Get 'im - sic 'im - get out the lynch mob, we'll have us a damn good public flogging...nay, burn us a witch, flay us another heretic... .
Let's get something very straight, so clear and plain in fact that there can be no misunderstanding, by honest-hearted 'souls', anyhow, if not for those who (ever) choose to wilfully misunderstand, misinterpret and malign: I've no brief whatsoever - for anyone (man, woman or even pre-adult) - who meddles with, molests, and otherwise - in far worse, cruel and brutal, humiliating and subjugating, fashion - degrades anyone else, whether sexually or in any other way...-and so no, this is no kind of 'apology' for/defence of, much less public vindication or excusing of the latest public enemy #1...i.e. Harvey Weinstein. No way, Jose.
No, I repeat I'm not - in any way, shape or form whatsoever - seeking to defend, excuse or plead one word even in support of, or to contest the latest object of peoples' new-found ire (via 'Social Media Incorporated' apparently, c/o el regular mainstream media), U.S. film director Harvey Weinstein. I wouldn't really know, actually, neither being a twit nor a facebook persona. No, I'm somewhat (or so I like to imagine, anyway) much more multi-dimensional than that superficiality and dumbing-down of modern-day humanity.
But getting back to my essential point: for some reason this 'movie mogul' is in the sights of Global Women Incorporated, or should I rather say, Modern Media Woman, as if he and he alone is deserving of all the justified pent-up rage and fury that some have been treasuring up, apparently, for just such a moment as this: i.e. when another of the rich and powerful, the influential 'heavyweights' of our era, has been - yet again - shown to have clay feet. (But of course Weinstein's alleged offences go way beyond mere misdemeamours and the like.) And moreover as if it's taken everyone by complete surprise, when point of fact - evidently - is that it was 'Hollywood's Worst Kept Secret' or some such - for literally decades in fact, from the sounds of it. A secret kept as such because some (even many) would-be female actresses were apparently unprepared to expose him publicly - for understandable fear that their future/s in acting would be, ipso pronto, put paid to, apparently because 'no-one would believe them', and HW et al would quickly terminate their budding careers.
All the latter would apparently seem to have a lot of validity, unless and until one considers that all of us have moments - for Yours Truly, in fact, many occasions, sure, far less traumatic that that - when we've/I've had to make just such decisions to maintain my/our own good conscience/s let alone sense of inner integrity... when, yes, forgoing - as Winston Peters once infamously termed it (in a wholly different context) - the showy glitter and tinsel of 'the baubles of office', one *deems a certain principle to be of infinitely greater value than any (mere worldly) recompense one might gain in this life; yes, **even though it cost one entrance into one's chosen profession.
No, it's the ready-made lynch mob mentality and feral witch-hunt, against someone who's both as ugly as sin and grossly obese to boot - and thus an easy target for ****those, I would (respectfully) suggest, too cowardly to take on someone without those particular personal attributes. A campaign, moreover, that's been conducted by all and sundry ever since Weinstein was effectively 'outed' only a week or so ago, and long since been given the judge and jury treatment, though still awaiting the executioner and being hung, drawn and quartered. Treated thus, as we're all constantly reminded, for his odious/appalling/criminal sexual harassment/assaults/rapes, over many decades, apparently, of innumerable actress colleagues. */**Fair enough, far as that goes, many would reasonably argue.
But what I happen to find rather sickening - if infinitely predictable in our present-day soundbite-driven media landscape - is the unseemly fashion in which the gutless wonders referred to in previous paragraphs are not only ganging up one after another to pile invective upon invective and calumny upon calumny onto an already deeply sullied reputation, but are moreover bending over backwards (forwards, and every other which way) to - apparently - not only uncover but forthwith cite every last conceivable hanging offence
for the 'man'.
So what's such a big deal, the guy's obviously as guilty as sin and much more, you readily counter? And so you do indeed legitimately suggest. Yes, I'll concede that much, anyhow. So what exactly is my real beef?
Well, you'll just have to wait - a little while (but hopefully not as long as we've been awaiting a new government in God's Own)...Shuteye beckons, and I must hearken to her gentle but oh so persistent pleading...
To Be Continued - asap.
*/**Though as I would suggest (now, immediately below) I happen to have a somewhat differing perspective.
*For Christians, like Moses upon 'bec[oming] of age, refus[ing] to be
called the son of Pharaoh's daughter' (and thus next in line for the
throne), 'choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God
than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin'...esteeming the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt', '...look(ing)
(instead) to the reward' for the faithful, tried and ultimately true. Hebrews 11: 24-26 (Scripture taken from the [The Holy Bible]: New King James Version. [Copyright] 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)
**At least, that is, in the short term or immediate future. For apparent roadblocks and obstacles, one has well said, are really but the steps to one's eventual success (in any chosen field); and surely, if one's heart is set upon a particular calling or line of work, nothing will ultimately prevent one - even devils in human form.
