to
inspire world-changing action, it is celebrities.
So instead of
spouting embarrassingly frothy pleas for the world to “just unite and love on
each other,” as
Katy Perry did in a radio interview yesterday, or engaging in navel-gazing
and self-loathing, as
Queen guitarist Brian May suggested we do to figure out “why the world hates
us so much,” here is what stars can actually
do, short of taking up
arms and running off to Syria, to make a difference in what used to be
called the War on Terror.
When it comes to
the worldwide threat of violent jihad, too many celebrities have bought into
the PC orthodoxy which states that terrorism is blowback for Western
imperialism and which equates legitimate criticism of political Islam with
bigotry. They also, understandably, don’t want to make themselves targets for
terrorists. So it’s safer for them to pile on the bandwagon against the
nonhuman enemy of global warming (or global cooling, or climate change, or weather
– whatever it’s being called this week). This head-in-the-sand timidity has to
end.
True, a performer
who takes any public political stance risks alienating half of his or her
audience, but that has never stopped celebs from promoting PC-validated causes.
They need to be equally willing to promote a very politically incorrect
awareness of, and resistance against, the very lethal threat of Islamic
terrorism. National security shouldn’t be a partisan issue; terrorists don’t
distinguish between Democrat and Republican.
Second, they can
use their formidable star power to rev up creative projects which confront terrorism
in a proactive way. Once upon a time, for example, Hollywood produced patriotic
films that inspired Americans to persevere against Nazism and Japanese
imperialism; some movie stars, such as Jimmy Stewart and Ernest Borgnine, went
to war themselves. Conversely, since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,
Hollywood spent the next dozen or more years pumping out anti-war films that
blamed America first and depicted our soldiers as PTSD-addled, ticking time
bombs. Only recently, with such blockbusters as American Sniper and 13 Hours,
has Hollywood begun to take a more pro-American stance.
If celebrities
really want victory over our terrorist enemies (and honestly, for many of them
that’s a big if), they can help accelerate
that momentum by producing more such patriotic fare. Even talking up America in
interviews, publicly defending the values and freedoms of Western civilization,
and denouncing the brutal totalitarianism of the jihadists helps unite
Americans against our enemy and is another step toward victory.
Third, they can
take a social media tip from actor James Woods who, while not a
Kardashian-level player, has a very
active Twitter presence and used it to aid the families of the Ariana
Grande bombing victims. Instead of merely tweeting condolences, the outspoken
conservative took action by
retweeting contact information and photos of missing concertgoers to his
657,000 followers, and encouraging others to do the same.
That was
after-the-fact, but celebrities can also use social media to help prevent
terrorism by encouraging a “see something, say something” mindset among their
fans that will help break the bonds of politically correct resistance. If
celebrities went so far as to educate themselves about the threat, they could
also promote that education among their social media followers in the same way
that they now promote awareness about other issues such as bullying or human
trafficking.
Fourth, they can learn
from actor (and bass player) Gary Sinise, who quietly devotes an enormous
amount of time to entertaining troops abroad with his band and working with our
wounded warriors at home. This indirectly pushes back against terrorism by
supporting our military in much the same way Bob Hope used to bolster our
troops’ morale at war. If celebrities were as willing to march in the streets
to honor the courageous service of our armed forces as they are to march
against Donald Trump, they would actually be doing some good instead of mere
virtue-signaling.
Getting the largely
left-leaning community of celebrities to reverse their mindset about terrorism admittedly
will require a seismic cultural shift. Some, myself included, would say that
such an expectation is absurdly optimistic. But the alternative is to continue
merely tweeting out condolences to the families of slaughtered innocents. If
celebrities could be pushed to remove their multiculturalist blinders; if they
could find the courage to declare that Islamic fundamentalism is a threat to
all the issues they claim to champion – women’s rights, LGBT rights, peace,
etc.; if they truly care, they can help turn the tide.
From Acculturated, 5/24/17
