Isn’t he a Vatican Warlock Assassin? With one level in Warrior for the bonus feat and extra hp?
I’d bet that the homeless guy with the radio voice could out-drink, out-smoke, out-snort and out-fuck (and probably out-funk as well, as homeless guy dosen’t look all that hygienically pristine) good ol’ Charlie Sheen any day of the mollyfocking week, with plenty o’ time left over to shoplift a few of those pre-made deli sandwiches that no one ever seems to buy…
Given that he was just fired, I doubt his bosses are of the opinion that he’s a rock star from Mars. I’d wager he is grossly overstating his ability to be functional and professional while hopped up on drugs.
I think they fired him, not because he couldn’t perform, so much as it looks terribly exploitative to continue shooting, while the world thinks he’s becoming unhinged or crashing his life.
I don’t think there was ever a performance issue, and I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that he was, ‘under the influence’, during most of the shows he’s already shot! Or that they knew as much!
I think it was his publicly ‘letting it all hang out’ that made them act.
Of course we wouldn’t be allowed to do at our jobs what Sheen does, but then again, most of us don’t make millions of dollars for our company. If you stop and think, at a lower level, how many jerks in our offices, jobs or factories exist and get away with it on some level?
The public has always liked people that can spit in your eye and give them the other guy gruff, someone with an “You’re not the boss of me,” attitude, that our mothers and fathers, spanked out of us when we were five.
Of course we’re grown up and responsible, but on some level it does appeal to people.
According to his dismissal letter, his performance had in fact collapsed, and they provided many specific examples. He was forgetting lines, missing marks, forcing rewrites and reshoots - all the very things that sooner or later will make you persona non grata in that business.
People who get promoted quickly (fast tracked), star athletes, prodigies; all get protected from their failings and the consequences of failing in other areas of their lives. Consequently they get a “I AM better than you” attitude toward life which is clearly rewarded and encouraged by those exploiting them for gain.
I work for a Director who just turned 30 and got promoted to Director at the age of 26. He thinks he knows everything, that no one beneath him can teach him anything, and when hiring supervisors, he only looks at other young people (‘like him’) that he can similarly fast track into management. When he finds a favorite and they fail him in any way, their fall is as meteoric as their rise. He rapidly discards them and moves on to the next favorite.
When I worked Security at the (Division III) University, we’d get shit from athletes who thought they were God’s Gift to mankind. They didn’t think we had any authority over them and they were not bound to the rules of normal people. Unfortunately, if they were black, that held true as the ultra-liberal administration was utterly terrified of anyone accusing them of racism and they were allowed to get away with things that would get white students arrested and/or expelled.
But I loved to deflate them by pointing out that it WAS a Division III school, that they were NOT going to be pro ball players, and if they were not getting a worthwhile degree, they would likely be working at SportMart in 5 years making less than I made as a Security Guard.
I’ve seen the same, over and over in every industry and field. Star Performer = Star Treatment = Rapidly growing ego.
As for which is more honest: if Sheen truly believes he is exceptional, it is honest for him to say so, and it would be, in a sense, dishonest for him to deny it. Honesty is not the only virtue, though. Humility, introspection, kindness and forgiveness are also virtues. In fact, honesty is about the most abused virtue that I know of. People do and say all sorts of terrible things in the name of honesty.
It seems to me that Sheen is suffering from mental illness. The ideas that he is expressing are the result of delusions, and the fact that he unashamedly says these things in public is also a symptom of his illness. I hope for his sake, and for the sake of his family and friends, that he gets help before something terrible happens. I’d rather he be in a hospital than in jail, under a bridge or on a marble slab.
This. He is winning, thanks to popularity and people’s monkey brains wiring themselves to like devil-may-care high status men. Is it deserved, is it fair? No. But our distaste at this unfairness doesn’t somehow make him a loser. And a culture that has long prided itself on being nonjudgmental and looking past traditional strictures has very little ability to defend itself from this sort of aggressive, charismatic narcissist. Because, thanks to monkeybrains, it works.
As far as Sheen goes, if he really felt that he was a special being who was inherently special and independently of what other people though, he wouldn’t be doing his best to convince people that they need to think so.
I recall a character from the 1001 Nights who thought he was pretty special…and he was.
An author’s musings on a topic doesn’t equate to a real world argument (not to say that Dostoevsky is wrong, just that it’s not real world data).
It’s sort of like the guy driving a Hummer or expensive Porsche. He doesn’t give a shit about what the sort of people who would be put off by his car think. That sort of thinking is at the core of social classes. When you make significantly more money than other people, it is difficult to relate to them. You simply don’t share their problems or concerns. You may even look down on them or feel some combination of pity or contempt. There is a tendency to view lower (or upper for that matter) classes as somewhat “alien” because they simply don’t see the world the way you see it.
Well, the boss isn’t always right. But he’s always the boss.
The thing is, if you were so great at whatever it is you do, how come you aren’t the director?
Fancy pants and a great deal of political shrewdness? Maybe a bit of talent would help.
I’d note a few things. Charlie Sheen is an actor, he could be acting. He has been very entertaining lately. He does not conform to any of the mental disorders people have attributed to him. For one thing, whenever necessary, he is calm and in full control. For another thing, he is more of a binger than a classic addict. I’m not trying to call that a big distinction, but I’ve heard three professionals evaluate his behavior and not mention that. His costar Holland Taylor says he was always professional on the set. I haven’t heard anyone except the people he insulted say otherwise.
That said, I think he’s a fool.
The writing, direction, and production of 2½ has always been kind of mediocre to me, and even then, I mean, the Stars are Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer, ferfuxsakes! Like this wasn’t intentional… I have less respect for Lorre and Co. for divesting interest.
Is this relevant to a crazy-ass sarcastic TV star, or are you just doing your bit for bossism once again?
The thing is, we just don’t know what is going on inside his 10,000 year old tiger blood-fueled brain. He’s made more money than he knows what to do with. He’s stared in films like Platoon and Wall Street that are still classics to this day. He was banging Denise Richards. Craziness aside, by any objective measurement, Sheen is highly successful. Maybe he just got bored doing 2 1/2 Men for the past 8 years?
Although I do think there’s a fine line between not appologizing for the lifestyle your succes affords and allowing your wealth to enable an out of control lunatic spiral.
He’s a pretty face who got his work through family/friend connections.
He is in no way imaginable a good, let alone a great actor.
“Is Charlie Sheen’s belief in his innate exceptionalism a more honest position than false humility?”
No. If CS is “exceptional” then there are hundreds of thousands of other people with more money and more drugs that can “out-exceptionalize” him. Money and drugs say nothing about the person hiding behind them.
False humility? I think that is only a cover for exceptionalism, so it is really the same underlying problem–too much money and drugs altering your sense of self.
Humiliy: Now that is a tough one in this age of look-and-listen-to-me-right-now.
I think Charle Sheen is being completely honest. Of course, I also know a guy who was being completely honest when he told me that he was 122 years old, had 18 million sons (one of which was Barack Obama, who he had spent time in prison with), and could bring people back to life with his blood.
As much as people want to deride his show and his talent, it was one of the highest rated shows on television and nobody in this thread could do his job.
He clearly is exceptional in whatever undefinable way it causes millions of people to be willing to watch him on television. The public finds him compelling. He does have an especially privileged lifestyle that he earned himself. He made CBS a lot of money. People weren’t watching for Jon Cryer or that kid.
If what Sheen did on that show was so unremarkable or unexceptional - if it required no talent - then anybody here should be able to step in and achieve the same results. Why can’t they?