What Comes First the Chicken or the Egg?

Life is full of chicken and egg questions and problems. Where I work I face problems all the time that I describe as chicken and egg problems. There is a problem to fix, but in order to solve it I need the problem fixed. Follow that? Sorry, my nondisclosure won't let me provide any examples.

There is a quote by actress Jodie Foster that made me think of the chicken and egg analogy. As we all know Hollywood is full of those who want to influence the world with their liberal philosophy. When making their statements, they often reveal that there is not much brain power between their ears. Usually, I see a link between those who make these ridiculous and a career on the wane. The question is "Do the stupid political statements kill their career, or do they represent a dying career?" Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do actors and actresses come out with strong (and often silly) political statements only to damage their careers? Or do actors and actresses that already have dying careers come out and make the idiotic statements in a desperate attempt to feel they are still influential?

Newsbusters has a post on some statements by Jodie Foster that completely defy the intelligent image she has carefully developed over the years. Foster is one year older than me, so I grew up seeing her teenage career along with quite a number of other childhood stars. She defied the odds and made the leap to having a successful adult career. She continues to make movies and I think she is quite talented. I hated her in Anna and the King, but she did an excellent job in Flightplan. I don't think she has been making a big splash at the box office, though. Other telltale signs her career is not as bright as desired are seeing her on the cover of multiple magazines lately. While sometimes that might signal a strong career, often it shows a desperate willingness to boost oneself in the public eye.

The statements Jodie Foster made were about guns. In her new movie, The Brave One, Foster totes a gun to get revenge on some bad guys that kill her fiance. Foster is actually offended at the notion of movie goers cheering when she gets her revenge. She calls such people "unsophisticated" and links them to true louts that cheered during the rape scene of the movie The Accused. If that was not enough to alienate a potential audience, Foster goes on to talk against legitimate gun ownership by stating:

I don't believe that any gun should be in the hand of a thinking, feeling, breathing human being. Americans are by nature filled with rage-slash-fear. And guns are a huge part of our culture. I know I'm crazy because I'm only supposed to say that in Europe. But violence corrupts absolutely.

Notice the target group she singles out to be excluded from guns: thinking, feeling breathing human beings. There is no attempt to exclude the non-thinking, or the non-feeling. Again, the liberal position on guns is exposed for its folly: take the guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens.

In the same interview, Foster takes a swipe at "Christians" as being to blame for the delay in releasing the Dakota Fanning movie, Hounddog, because of a very graphic rape scene with a very young actress. As if Christians are the only group that think this kind of scene crosses an important social boundary. Let's see, liberals are fine for expelling a child from school for drawing a picture of a gun; but Christians are extreme because they think filming a pre-teen girl getting violently raped is going too far. However, Newsbusters lists three significant secular entities that voiced opposition to this scene. The suck-up of Hollywood to radical Muslims and swipes at Christians continues.

To be clear, Hollywood has a right to say all the stupid / liberal statements they want. My point is not to censor them, but to reveal the vast emptiness in their collective brains. The culture of huge fame and success combined with continuous social gatherings and peer scrutiny has led to a cookie cutter society where only one line of thinking is acceptable. The successful and smart ones keep it to themselves, while those who have a career death wish decide it is time to become an activist. Good luck Jodie. You defied the odds transitioning from young to mature actress; you may beat this one too. My money is against you.