The Official Raúl E. Esparza "Spread the Love" Thread, Part 3- Page 38

[misschung]

Posted: 6/22/07 at 5:52pm

I know, I dont have it either

That's really interesting, skittles. It seems still kind of taboo for someone in academia to publicly identify as a socialist.

wow, really? I guess my schools were more liberal than I thought, lol

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/22/07 at 6:29pm

Well, he didn't publically announce it at the top of the syllabus. There were obvious hints of his views and my TA mentioned it in passing at a discussion section. But McCarthyism is still alive and well in America today.

It's quite sad that people still have these medieval attitudes about beliefs, where they demonize anyone whose opinions may contradict their own. Another interesting thing mentioned in Sicko was when he was interviewing expatriates living in France. One woman said that the difference is that in France, the government is scared of the people, whereas in America, the people are scared of the government. We tout ourselves as the birthplace of democracy (well, actually I think that was Greece), but every other country seems to have gotten the RIGHT idea and while we're still "electing" autocrats more determined to fix the human rights violations in other countries while ignoring the institutionalized violations within our own. Maybe we have to guillotine a few people to get the point across.

Updated On: 6/22/07 at 06:29 PM

[Ariella]

Posted: 6/22/07 at 7:11pm

My grandpa is a respected professor/philosopher of political science, and he's "outed" himself as a socialist now that he's in retirement. As a professor, one has to maintain a certain level of objectivity regarding the subjects one teaches (to keep from polarizing the class in addition to any self-protection), but retirement merits a certain amount of freedom. As you said, skittles, McCarthyism did indeed leave a legacy that prevented full expression of such views. He traveled with some other leftist theorists to meet Guevara (not Castro) sometime in the 60s.

For a country once so taken with ideas of isolation and internal development (democratic and other), America takes a ridiculous approach to foreign policy. And half of those human rights violations elsewhere that we're now so desperate to eradicate were carried out by administrations empowered by us.

I have to watch the first Chatterbox now.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 6/22/07 at 9:04pm

Well, my state and school are really conservative, so just a different perspective, I guess. One of my professors, a completely brilliant woman, was hesitant about discussing her views as an atheist because it would offend people in the class. The thing is, that's what college is about -- challenging your ideas about the world to see if they still hold up when you've seen the bigger picture. It so concerns me that people are afraid of that. I've had professors whose views I disagreed with (granted, not many), and I still feel that it was worthwhile to be exposed to that, particularly if they're open to discussion and differences of opinion. I live for those kinds of experiences that turn your worldview upside down and make you reexamine your choices.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/22/07 at 11:00pm

I'm too tired to talk about anything involved, but I thought you all would want to know that he was back tonight.

Updated On: 6/23/07 at 11:00 PM

[obsessedjb]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 1:10am

is anyone going on sunday?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 1:13am

Me.

[obsessedjb]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 1:15am

I want to so badly. My flight supposedly gets back into NY at 12 and if I book it I could possibly get a rear mezz ticket but that's crazy.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 2:06am

Exactly, Ash. I've always questioned the beliefs that were taught to me. I can't imagine going through life and accepting my parents' beliefs and politics as the absolute truth. I've been questioning them since I was...well, too young to be questioning my parents. They're hardcore conservative Christian Republicans that listen to Rush Limbaugh daily and agree. I don't think half my friends now would tolerate me if I had the same views as my parents. That's what college is about, though. Being exposed to all sorts of different beliefs and opinions and learning to understand and tolerate people who may disagree with you. That's how the world works. If you're going to be offended by someone merely saying they are an atheist or a Marxist or gay, you should just stay back in your isolated hometown where everyone believes the same thing and never makes any progress. The rest of the world is too diverse to have to put up with your biases.

[misschung]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 10:55am

I just watched Raul's Defying Gravity for the first time, hehe

Too bad he didnt sport the witch's hat.

