RUSH: I want to get to these Ashton Kutcher sound bites. I want to keep things in some semblance of order and organization. This is Sunday night, the Ultimate Choice Award he got at the Teen Choice Awards. He stars as Steve Jobs in the movie “Jobs.” By the way, I will be reviewing that movie. I got my official, powerful, influential member of the media copy. They even went so far as to close caption it so I can actually see the dialogue as I watch the movie. Just came in today. I’m gonna try to watch it later this afternoon. We have three sound bites from Kutcher here. The Teen Choice Awards, low-information audience. I want you to listen to this. Here’s the first one.
KUTCHER: I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work. I’ve never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job. And every job I had was a steppingstone to my next job, and I never quit my job until I had my next job. And so opportunities look a lot like work.
RUSH: Right on. Now, don’t ho-hum this, folks. This is a message that young kids today are not hearing except maybe in their homes from their parents, but they’re not hearing this. They’re not hearing this from Obama. They’re not hearing this from presidential or political leadership. This kind of message of hard work, the traditional American route to success and happiness is what’s being made fun of, it’s what’s being said is not possible anymore. The reason why there is a malaise, this fog of depression that has rolled in over this whole country, is because young people particularly don’t think there’s any opportunity for them. They don’t think there’s any left. They don’t believe there’s any prosperity out there for them.
They have been told that evil corporations and evil Republicans and the rich have taken it all from them. Do not laugh. The vast majority of even college graduates are taught this. So when Kutcher, at the Teen Choice Awards, stands up and offers a traditional, uplifting, motivational, and inspirational speech on how he became successful, it’s remarkable. I say remarkable because the low-information crowd watching it is hearing it. They ended up cheering it, and they’re not hearing it, except perhaps in their homes. We don’t know of course what goes on with their parents, but we know that everywhere else they go, we know that the songs they listen to, we know that the movies they watch, we know that the classrooms that they attend, do not give them this message. Here’s the next bite. He went on to talk about the importance of intelligence, which he says is what’s really sexy.
KUTCHER: The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart and being thoughtful, and being generous. Everything else is crap, I promise you. It’s just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don’t buy it. Be smart, be thoughtful, and be generous.
RUSH: I find this profound. Kids watching this show, that age group, are not hearing this message. Smart is made fun of. Smart is mocked. Smart is something that’s a sellout, to some people. I know, Ashton Kutcher is a Democrat, I think.
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RUSH: Snerdley just asked me, and we got one more Ashton Kutcher clip here to go, he said, “Where’s this coming from?” I have to be very careful. I really am not familiar with Ashton Kutcher’s politics. I know he was married to Demi Moore, and she is a Hollywood liberal. I know he’s a Democrat. You practically have to be. I don’t know if the things he’s saying here from Sunday night are things that he has always believed or if they’re new. I just don’t know him well enough to know, or I don’t know him at all, but I don’t know of him. All I know is that what he said is right on. All I know is that what he said is exactly what young people in this country need to hear.
What he said at the Teen Choice Awards is not being said to kids. Again, I’m gonna hold out the possibility that some of their parents do tell them this traditional message, but in the pop culture media they don’t hear this message. Hell, they’re all depressed. There is a fog of depression, fog bank, fog just rolled all over this country. There’s pessimism, particularly among young people, and it’s because they do not think there’s any prosperity left for them, they don’t think there’s any stuff left for them. They don’t think there’s any money to be earned; it’s all gone. Their parents or grandparents’ generation were the last ones that really had it made. And they’re certainly not hearing this kind of message from anybody in politics that they vote for.
They’re not hearing it from Obama. They’re not hearing it from any Democrat. They’re not hearing a can-do. They’re not hearing America is great. They’re not hearing about American exceptionalism. They’re not hearing anything about opportunity equals hard work. They’re not hearing the message that hard work pays off. They’re not hearing the message that having a job is a great way to become successful and prosperous. They’re not hearing about how one job’s a steppingstone to another job, where you climb, they’re not hearing this, folks. They are not hearing this. Admit it; this is one of the things that has been quietly eating away at all of us. All the things that we were raised by, all the things we were raised with growing up, they have vanished, they’re laughed at, mocked, and made fun of because it’s not possible anymore.
