The popular director Joss Whedon ditched his usual comic-centric speeches for a more political lecture during a Q&A session at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.
When one female fan noted the anti-corporate themes in many of his movies and asked him to give his economic philosophy in 30 seconds or less, Joss Whedon started by comparing modern America to "Tsarist Russia". He went on to say “We are watching capitalism destroy itself right now" and that the term 'socialism' has been unnecessarily demonized. He placed most of the blame for that on former President Ronald Reagan and the current Republicans.
Currently, a website called celebritynetworth.com places Joss Whedon's wealth around $45 million. With the success of 2012's "The Avenger's" Whedon's wealth is sure to sky-rocket to further heights.
Joss Whedon is not the first, nor will he be the last, wealthy Hollywood celebrity to bite the proverbial hand that feeds him (aka the capitalist American economic system). However, it truly does come across as hypocritical to obtain all this wealth through a capitalist system and then criticize that very system that gave him so much liberty and success. Yet what has Whedon done to "socialize" his own wealth? A charity auction here and there is no where near the level required under socialist principles. This hypocrisy is on par with billionaire Warren Buffet's calls for higher taxes on the rich and yet Mr. Buffet has made no effort to part with larger sums of his money by making a "gift contribution" to the federal government. Stephen King, the acclaimed Horror author, has made the same call for higher taxes on the wealthy but made no effort to donate large percentages of his $400 million wealth.
The question is not whether people ought to be more virtuous or charitable with their wealth, the question is what is virtuous about being wealthy and wanting socialism but doing nothing in practice? It would seem that Whedon and much of the Hollywood elite believe socialism is good in theory but bad in personal practice.
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