Hollywood Goes Authoritarian: Stone and Allen Long For a Dictator With the Right Stuff

Hollywood stars appear to be yearning for some authoritarian relief. This week, Oliver Stone proclaimed his deep admiration of Hugo Chavez, who has stifled dissent and cracked down on journalists in his country. In the meantime, Woody Allen stated that Obama should be given dictatorial powers.

Woody Allen insisted (here) “it would be good…if [Obama] could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly.”

For his part, Stone stated “I admire Hugo. I like him very much as a person. I can say one thing. … He’s a soldier and he speaks from his heart. His vision is huge. … And he will go down in history.” That vision of course includes his close ties to such other visionaries as , Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-Il, and of course his mentor Fidel Castro who shutdown all independent media and dissent in his worker’s paradise.

I know that we should not look to people like Allen and Stone for political philosophy, but one would think that they could steer clear of embracing the unlimited promise of authoritarian government.

There was a time when Hollywood viewed dictators as the subject of scorn rather than celebration:

For the Chavez story, click here.