He also said he never quit one job until the next one was lined up. He said that there was no job that was beneath him. He didn’t say it that way. What he said was, “I never had a job in my life that I was better than.” What he’s saying is, there was no work that was beneath him. Now, I’m telling you — and I don’t want to make too big a deal out of any one of these elements, and I’m not sitting here predicting that there’s an undercurrent of anything effervescing, ready to boil over, but I am telling you that there are some things happening that haven’t been.
Oliver Stone calling Obama a snake; I mean, that’s a major thing. Bono ripping into charity as — not ripping into it, but properly saying aid isn’t going to make anybody prosperous. Philanthropy, charity, welfare is not the answer. Entrepreneurial, capitalism is the answer. Bono. I mean, these are people whose audiences, whose customers are the low-information people, the pessimistic, the young 24-year-olds who are scared by me, the 24-year-old women that are frightened by me. I mean, even some of the Millennials that we’ve been speaking about recently, the Millennials are just overwhelmed with negativism.
Now, I think one of the possibilities where Kushton may have picked this up, if it’s not something he extrinsically believed, and I don’t know that to be the case, I just don’t know him. This could be his belief system for all of his life. I do know that most actors are obsessed with working, because most actors do not have steady work, and they love it. I mean, they love their job. Acting, their egos are such, they like working. And so they’re always trying to find the next gig, because most actors don’t make a lot of money, and most of them don’t have steady work. So he could have held this belief system for a long time. But this next sound bite is Steve Jobs. And this is how he finished in his remarks Sunday night. He was receiving the Ultimate Choice Award at the Teen Choice Awards.
KUTCHER: Everything around us that we call life was made up by people that are no smarter than you. And you can build your own things. You can build your own life that other people can live in. So build a life. Don’t live one, build one. Find your opportunities, and always be sexy.
RUSH: And he pointed at his head when he said, “Always be sexy.” Not below his waist. He pointed at his head. He said earlier, intelligence is what’s really sexy. Being smart, being intelligent, is sexy. Now, this last sound bite, one of the reasons I think that there’s a tremendous Steve Jobs influence in this is because that last sound bite is Steve Jobs. That’s practically a direct quote from Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs wrote and spoke often about being young, growing up, and entering the adult world. He’s a little bit of a rebel now and then. And he looked at what life was.
He saw a lot of formulas, and people were living formulas and plugging themselves into formulas, and then trying to climb the ladders that existed in the various formulas. And he questioned it. And he questioned the assumption that everybody was smarter than he was, particularly older people and more successful people he claimed were smarter than he was. He said, I don’t want to look at life that way. People are not necessarily smarter than you. He told graduates at Stanford this. Don’t assume that everybody’s smarter than you are. Most people do that. Most people assume that other people are hipper, have it together more, smarter, and Jobs was obsessed with persuading people and believing it himself, that nobody out there is any smarter than you, and it’s wrong to think of yourself that way.
It’s wrong to go through life subordinating yourself to others because it’s either the polite thing to do or it’s the proper thing to do for somebody inexperienced. Don’t look at yourself that way. You only got one life. Make it what you want to be. Don’t plug yourself into the formulas. One of the age-old formulas — when I bought my first house, Sacramento, the guy, the real estate agent said, “Well, don’t worry about it, Rush, they don’t let you make any money in this country ’til you’re 40, anyway.” Well, that’s a formula. And it used to be the case. You could track it. People had to become that age before they were gonna be trusted by employers with serious jobs, serious compensation. It’s just the way it was. But it was a formula. And Jobs was always opining against this. Make your own life; write your own formula. Don’t assume everybody’s smarter than you are. They’re not. The world’s made up of people just like you. In fact, you’re probably smarter than a lot of the other people.
