Action hero ambassador Angelina Jolie, who’s probably never starred in a movie without being armed to the teeth, is begging the world to stop all the violence, at least long enough to save some Syrian refugees.
"The crisis in Syria illustrates that our inability to find diplomatic solutions causes mass displacement, traps millions of people in exile, statelessness, and displacement," she said. "If we cannot end the conflict, we have an inescapable moral duty to help refugees and provide legal avenues to safety."
The irony of that appeal, though -- from someone who has herself made more money than the combined GDP of ten small nations by brandishing firearms, chucking hand grenades and killing people onscreen -- seems lost on the photogenic activist and her gun toting Hollywood colleagues.
That’s not to say, of course, that Jolie’s current cause and crusade has no merit. After all, billions of law abiding citizens are now being caught up in conflicts of every flavor and make, so folks certainly need all the help they can get.
But it’s also true that global violence, including that by militarism and militants, has steadily escalated in the decades since the *entertainment* industry first decided to overdose the planet with plot-thin gory realism and gratuitous special effects.
Thus today, sadly, there can scarcely be a single living film icon of any age or caliber who hasn’t viciously blown somebody to smithereens (or slashed them to bits) at least once in their illustrious career.
Many critics believe the rise in violent acts worldwide is not an uncanny coincidence either, and that perhaps it’s time for over-the-top virtual killers, like Angelina Jolie and her handsomely paid comrades, to surrender their arms and negotiate a ceasefire.
It would also be swell if they put some money where their mouths are, too, and cough up some of those profits they made from their award-winning bloodbaths and battling.
Meanwhile, in other news, nobody was shot or stabbed in crime-plagued New York City this past Thursday. The first time that’s happened there since … well … eons.
