America's Actor

I recently watched an old John Wayne movie. Which one is irrelevant. It was interesting to watch him. John Wayne represented America. The actor he was represented what America was. John Wayne acted from 1926 to 1976, fifty years that held a particular flavor of America. While he was acting in mostly westerns and war movies, America was living westerns and war. We defended Europe from evil men and fought off attackers from Asia. We went to war -- a cold war -- with communism, went into outer space, and landed on the moon. Americans made sacrifices, fought hard, stood for right, defended the weak, and made great strides in technology. And John Wayne represented America. He was strong and stood for the right. He never backed down. He was America. According to the Harris Poll, John Wayne has remained in the top 10 most popular actors to this day -- the only dead actor to even remain on the list.

John Wayne remains popular, but he doesn't represent America today. We are no longer the defender of the weak. We failed in Vietnam to protect South Vietnam from their neighbors. In 1979, Iran took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The best we could do was Operation Eagle Claw, a failed attempt at rescue that cost the lives of 8 servicemen, two helicopters, and a C-130. Not one of our better days. In World War II we sacrificed and worked hard for principles in which we believed. Not today. No cost is too small to prevent us from standing up for the weak. We'll explore space, to be sure, as long as no one gets hurt. Technological advances are going to have to slow down because of litigation that will undercut any advancements. No, we're not the America that John Wayne represented.

So, who would be today's representative actor? I'm open to suggestions. Maybe it would be Tom Cruise? He likes to look good and act strong, but he's a follower of a religion based on science fiction and holds things like the belief that psychiatry "is a Nazi science." There's a rational, thinking man to represent us. Or maybe Woody Allen? He's viewed by many as a comic, but he's a whiny, psychotic writer, director, and actor who is perhaps best known for his questionable sexual preferences. Is that more like today's America? Or maybe it's a character? Jim Anderson from Father Knows Best or Ward cleaver of Leave It To Beaver represented good father figures. What we get today are characters like Homer Simpson or Al Bundy. Are they better representatives of what America is today?

We used to have strong, intelligent, self-sacrificing figures that represented a strong, intelligent, self-sacrificing nation. We are no longer that strong, intelligent, self-sacrificing country. Who would you say best represents what America is today?