A great actor has left us.
Yes, you should give a damn.
Yes, this is worth talking about.
Yes, this is worth acknowledging.
Yes, it’s even worth being upset about.
Soldiers, children, people die every day and death is always tragic. In case it isn’t an obvious fact, artists can change the world for the better too. In fact they achieve more than your precious politicians or the soldiers or the children, or even some other people that happened to die in the same day. The circumstances of death don’t make it any more or less of an astronomic loss and anyone who is trying to trivialize the loss this world has just endured with the passing of Phillip Seymour Hoffman are the most spectacular examples of moral bankruptcy.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s work, fix that now. Being called one of the greatest actors of our generation isn’t just an embellished way for the media to pay its last respects. This was a true artist. Some people need an example, so here’s a fine one.
It’s disheartening to see people believe that artists should not be as celebrated as anyone else. It’s disheartening to see how undervalued artists truly are. We’re just here for your entertainment, nothing to see here. It’s not like we challenge ideas, or inspire activism of multiple causes, or open the collective minds of society and inspire them to think of the next step towards perfecting civilization. No, we’re just here to make you laugh, cry, dance, think. For free.
But take heart, because we do it. We love to do it. We’d do it for free if we could live off of air, we love it so much. All of the disregard in the world isn’t going to stop us from doing what we do. We make you laugh. We make you cry. We make you dance. We hopefully make you think too.
Maybe one day you’ll thank us. Even if it’s after we die, we’ll accept it. It’s never too late to us.
Much love,
Zen Politics
“Goodnight, Sweet Prince” – Published February 9, 2014
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