Christopher And Mel

If there’s one thing we love more than making heroes in our modern western culture, it’s watching them fall. We love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning, and it comes as no surprise. We build someone up to impossible heights and then watch diligently as they fail to live up to the status we have given them. Often, I’d say that this is unfair, but in the strange case of Mel Gibson, I’m afraid he has earned every lick of public laughter and scorn.

Christopher Hitchens recently provided his commentary, and it’s an interesting take on things. I’ve long found it strange that he is so often defended by people for what amounts to a long history of anger, racism, and alcohol abuse. He’s come a very long way since Mad Max and Gallipoli. I’ve also seen PZ Myers’ comments on Hitchens’ piece and I find it all a little disconcerting. Why are so few people ready to call Gibson on his insanity?

Mel Gibson is a racist. His comments on any number of races and religion are well documented. His sick right wing Catholic belief system is a matter of public record. And that movie, The Passion Of The Christ was disgusting. I have said it before and I shall say it again, if that movie had been called The Passion Of Phil The Barber, Christian groups would have attacked it as unbelievably gruesome and vile. But since it was about Ole’ J-C, it became something to show the kids.

A part of me wants him to get help, but I doubt he’d get the help he needs. He may go through some celebrity rehab and get a new image consultant to babysit him, but what he needs is a great deal of therapy and to give that brain a good scrub. Deprogramming Mel would make a great television show, and could return him to fame and fortune if by the end of the first season he’s clean, sober, and able to renounce his radical racist opinions. But it’d be way better for ratings if he never did, just slowly descended further and further into outrageous acts of violence and stupidity until he finally vomits up his shrivelled liver and dies.

Also, with his beard he looks like Saddam Hussein:

Jim