And yes, I've been very lucky to have, for the most part, shared my parents beliefs. But I went to a fairly conservative school in middle and high school with people who said things like "well, thank God we have a good president now" and watch Bill O'Reilly over dinner every night. I love the fact that our country is so concerned with spreading democracy to the poor burka wearing women of the middle east, meanwhile the people displaced by Katrina in this country are still homeless.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 2:13pm

Exactly. The government is shipping off multi-million dollar contractors to "rebuild Iraq" (aka, rebuild the oil fields) and meanwhile my 17-year-old brother is leaving with a church group today to go help with Katrina relief. Two years later and they're still tearing down destroyed houses because New Orleans has to rely on the limited volunteers instead of the professional government-hired/payed contractors.

I had a dream last night about going to see Company. And while I was there (literally, on my laptop in the front mezz during the show), I looked up Witches of Eastwick and it said Mark Kudisch would be out for a few days to film a pilot in LA and Chris Sieber would be taking his place. So I decided to put off seeing that. When I woke up, that was the first thing I looked at online, just to make sure it was the dream.

[misschung]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 5:52pm

wow! Well, you know its not true because those insane ushers would throw you out if you brought a laptop in there. I turned OFF my phone about 10 minutes before the show started last time and I got yelled at, lol

re: Katrina - the whole situation really makes me sick to my stomach. The powers at be shove images of poor, helpless civilians in Iraq down our throats to justify this war on terrorism, but we cant scrape together a few million dollars to rebuild some houses for people living in our own country? If Oprah can do it, why cant we?

I actually watched Man of the Year last night - at one point Robin Williams' character, the presidential candidate, says that during the presidential debates, the candidates should just wear suits like the Nascar guys with logos from all the corporations that are backing their campaigns.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 7:09pm

I've been on the phone while the ushers were checking my tickets and they've gotten on my case. I know it needs to go off before the show, and fully plan to turn it off, but that's not enough, heh.

I have some friends who have gone to New Orleans help out with the post-Katrina devastation, and they say it's just awful. I mean, I suppose it's a slightly naive viewpoint, but I have to wonder if this idea that our government is ignoring problems within its own borders doesn't just feed out of the desire to appear heroic around the world. So much is about how the rest of the world sees us, although I'd argue that a lot of decisions make it seem like nobody cares about that either, but to me it's got to do with this desire to be seen as the hero and fixer of all problems worldwide, swooping in to patch up the problem. But what about domestic issues? Maybe they're just not good enough for world image, or something.

Updated On: 6/23/07 at 07:09 PM

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 7:13pm

Yeah, the same thing has happened to me. And on the opposte end, the ushers at A Chorus Line were perplexed when I tried to step OUT of the lobby to use my phone.

Posted: 6/23/07 at 9:36pm

Here's a happy and uplifting Raul mention for all of us to ruminate on.

Esparza, who seems sensitive almost to the point of tortured, admitted he sometimes cries himself to sleep and said his advice to young actors is, "You will cry, I will cry." Party! Esparza's deepest pain, perhaps, was doing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ("I was miserable. There was nothing to play!"), though even in Company he's found that while he welcomes cast members into his gigantic dressing room, "ultimately, we all are alone."

(Oh, he's gonna be wounded.)
Link

[misschung]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 9:38pm

taking me on a bummer...

Posted: 6/23/07 at 9:42pm

I hope a good bedtime listen to "My Junk" helps to dispel his demons.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 9:48pm

They don't let the world see the domestic issues and instead drag out the 9/11 pictures of heroic Americans to make them think nothing has changed. Which is about the equivalent of posting pictures of smiling Africans dancing for tourists and claiming it realistically represents the living conditions with no mention of the famine, disease and war.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 10:13pm

Awww.

Nice line placement, Lexi.

Right, let's all go vacation in the Congo. Oh, America.

[ElphieDefiesGravity]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 10:19pm

Geez, Raul. Cheer up. That's depressing.

Sort of related to the conversation- I'm seriously considering going to Africa after college to...do something. Help, I guess.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 10:20pm

Oy, Raul. That was depressing.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 10:36pm

Meh, all the other actors in the article had the same attitude. They were discussing the realities of being an actor. Raul is hardly the only tortured artist out there.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 10:40pm

His just sounded the most depressing. Although, I did enjoy Liev Schreiber's "head like a watermelon" remark.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 10:45pm

Musto picks these quotes from a 90 minute panel discussion? That must have been the five minutes he was awake.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 10:58pm

Or he just writes down that which will kick up the most speculation.