Well ever since Michael Eisner came out and said writers should be picketing outside Apple, I’ve tried to keep quiet and take the high road on this one. But I’ve just been seeing so much absolute right-wing bullshit in the media where people are criticizing the writers in Hollywood for going on strike and calling them lazy spoiled rich assholes that now I’m just fed up and I have to weigh in on this issue. Yes, I run a movie studio and I’m the biggest shareholder in Disney and according to Bob Iger I should be siding with The Man on this one and trying to break the strike. But here’s the thing. I’m not a suit. Never have been. I’m a totally progressive Mother Jones-reading leftie. That’s why I wear jeans and turtlenecks, to make a visual statement about who I am and what my role is in this world.

Bottom line: I’m an artist. That’s been my role since the beginning and those are the kind of people I feel most comfortable with. Why do you think I hang out so much with Jony Ive? It’s not just because we have this incredibly powerful physical sweaty-monkey-man-love attraction to each other that neither of us can explain. There’s also a very deep connection on a spiritual level. We go for these long walks and just pour our hearts out in this very artistic way about things like art history and art theory and architecture and artistry and our philosophy of design and art and we talk about which writers we like and what’s our favorite poem and I recite long passages of Blake from memory. Just the other day we were talking about Ovid and his famous saying, “Ars est celare artem” and how this saying applies to our own devices, which must appear totally effortless and must totally conceal the incredible effort that went into creating them.

But I digress. Fact is, I run a studio, and I have to kind of play that role, but down deep I’m secretly rooting for the writers. They got screwed on DVD payments and they really need to dig in now or else they’re going to get screwed again when Internet delivery becomes a big deal. Hang in there, writers. Shut down the system. Speak truth to power. Stick it to The Man. Get what you deserve. Picket and chant. Rage and rant. The future is yours if you dare to make a stand. Namaste. I honor the place where your political leanings and my own become one. Peace out.