Famous person Jim Carrey has a moral dilemma that he doesn’t even know about.
So the bigtime quote below comes from a study which says that most autism cases are genetic, which stands in serious contrast to the bigtime movement that blames vaccines for causing autism. If autism is genetic, heritable, rather than environmental, that changes the nature of Who’s to Blame. It’s God, then, the creator of mutation, rather than Man, the creator of pharmaceuticals.
Which is all really just something to keep in mind whilst I introduce an ethical puzzle that, luckily for the celeb-obsessed out there, involves a famous person. Years ago back home I sat in a room with Dr. Randi Hagerman (she of the warm hands), probably the seminal figure in Fragile X research, and she mentioned something very interesting, sort of offhandedly, to this roomful of Fragile X families. She said she’d noticed, in her research, that Fragile X kids (and autistic ones too I think) seemed to favor movies with Jim Carrey. As a group and across cultural and economic boundaries, Jim Carrey’s antics really spoke to them. Well I was just floored.
Because of course The Boy loves that Jim Carrey. Many are the times The Boy will yearn for one of my many impressions (studied assiduously during my tenure at Julliard) of Carrey —
— as Ace Ventura —
—and the Mask —
Now he who can master the faces and voices of Carrey holds great influence over the FX and autistic communities. And no one, of course, holds more sway than Carrey himself.
So here’s where things get interesting. Because in 2005 Carrey began dating Jenny McCarthy, former Playboy centerfold and bubbly personality, and she herself has a son named Evan who is (or was) autistic. Now when I heard this, I thought — it’s a perfect storm. Who better to help you raise your autistic kid than the unchristened messiah for this community? And sure enough he was a nearly mystical hit with young Evan.
Since then Carrey and McCarthy have gotten married and become the celebrity face for a very influential movement that declares vaccines, particularly the mercury in vaccines, the environmental culprit for autism. This here is a massively complex issue, made all the more so by the popular firepower a couple of famous people bring to the movement. There will be lots to talk about in later episodes, but for now suffice to say that while vaccines per se have not been proven to be the cause of autism — though mercury can’t be a good idea as an additive — it seems likely that environmental toxins may be working on people who are genetically susceptible to these chemicals, and that is whence our troubles began.
Lots of people have lots at stake in determining the cause of autism. Is it God? Is it Man? Billions of dollars are in the balance; millions of fingers are trembling, waiting to point out a culprit. But none are in so strange a place as Jim Carrey, who like Hercules is both God and man in this situation. He speaks to his people through his films, but speaks about causes and cures outside those films.
So Jim Carrey has a dilemma. He can continue his involvement in a campaign to eradicate autism, but if he does so, he risks eradicating a large and loyal fanbase. I can’t say The Boy would feel betrayed necessarily, but the whole thing has a serious “Et tu, Brute?” kind of vibe going on.
So to Lord Jim I say only this: “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
Oct 9th, 2009 3:18am
