The Avengers Forever: IMHO

	IMHO: 24 June 2005 Page 16 of 28

This is probably about as far off-topic as I could ever get. But owing to recent events, I simply must get this off of my chest. (Forum regulars and some newsgroups have already heard this one...)

Boycott Spielberg's War of the Worlds.

Why? Because Tom Cruise is a nutcase. Well, OK, I may be stating the obvious, but it's actually worse: he is getting downright dangerous.

Ordinarily I could give a rat's behind about the lives of actors, but recently Mr. Cruise has seen fit to use his promotional tour for the film as a pulpit from which to spew his horribly ill-considered views on psychiatry.

Having publicly denounced psychiatry as a "pseudo-science," he declared "there is no such thing as chemical imbalance" among many other utterly indefensible remarks. His actions are worse than merely irresponsible—they could prove deadly, for if a person in need of help should take his nonsense to heart, they could suffer or even die as a result.

This is an issue that hits home for me because, were it not for the measurable benefits of psychiatry and psychiatric drugs, the love of my life would be dead. And... truth be told, so would I.

Mr. Cruise claims to have researched psychiatry to such an extent that one might begin to suspect he should be granted the title of the Reverend Dr. Thomas Cruise. But his studies are obviously skewed by the highly distorted lens of his chosen religion, Scientology (arguably a pseudo-religion at best and likely something quite sinister at worst), as one could easily produce enough scientific documentation supporting psychiatry to sink the Titanic.

Some people have pointed out that he is entitled to the same freedom of speech as anyone else. But Mr. Cruise is an extremely high-profile celebrity, and celebrities have a strong influence over their weak-minded followers, to paraphrase Obi-Wan. He is welcome to his beliefs, but using his celebrity status to shove them down our throats is an abuse of his freedoms, and spouting truly dangerous rhetoric such as his is unethical, if not immoral.

Here's some scary stuff excerpted from a Rolling Stone piece on him:

"Some people, well, if they don't like Scientology, well, then, f**k you." He rises from the table. "Really." He points an angry finger at the imaginary enemy. "F**k you." His face reddens. "Period."

If you ask me, it's time for a straight jacket and a muzzle.

Of course, a boycott of something like War of the Worlds is not realistic (indeed, boycotts as a rule have never proven effective). This is just an old fart bellyaching about some dim-witted, loud-mouthed actor. And expressing this fantasy is a little cathartic.

Perhaps, sometime very soon, Mr. Cruise will have a complete meltdown on some talk show, so he can be seen for the truly dangerous nutcase he is quickly becoming. One can only hope.

And that's my humble opinion.

David K. Smith, 30 June 2005