Do not put yourself down, was the message. Do not rest on the realization that you can’t make it because there are other people smarter than you. That’s a cop-out, it’s an excuse, and don’t do it. Don’t assume anything, particularly that you’re not as smart as other people, that you’re not as creative, that you’re not as valid. And that’s really what Jobs was talking about. Don’t question your own worth. Don’t question your own validity because of the formulas that society or life has built. This was not a political thing with him. With Jobs it was simply the way life was structured, and he didn’t want to be in a structured life that others had written. He wanted to write his own. Now, that quote from Kutcher, I am dead certain that comes from what he learned about Jobs playing this role. To the extent that the other stuff he believes, I’m not gonna question it; he probably does. But the point is, again, that it — well, it’s important because the people that he said this to — really, one of the things that’s been eating away and bothering me is there hasn’t been this kind of can-do spirit in this country. I mean, outside of this program.
I’m talking about where these kids are. They’re going to school, the music they’re listening to, the movies and TV shows they’re watching, the stuff going back and forth on Twitter. For God’s sake, wherever there are liberals, it’s nothing but fatalism. It’s nothing but doom and gloom. It’s nothing but the world is screwing everybody. It’s nothing but pain and suffering and lost opportunity and no hope, and so that’s why you have to let somebody like Obama or some other Democrat or a government take care of you, because there isn’t any hope for you. The Democrat Party and liberals in general have built this belief system that is rooted in and based on contempt for average people and the belief that average people can’t do anything on their own.
I don’t know to what extent Ashton Kutcher is a role model to the audience that he has, but I’ll guarantee you that what he had to say on Sunday night, now repeated here on the EIB Network, what he had to say are things that the people who heard him say it do not hear it, are not hearing it. At least they’re not hearing from people they trust or believe. But I don’t think they’re hearing it. And I know they’re being bombarded with the opposite.
He led into that last quote by saying, “The third thing is something that I just relearned when I was making this movie about Steve Jobs.” That last sound bite is Steve Jobs. By the way, it is great advice. Don’t assume you’re not valid because you think people have done more than you. Don’t assume you’re not valid or qualified because other people are older and more experienced, and don’t assume people are smarter than you are, and don’t fall prey to the structure that other people have made for you. Build a life, don’t live it. And it’s something he fervently believed, and he did.
Now, it’s not something everybody’s gonna be able to do, but it doesn’t matter. The inspiration, the motivation, the idea that it can happen is what inpsires people to start dreaming about. Let’s face it, folks, this is one of the many things that has been missing in this country for four and a half years.
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RUSH: I want to go back to sound bite one because what’s happening, the audio sound bite we have is a clip that’s been edited by the Drive-By Media, and Ashton Kutcher actually was a little bit more detailed. So here’s sound bite one again, and I’ll tell you what was left out of this. It’s important.
KUTCHER: I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work. I’ve never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job. And every job I had was a steppingstone to my next job, and I never quit my job until I had my next job. And so opportunities look a lot like work.
RUSH: Now, that clip, obviously, would make you think he’s talking about acting jobs. What was edited out of that was that he described the first jobs he had. He helped his dad carry shingles to the roof. He washed dishes at a restaurant. He worked in a grocery store deli. He swept up factory floors. He mentioned all these things. They just cut that out, whoever we got the bite from edited all that out. This is what he was talking about, and he listed these jobs as jobs that he did not think he was better than. He never had a job he thought he was better than, and he mentioned these things that you didn’t hear on the bite. Carry shingles to the roof, wash dishes at a restaurant, working at a grocery store deli, and sweeping a factory. The full quote was found on Business Insider.
Now, Steve Jobs’ version of what Kutcher said in the last sound bite was this: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” Don’t let other people talk you out of believing in yourself. Don’t let other people talk you out of believing that what you want to do is valid and good and worthwhile. Don’t let other people’s structure and formula make you feel second-rate or inconsequential. “And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
He said just have the courage, believe and think for yourself, live for yourself. And he’s also saying something there that is really true. Your heart will never lie to you. Your head will all day long, but your heart won’t. Steve Jobs said that when you grow up, you tend to get told the world’s the way it is and that your life has to be lived inside that world. Try not to get into too much trouble. Get an education, get a job, make some money, have a family, but don’t make waves. And Jobs said, to hell with that. Make waves. Everybody else made waves. Change the world.
