Life is not a Nintendo game and wars are fought in the field of battle, not on the television screen from your father’s couch in the basement.
So it’s easy to see how Sons of American Privilege get confused between the one and the other, namely, at the moment, Seth Rogen.
That’s the actor who sneered at Chris Kyle’s achievements as portrayed in the movie “American Sniper,” which is breaking box office records as, for once, Hollywood gets it – we want heroes. Kyle (since deceased) was America’s most lethal wartime marksman. In the heat of battle, he scored more than 200 hits against Islamic terrorists. He saved countless lives while doing so.
He had no love for the enemy. He called them by their proper name – savages.
The success of the Clint Eastwood-directed movie, based on Kyle’s book, was too much for the Left and for those who think war is a video game.
So it goes with a generation that’s been raised with all the trimmings. These are kids and no matter how old, rich or famous, they never left home. They’ve been shooting fake bullets at make-believe savages for so long that they truly believe themselves to be warriors.
They’re bound to think it’s combat, blood, sweat and tears, when they’re at war against toys, virtual figures on the TV screen. So if Kyle got 255-plus kills – why that’s nothing compared to the thousands of hits Sons of American Privilege score from the couch.
In terms of the war in Gaza, some members of the IDF are being questioned for being too heroic. They failed to abide by Marquess of Queensberry Rules when up against the Hamas savages.
Blowing heads off from the sofa to the TV screen counts as bravery and skill.
For my part, I don’t think Rogen meant to say something so ridiculous; roundabout equating heroic American marksmen to Nazis. He’s retreated on that loose-lipped comment. He was simply mouthing off as guys do in the Frat House – and as actors do when fame comes too fast.
When will actors learn that without a script they are just like you and me?
The reaction against Rogen has been fierce and here we go again, another illustration to prove that what happens in America also happens in Israel. We hear that, in terms of the war in Gaza, some members of the IDF are being questioned for being too heroic. They failed to abide by Marquess of Queensberry Rules when up against the Hamas savages.
This entire backstabbing armchair coaching as the Jewish State faces the next round from Hamas and braces for nuclear Iran.
As in America, Israelis love their soldiers, admire the courage of their sons and daughters and enough, they say, from the scoffers.
Same here as per detractors Rogen, Michael Moore and Rolling Stone.
For Israel at war, the front is everywhere and it happens for everyone. Here, it’s something that happens far away and to someone else.
So I doubt that Israel has anything like our own forever-young couch potatoes. We are into a generation that’s gone soft and blurred from excessive technology and game playing. These Sons of American Privilege believe that their selections actually count when they play Fantasy Football.
Men aged 30, 40 and even 50 still read and collect comic books and consider themselves learned on literature.
“Batman” and “Superman” are movies Sons of American Privilege take seriously.
Before Seth Rogen came Gable, Cooper, Bogart, Brando and Redford. They played heroes. Who figured on Seth Rogen and the Frat Pack (my designation)?
These are the Thirty-something moviemakers, brash but sensitive for the times.
Today, Alan Ladd would not raise his guns against Jack Palance in “Shane.” Today’s script would have him understand the gunslinger’s root cause.
The Frat Pack turn out buddy flicks that are often quite good and deservedly successful.
Mostly these are about guys being guys, for better or worse, and in either case, they are likeable. Seth Rogen is likeable. So is his crew. They are talented.
Their movies give us no heroes, no villains, no peace, no war, no purpose, no cause.
Chris Kyle and others like him here and in Israel have a cause – and they have to use real bullets.
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. The new thriller from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a heroic editor’s singlehanded war on terror and against media bias. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Website: www.jackengelhard.com