***Postscript: Perhaps the most succinct yet perceptive remark upon the topic came after my writing the foregoing, upon Jim Mora's esteemed Panel, as guest John Barnett of South Pacific Films, alongside high-profile lawyer Mai Chen, joined host, fill-in Christchurch City Councillor Ali(sp?) Jones, today (4.50 p.m.ish) upon New Zealand's RNZ National. Barnett made reference to what (I believe) he deemed an obscure Old Testament 'custom' (or suchlike) to a/the 'scapegoat', which biblical scholars like myself know is located in Leviticus 16, arguably the most important chapter in that Book of the Torah, in which the Jewish Day of Atonement, otherwise known as Yom Kippur, is detailed. In 'awful' brevity that passage essentially posits an annual day upon which sacrifice and atonement is made and forgiveness proffered for each and every last sin committed by any Israelite over the previous year, and how two goats are thus presented 'before the Lord' on behalf of said Israelites; the 'Lord's goat' being offered (and then killed) as a sacrifice of atonement, and then the 'live goat', deemed 'the scapegoat', has those selfsame sins transferred onto itself, and it is then sent off into the wilderness to bear those sins forever. The Holy Bible.
Obviously there's no time here, as already alluded to, to get into my own denomination's understanding of how the former represented and represents The Lord, in particular as Jesus Christ upon Calvary's Cross, and the latter His arch-nemesis, 'the great dragon...that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world...the accuser'. And where the former thus bore said 'sins of the whole world' upon His lonesome (for time and eternity), bearing God's wrath for the same, and being prepared even to die eternally on behalf of each and every last 'son of Adam and daughter of Eve' (as the Narnians in C S Lewis' brilliant allegorical The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' characterized it) if that was what it took to appease God's wrath; and arguably that was what He fully believed would happen as He cried out "My Father, My Father, why have You forsaken Me?" Whereas 'the slanderer', Satan, symbolically has selfsame sins finally, ultimately, eternally imputed unto him (only!) at the end of the thousand years, the biblical Millennium, and thus (again, symbolically) the devil is attributed ultimate and complete responsibility for having himself been the instigator and cause of every last sin ever committed by anyone on earth (or in the entire Universe even). Revelation 20:2; 12:9/10; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34 etcetera. The Holy Bible (ibid.)
Sure, it's quite true that no-one will ever be able to shake their fist at God on That Great Day and accuse Him of unjust dealing, arguing 'the devil made me do it', but just as surely, in the very real sense that sin originated in Paradise with the one, Lucifer, the Light-Bearer and 'anointed cherub who covers', who was 'the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty', and was moreover 'perfect in [his] ways from the day [he] was created, till iniquity was found in [him]', that thus as the author of sin, he has been the ultimate instigator of every last sin ever committed, whether by direct agency (himself or one of the third of heavenly angels ejected alongside himself to this earth), via the tempting world all round us, or even c/o our own sinful human natures which ever, unregenerated, incline us to satisfy our legitimate needs in (an endless array of) sinful ways...since his successful temptation (of our forefather and 'fore-mother') in 'Eden, the garden of God' thus turned human nature from essentially sinless to sinful, thus inclining us to sin and sinful desires, attitudes, thoughts, ways and words as our inherent (if subconscious) modus operandi or pivot point at all times and in all places...though admittedly - thanks be to God - we don't ever and always so choose to order our lives thus. Ezekiel 28:12-15. Revelation 12:4. The Holy Bible (ibid.)
Enough for a pithy, brief, short and succinct summary I earlier indicated I had no time or space to pursue here and now...
****No, I don't include here those actually raped or otherwise sexually assaulted by Mr Weinstein, only those now belatedly jumping on the bandwagon, many of whom were most probably somewhat 'in the know' about said allegations in years gone by, but without the personal gonads or intestinal fortitude then, unlike now, to come forward and put themselves, their livelihoods and their reputations on the line for a greater cause and moreover on behalf of the vulnerable victims for whom their hearts are apparently now bleeding.
Reminding me once again of James Russell Lowell's memorable and inimitable 'Once to Every Man and Nation', in which verse two especially (and verse one, to some extent) sum up the aforementioned with wonderful aptness:
'Once to ev-ery [wo]man and na-tion Comes the mo-ment to de-cide,
In the strife of truth with false-hood, For the good or e-vil side;
Some great cause, God's new Mes-si-ah, Of-fering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by for-ev-er 'Twixt that dark-ness and that light.
Then to side with truth is no-ble When we share her wretch-ed crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and prof-it, And 'tis prosper-ous to be just;
Then it is the brave [wo]man choos-es, While the cow-ard stands a-side,
Till the mul-ti-tude make vir-tue Of the faith they had de-nied.
(Hyphenation already supplied - in Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal (SIGNS PUBLISHING, Warburton, Australia, 1985), and included so one (myself, anyhow!) can sing along. Bold highlighted letters supplied by me.)
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