“De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est” – and yet ….Robin Williams was fortunate he fit so well into show business and mass media. In any normal line of work he would have failed until he quit drugs. He made millions of dollars and willingly spent some of it on the things that messed up his mind and eventually killed him. As in some Faustian deal, eventually the drugs took the man.. I wonder if much of the creativity that everyone is now praising was due to recreational chemicals. I wonder if all creativity of a certain sort is due to twisting of mind chemistry so that it produces interesting things that capture our admiration? If the interesting effects are drug-induced, maybe we should forgo admiration..To the extent that it causes others to take drugs to imitate the glamorous effect — that is the dark, destructive legacy of Robin Williams and other media types who chose the same path. Williams made some of us laugh, but his actions somewhere along the line also caused others to cry.
In most of your comments, you are the most intolerant liberal I’ve ever read. You want to banish all guns, ban the eating of meat, and more. And while I’ve often thought you narrow minded, it wasn’t until I read this comment of yours that I ever thought you were…cruel… mean spirited… shallow… and less respectful adjectives.A more introspective person might reconsider what they have written and delete it.Appalled,C.
Emptyc swallowed that bitter pill of stupidity, ignorance, and judgmental hatred a long time ago. Knowing nothing about depression, or other mental illness, like bipolar, makes it easier for the ignorant to judge. Hmm, and there’s that “religious” slant to such judgments as well, which is self-explanatory.
Williams was simply a brilliant performer, with clinical depression, who saw the world as it was, and could still see humor in the absurd, and in his more serious roles, the horror within the human spirit that he actually rejected himself. He was a good man, and a good performer.
^Rusty Hamer was friend. He played the son on “Make Room for Daddy”. When his career as child actor died, he couldn’t proceed. He moved to Texas and committed suicide some time later. Never knew him to do any drugs.
I think Paul Peterson (Donna Reed Show) learned something. As a teen, he was a self-centered – dick. It was after Rusty’s death that Paul started a foundation/group to work with these troubled child actors, helping to them adjust. It was a turnaround.
I’ve been around a lot of depression and PTSD, one comes often with the other, but not the same thing, which is why DEPRESSION, not PTSD is what’s causing the increasing number of suicides in troops and vets.
The constant direct linkage of manic type comedians to drug use, is the same old stupid “Reefer Madness”. Which it’s interesting that while marijuana is constantly accused of dulling the sense, and making folks stupid, lowering I.Q.s etc, the opponents then say it’s responsible for their brilliance???
Hard drugs like coke, PCP, opiates of all types, and abused prescription meds, are extremely dangerous, and DO destroy (literally) the brain and other tissues of use, like livers. Alcohol is the deadliest drug on the market however in many, many ways, and does make people STUPID!(literally, goodbye brain cells!)
I"ve know attempted suicides, and suicides. I’ve know really great actors and comedians. I’ve seen alcohol lead to many of these suicides, and ruin talented people. Drugs are bad, but they get a lot of the credit alcohol deserves, and it IS the “entry level drug”, NOT Marihuana. (Tobacco’s as bad, but doesn’t damage the brain so much, just every other organ.)
Which drugs like meth, and opiates quickly destroy bodies, minds, and lives, don’t get me wrong, but not realizing DEPRESSION most typically leads to drug use, NOT the other way around. It is then necessary to treat the underlying mental disease first….
BaltoBill almost 10 years ago
That’s almost as bad as Rush Limbaugh’s comment.
emptc12 almost 10 years ago
“De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est” – and yet ….Robin Williams was fortunate he fit so well into show business and mass media. In any normal line of work he would have failed until he quit drugs. He made millions of dollars and willingly spent some of it on the things that messed up his mind and eventually killed him. As in some Faustian deal, eventually the drugs took the man.. I wonder if much of the creativity that everyone is now praising was due to recreational chemicals. I wonder if all creativity of a certain sort is due to twisting of mind chemistry so that it produces interesting things that capture our admiration? If the interesting effects are drug-induced, maybe we should forgo admiration..To the extent that it causes others to take drugs to imitate the glamorous effect — that is the dark, destructive legacy of Robin Williams and other media types who chose the same path. Williams made some of us laugh, but his actions somewhere along the line also caused others to cry.
chazandru almost 10 years ago
In most of your comments, you are the most intolerant liberal I’ve ever read. You want to banish all guns, ban the eating of meat, and more. And while I’ve often thought you narrow minded, it wasn’t until I read this comment of yours that I ever thought you were…cruel… mean spirited… shallow… and less respectful adjectives.A more introspective person might reconsider what they have written and delete it.Appalled,C.
Dtroutma almost 10 years ago
Emptyc swallowed that bitter pill of stupidity, ignorance, and judgmental hatred a long time ago. Knowing nothing about depression, or other mental illness, like bipolar, makes it easier for the ignorant to judge. Hmm, and there’s that “religious” slant to such judgments as well, which is self-explanatory.
Williams was simply a brilliant performer, with clinical depression, who saw the world as it was, and could still see humor in the absurd, and in his more serious roles, the horror within the human spirit that he actually rejected himself. He was a good man, and a good performer.
Dtroutma almost 10 years ago
^Rusty Hamer was friend. He played the son on “Make Room for Daddy”. When his career as child actor died, he couldn’t proceed. He moved to Texas and committed suicide some time later. Never knew him to do any drugs.
I think Paul Peterson (Donna Reed Show) learned something. As a teen, he was a self-centered – dick. It was after Rusty’s death that Paul started a foundation/group to work with these troubled child actors, helping to them adjust. It was a turnaround.
I’ve been around a lot of depression and PTSD, one comes often with the other, but not the same thing, which is why DEPRESSION, not PTSD is what’s causing the increasing number of suicides in troops and vets.
The constant direct linkage of manic type comedians to drug use, is the same old stupid “Reefer Madness”. Which it’s interesting that while marijuana is constantly accused of dulling the sense, and making folks stupid, lowering I.Q.s etc, the opponents then say it’s responsible for their brilliance???
Hard drugs like coke, PCP, opiates of all types, and abused prescription meds, are extremely dangerous, and DO destroy (literally) the brain and other tissues of use, like livers. Alcohol is the deadliest drug on the market however in many, many ways, and does make people STUPID!(literally, goodbye brain cells!)
I"ve know attempted suicides, and suicides. I’ve know really great actors and comedians. I’ve seen alcohol lead to many of these suicides, and ruin talented people. Drugs are bad, but they get a lot of the credit alcohol deserves, and it IS the “entry level drug”, NOT Marihuana. (Tobacco’s as bad, but doesn’t damage the brain so much, just every other organ.)
Which drugs like meth, and opiates quickly destroy bodies, minds, and lives, don’t get me wrong, but not realizing DEPRESSION most typically leads to drug use, NOT the other way around. It is then necessary to treat the underlying mental disease first….