"Winning!" Step aside Gaga, Lindsay, Britney, Paris, Christina (taken into custody for being so drunk in West Hollywood that she didn't know where she lived).
Actor/warlock/Vatican assassin Charlie Sheen -- doing his best rock-fueled Al Pacino in "Scarface" impression -- has been on a media rampage all week. First he's shooting himself in the foot then putting that foot in his mouth then, well, shoot-mouth-repeat.
It's wonderful entertainment. It's more real to us, as Americans used to Hollywood celebrity meltdowns, than the far more important meltdown of Libya's leader. Moammar Gaddafi does his best impression of another US-backed/US-deposed dictator, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, after he too crossed his equal opportunity employer (the CIA). They plummet like "shooting stars that shine so bright yet fall so far" (Sabbat).
Emboldened by blonde girlfriends, obscene amounts of money, personal fame, or what else could it be? Hmm. His famous father Martin Sheen, with his other son actor Emilio Estevez at his side, pleaded for compassion for Charlie: If he had cancer, people would not judge him so harshly. In fact, drug addiction is a cancer. And it should inspire as much compassion as The Big C.
Tiger Blood... music by Apollo Run
Both are curable -- but the cure is difficult to undertake if one will not admit that one has a problem. Moreover, it is necessary to identify a cause. Dr. Gabor Mate (author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts on addiction and When the Body Says No) has identified the cause not only of addiction but of common "incurable" diseases as well.
- The best line in the din of tirades was delivered from the sidelines by John Stamos: “Contrary to the rumors, I am not replacing Charlie Sheen [on Two and a Half Men],” he tweeted. “However, Martin Sheen has asked me to be his son.”
Cancers have cures (rather than toxic and expensive treatments like chemo and radiation), but we are not allowed to hear about them. That is how the military-industrial-pharmaceutical-entertainment complex rolls. The job of the entertainment arm seems to be to distract (with celebrity meltdowns) and mislead (with carefully orchestrated disinformation campaigns). But the underlying goal of all its arms is power and profiteering.
Sex...
Does Charlie have a prostitute or pornstar problem? He's in a polyamorous threelationship. This term, coined by Wisdom Quarterly, describes a committed relationship shaped like a triangle. It seems better than the other shapes we usually adopt:
- the point (single)
- the line (monogamy)
- the asterisk (promiscuity or serial-monogamy)
It seems like he has a problem. But it's hard to argue with Sheen's manic thinking. He has the success the culture adores and aspires to. This year's Academy Award-winning best documentary, "Inside Job," shows the exact same behavior engaged in by impulsive bankers, which sank our economy.
So why are we condemning Charlie who is spending his own money rather than embezzling ours? Is it because he's being a bad sport rubbing it in our faces, or is it because he's violating another code by exalting himself and disparaging others?
Drugs 'n Consequences
Apart from the mania (as diagnosed by Loveline and Celebrity Rehab's Dr. Drew Pinsky) and many good times, Does Charlie have a problem? The determining question is: Is he experiencing consequences?
He lost his children this week. He lost his job on a popular sitcom. He lost his health (as a hernia forced him into the ER after a weekend of nonstop "cocktailing" drug abuse -- cocaine, ecstasy, alcohol -- as he watched pornography with paid prostitutes who then sold him out. His wife is divorcing him. She took out a restraining order that led police to forcibly remove his two sons. Actress Denise Richards has banned him from seeing his two daughters. His income is evaporating. Anti-Semitic ranting against his media boss, bashing Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), getting support and encouragement from Mel Gibson, Howard Stern, and Alex Jones... these could be problematic.
How? Exalting Self, Disparaging Others
Wisdom Quarterly translation, Simile of the Heartwood (MN 30)
The Buddha explained: "...Brahmin, a certain person leaving home would go forth into voluntary homelessness out of faith thinking, 'I am inundated by birth, decay, death, grief, lamentation, unpleasantness, and disappointment.' Only a few declare the complete end of suffering. [That is, rarely is it heard, rarely is one able to practice it, rarely does anyone achieve the goal of nirvana.]
"Gone forth thus, one is [later] reborn in gain, honor, and fame. Satisfied, with desires fulfilled, one would praise oneself and disparage others: 'I am a gainer of hospitality; these others are impotent and unwise.' One does not arouse interest or effort to realize something more exalted than gain, honor, and fame and abides infatuated and negligent.
"Just as a person wandering in search of heartwood would come upon a huge standing tree with heartwood. One would ignore its heartwood, sapwood, bark, and shoots, cutting the branches and leaves and would carry them away thinking it heartwood. For whatever purpose one needs heartwood, to that purpose one would not come.
"Brahmin, I say, this person is comparable to that. Brahmin, a certain person leaving home would go forth into homelessness out of faith thinking, 'I am inundated by birth, decay, death, grief, lamentation, unpleasantness, and disappointment.'
"Only a few declare the complete end of suffering. Gone forth thus, one is [later] reborn in gain, honor, and fame. One is neither satisfied with it nor are one's desires fulfilled; one does not praise oneself nor disparage others. One arouses interest and makes a sustained effort to realize something more exalted than gain, honor, and fame [for having practiced virtue and restraint].
"Not infatuated nor negligent, one takes upon oneself the endowment of virtues. Satisfied with it and with desires fulfilled, one praises oneself and disparages others: 'I am virtuous; these others are sunk in demerit.' One does not arouse interest nor make the effort to realize something more exalted than the endowment of virtues..." [The Dharma and leaving home is not merely for the cultivation of fame or riches, virtue or concentration. Instead, the intended purpose is to cultivate liberating wisdom.]
- WikiLeaks: Inside the wacky world of Col. Gaddafi's phobias, dancing, and "voluptuous blonde"
Described as "mercurial and eccentric" and "childish," the Libyan leader (68) likes to pitch his tent in hotel rooms when abroad, has a "well-known predilection for changing his mind," "avoids eye contact," and dislikes staying upstairs or flying over water.
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