Ashton Kutcher: American Subversive?

Here he is, pitching lots of subversive ideas to a crowd that doesn’t even realize it.

“Opportunity looks a lot like hard work.” . . . He went on to talk about working from the age of 13 sweeping floors and washing dishes. “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 stepping stone to my next job.”

And…

“The sexiest thing in the entire world… is being really smart,” Kutcher said, gazing around at the audience, “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.”

And…

“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your job is to live your life inside the word and try not to get in too much trouble. But life can be much broader than that when you realize simple things that 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. So build the life, don’t live one. Build one. Find your opportunities. And always be sexy.”

It’s a good thing he ended with “always be sexy,” — and that most of the short-term-memory-deficient who hear him won’t realize he has spoken code for “be smart, thoughtful, generous, because the rest is crap” — or someone would have to shut this young rebel down.