"O Say Can You See?': Viggo Mortensen Speaks Out

Some actors are pretty.
Talented, even.  And then
there's Viggo Mortensen.

I have adored Viggo Mortensen for years.  Never mind that he's handsome and a fantastic actor.  I fell in love with him the first time I saw him wearing an AIM shirt to a poetry reading at the Midnight Special, my erstwhile favorite bookstore in LA.  Then I read his poetry, and loved him more, saw his photography and was blown away.  I purchased Twilight of Empire, the book he references in this interview, when it first came out and highly recommend it.  And then I heard him read from Bartolome de las Casas' devastating account of the brutality of the colonizers in the New World, and I've pretty much been a goner ever since.

Sometimes, I think he's too modest, too careful, too nice in how he speaks.  I read somewhere once that one of his greatest fears is to offend anyone, not because he's a coward, but because he's kind.  He never wants to hurt anyone's feelings.

But, as gracious, modest and unassuming as he still is, he pulls no punches in this interview, and for that I'm enormously grateful.  People who say artists shouldn't speak out are morons.  In almost every country of the world, except the U.S., poets are revered as critics of the government and the social order.  In many countries they become statesmen, and no one blinks.  I was recently in Ireland, where the bard was once more powerful that the king, and could destroy him with a word.  That reverence for the curiosity and clear-sightedness of the poet, the ear to the ground, listening to what's really going on and reflecting that back to those inside the walls of power, still remains very strong in Eire.  May it be ever so.

He's actually making the Palestinian
"revolution until victory" sign.
(I wish)

The point Viggo returns to again and again, so elegantly in this interview, is that, as Americans, we must try to see.  There are those who want to, and those who don't.  But if we consider the first words of the national anthem, and recognize that they are not just a question but a call to action in service of democracy, we should feel compelled, as a nation, to look and really see what is going on.

And then, of course, to act.  If that flag is still waving, it means we're still on duty, people.

I strongly recommend all four parts of the interview, in written or video form.  Make sure you listen to the last one, where Viggo reads his marvelous poem, "Back to Babylon." To purchase Twilight of Empire go here.

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/5/actor_viggo_mortensen_warrior_king_in

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/5/you_have_to_speak_up_viggo

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/5/actor_viggo_mortensen_on_foreign_policy

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/5/acclaimed_actor_viggo_mortensen_on_the

As ever, thank you, Amy Goodman.

Perhaps more to the point,
what the hell is the question?