Hat tip to Hot Air headlines for this Benjamin Kerstein piece at The New Ledger, discussing Roman Polanski's recent arrest on a thirty-year old conviction ... oh, you know the story.
I cannot shake the suspicion, however, that lurking behind all of these various excuses is the fact that Polanski is a great artist. It is decidedly doubtful that so many in Europe and elsewhere would be outraged if a factory worker, office manager, or Catholic priest, for that matter, were finally caught after so many years evading justice for statutory rape. It is much more likely that they would be outraged at the authorities for taking so long to get around to arresting the perpetrator. The simple truth is that many people - and I freely admit to being one of them - very much wish that Polanski had not done what he did, and are sorely tempted to pretend that, somehow, he didn’t. Since we cannot deny the facts, we deny, in some way, his culpability; or, we tell ourselves that, in the end, all things considered, all things being equal, etc., it really wasn’t such a big deal. And we do this, I think, for one reason only: We love his movies.
It requires a great deal of effort in the face of this to remind oneself that perhaps the foremost reason people get things wrong is wishful thinking.
Jewel, of all people Twittered the most sane response to this excusing of the inexcusable. Her tweet?
"Polanski-admitted raping a 13 yr old-whys every1 in the arts upset hes facing jail? cause hes a gifted director? what am i missing?"
I'm with you, Jewel. I don't get it either. By the way, on the topic of wishful thinking, do you think there was an abundance of that in the wake of the Hope 'n Change Express last fall?