Myth-creation is a distinctive attribute of Americans. One of my favorite movies is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. John Ford's classic told the story of a man played by Jimmy Stewart, who was given credit for killing a homicidal thug in a small western town. In fact, it wasn't Stewart who killed villainous Lee Marvin but John Wayne. No one knew it, though, because Wayne was hidden from view when he pulled the trigger. Stewart got the glory, and a myth was born at the expense of a more complicated truth.
This celluloid masterpiece says more about the American character than most of the sociological theses published over the last century. We want heroes, and we want them to be perfect, and we have an amazing ability to forgive them for not living up to their reputations. Even when presented with strong evidence that these heroes have been lying to us, we defend them.
Some might call that honorable, but I call it hypocrisy. And with all due respect to mom, apple pie, and the flag, we Americans have perfected the art of being hypocritical.
That became obvious with such painful clarity this past month, with three glaring and highly-publicized examples.
The first case of what I call "#MeTwoFaced" is Asia Argento, the Italian actress most recently known as the girlfriend of Anthony Bourdain. Asia, while an accomplished artist in her own right, has always been defined by the men she knew, including her famous father Dario, who is known as the king of horror. It was revealed this week that Asia paid almost $400,000 in what some have called "hush money" to a young man who claimed she molested him when he was 17.
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04.29.2025