Stephen Gyllenhaal's New Post at Huffington

For whatever reason—I suppose they thought I was being too personal or off-topic—my comments on Stephen’s first piece at Huffington in 15 months didn’t pass the monitors. Read his piece, then read my comments below (I submitted it cut for length, this is the uncut version):

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Stephen—Ambiguity of meaning is best achieved in poetry and novels. You are a fine poet and a fine novelist, but one thing you have yet to master is the art of political writing. Put Orwell’s essays on your reading list and forget about whales for a while, will you? The only thing clear in this piece is your own present state of mind, which seems to be conflating your personal financial anxiety not only with our nation’s financial anxiety, but with our nation’s present dishonor in the world for being greedy unjust warmongers, and your conviction that, for all of it, Somebody Must Pay.

So let’s get straight to what you’re really trying to say. One: Guantanamo should be closed down and its prisoners given the justice that has long been denied them. (My own opinion is that the ACLU—the organization which, by the way, awarded you, Naomi and the kids the Torch of Liberty Award in 2002—should have been on this case years ago.) Two: Most of Gitmo’s prisoners are probably harmless and have done far, far less damage to America than the cunning bankers and CEOs who have systematically robbed our country of its future (in terms of jobs, education, infrastructure) to line their own pockets. Three: You, Stephen, are no better than they, because had you the cunning to do so you would have been as big a thief—but possessing this same ruthlessness and cunning would also mean that you were a true son of the “American Way of Business” and, like they, would be entitled to avoid punishment.

Juxtaposing all these conflicting ideas with false self-incrimination does not make you a good citizen, an aware citizen, and it certainly does not make you a persuasive writer. Your brother Anders, an excellent newspaperman, would be ashamed to read this drivel. Please remember when you file your piece that it’s not as if you were tossing off an email—there’s a real audience out there that you have the means and the potential to move with your words.

Judging from the comments before me, I’m relieved to see that Huffington readers are not to be hoodwinked by your status as a “celebrity blogger”. They read for content. They are not to be underestimated.