He was totally opposed to self-confinement. He realized that most of the limitations that people faced were self-imposed, and that’s what he was at that Stanford commencement speech trying to get across. Don’t put limits on yourself. Everybody else is gonna be trying to do that. Don’t let them. Anyway, I’m pleased, I’m happy that this kind of message was heard for what it is, not making it more than it is or was, but I did want to share it with you.
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RUSH: I tell you, there’s a sad reality. It’s not just the Democrats on the left that are pessimistic and do not ever have an optimistic can-do message. There aren’t very many Republicans that do, either. Which is another, I mean, gigantic blown opportunity, if you ask me.
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RUSH: I’ve got the full Ashton Kutcher sound bite in which he describes these jobs that not one of which he felt was beneath him. Now, again, you might think I’m making too much of this, and I might be. I have been profoundly distressed, privately, with all the pessimism in this country. You know, I’ve been blessed. I’ve had so many wonderful things happen to me. Admittedly, I’ve made some of those happen. But I really believe if I can, anybody can, and the idea that this country’s over in that regard just offends me as much as anything being said by the fatalists and the doomsdayers. But they’re poisoning the minds of young people who are going to determine the kind of country this is.
Their minds are being polluted, perverted, and poisoned with nothing but negativism and pessimism, which is easy. It’s easy to be depressed. It’s easy to be fatalistic and down in the dumps. And it’s easy to take refuge in the fact that you have no confidence, that other people are better than you are. And this pessimism is being taught, it’s being ingrained in people during the formative years of their education. And what that means is, this country is being lied about to these people. Young people are being told lies and falsehoods about the absolute unique, wonderful, great, God-given opportunity to live in this country and be an American, and it just irritates me beyond my ability to express it.
So when an actor of an age that is similar to the people we’re talking about articulates what you and I not only believe, but know to be true, I’m curious. Now, again, I don’t know Ashton Kutcher, and I’ve never heard him opine on anything before, so I’m not trying to impugn at all. I’m actually trying to thank him and hope this keeps up. I know he’s a Democrat. As an actor, I know that he likes jobs, he likes working. That’s one thing, actors do like work because it isn’t steady, and most of the people do it because they love it and they want to do it. But I also know many actors and actresses become the people they portray.
How many instances are there of say Jessica Lange testifying before Congress on agriculture problems because she played a farm wife in a movie about the Dust Bowl? Now, Hollywood senators bring her up as an expert ’cause they want to meet actresses, too. So it’s entirely possible that Kutcher, exposed to Steve Jobs, playing the role of Jobs in this movie, had to absorb some of this. Maybe this is who he is. I’m not, again, impugning. But I do think that this is important. And it’s one of a series of little things happening out there that have not been happening in the past four and a half years that could signal a turn around of some kind.
Now, here’s the full quote. This is where he mentions the jobs. The quote that I played, the previous sound bite made it sound like he was just talking about there wasn’t an acting job that he’s had that he thought he was better than, but here he details the kind of work that he’s had and what he’s talking about.
KUTCHER: I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work. When I was 13 I had my first job with my dad carrying shingles up to the roof. And then I got a job washing dishes at a restaurant. And then I got a job in a grocery store deli. And then I got a job in a factory sweeping cheerio dust off the ground. And I’ve never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job. And every job I had was a steppingstone to my next job, and I never quit my job until I had my next job. And so opportunities look a lot like work.
RUSH: So you can say what you want, but here’s a man, most of his fans think he was born on the red carpet. They think he was born married to Demi Moore. They think he was born on Two and a Half Men. And they’re finding out something entirely different, and it’s completely opposite to what they’re being taught elsewhere. So kudos to Ashton Kutcher. I’m sure by the time he hears about this I will be the devil incarnate, but regardless, kudos to him. Again, it was Sunday night at the Teen Choice Awards.
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