Cut and paste
Australian, Page: 15. Wednesday, 9 April, 2008
Hollywood liberals demonised Charlton Heston, Mick Hume writes in London newspaper The Times.
Charlton Heston’s obituarists worry that his acting career might he overshadowed by his controversial stance against gun control.
Let’s hope so. Most of Heston’s movie roles were as stiff as his chiselled jaw. But his rocklike defence of the right to bear arms was worthy of an award.
Hollywood liberals demonised the man who was Moses for his pro-gun views. But that only shows how illiberal they have become.
Anybody who retains enough liberal spirit to believe in individual freedom as the basis for a civilised society ought to have stood at Heston ’s right hand on this issue.
Critics of the second amendment, enshrining the US citizenry ’s right to hear arms, express much the same prejudice as those who criticise the first amendment on free expression. They all believe that other people especially Americans cannot be trusted with too much freedom.
Hollywood illiberals such as George Clooney and Michael Moore made a career of sneering at the ageing Heston, which was almost enough to make me join the National Rifle Association. True, many of Heston ’s conservative views might he as dated as his movies. But a willingness to take up arms for human freedom is one reason we still don’t live on the planet of the apes.
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