Spent more than a few minutes talking with listeners/callers about this current concerted effort by people to be all things at all times in all ways to other people.
Or as it's known by its more familiar brand name....political correctness.
One screamingly, ragingly obvious bottom line fact about the whole concept of total inclusion seems to have gotten buried under the tons and tons....and tons....of hype, hysteria, whining, wailing, bluster and bullshit.
I'll dig that out for you in just a sec.
Meanwhile, in one of the higher profile examples of the epidemic of enforced equality that's infecting the populace faster than the Kardashians can spread herpes, the "Oscars are too white" bitch and bother found yet another voice this week in the person of accomplished screenwriter Patricia Resnick who, after the "adjusted Academy voting rules" were announced, found her herself no longer welcome in the voting booth where each year the choice of the best fruit is made from amongst the nominated apples, oranges, bananas, kiwis, tangerines and/or cantaloupes.
And, come to think of it, none of those are black, either.
Hmm.
Of course, they are all fruits.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Here's what Ms. Resnick had to say to her former Academy bros and sistahs.
To the Board of Governors of the Academy:
So let me see if I have this right. I managed, against all odds, to become a produced, young female screenwriter in the 1970's, getting my first credit co-writing for arguably the preeminent director of his time, Robert Altman. By 27, I had written the highest-grossing film of 1980 and what was to become one of the iconic comedies of our time, 9 to 5.
I wrote a number of other films, got some produced and then found myself running into the brick wall of ageism and sexism by my mid-forties. As the sole provider for my two children, I did what I could to take care of us all, which meant going where the work was for me: television movies, then television pilots and then series work. I am still working and my current credits include consulting producer on Mad Men and Recovery Road and creator of my own pilot starring Alan Cumming at Showtime.
One of the proudest accomplishments of my life was being invited to join the Academy way back in the eighties, and now I am being told that I no longer deserve to vote because the Academy is too white and too male. I happen to be female and I'm also gay, another underrepresented minority, and yet, because I haven't been hired on a film in the last 10 years, I am to be booted into the "emeritus" status and replaced by younger members who are being asked to join in order to help you deal with a publicity nightmare.
By the way, the actors branch nominated or didn't nominate certain actors. Replacing sexism and racism with ageism is not the answer. It's like deciding to boycott graduation at a college that is not diverse instead of the admissions office. The problems lie with the motion picture business decision-makers, not the Academy members.
I'm angry and I'm ashamed of the Academy.
Patricia Resnick
This currently in fashion controversy about the lack of black in the Oscar process, along with all of the other controversies involving the lack of whatever and/or whomever in whatever is, ostensibly, well intended (much like, of course, the pavement on the highway to hell) but, as 60's pop hit maker Shirley Ellis might offer us, when you get right down to the real nitty gritty, it's simply a waste of time.
Because of that pesky, aforementioned,screamingly, ragingly obvious bottom line fact about the whole concept of total inclusion.
It simply cannot be done.
Filibuster all you want, there, filibusterers.....
Filibuster gets trumped by physics every time.
As in several, among many other, irrefutable laws of said physics that are unavoidable, inevitable and...well...irrefutable.
What goes up must come down--Isaac Newton.
A body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest, unless acted upon by an external force--Isaac Newton.
And probably most profoundly in this teapot full of tempest nonsense regarding the attempt to make life equally equal for everyone and/or everything when it comes to any and everything at any and all times....
You can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself--Rick Nelson.
When the effort to accommodate diversity results in an explosion of divisiveness, common sense, if not that pesky unavoidable inevitability, dictates that there's really only one possible practical option.
Grow the fuck up and get it through your narcissistic noggin' that there's, literally, no such thing as total equality.
The term is an oxymoron.
Like, for example, intelligent life on other planets.
Well, actually, in the spirit of accuracy (as opposed to correctness, which is killing us) that should read...
Intelligent life on this planet.
Seriously, Earthlings, evolve a little more quickly, could ya?
Life here is about challenges and overcoming them.
Obstacles and surmounting them.
It's an expedition and an exploration and an often rough, tough journey.
Not a party.
Garden...or otherwise.
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