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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
One of the things that gets lost in this discussion is the role Paris played in her own celebrity. She orchestrated it all and at least this article confronts that reality. She's famous for going to parties and posing for pictures. She wants to be photographed, all the time. She is wedded to the paparazzi. It's her living. She goes to places where she knows she'll be photographed. So yes, the coverage is beyond excessive, but she invited this on herself, and now she doesn't want it. She is accustomed to being in control.
The key facts are definitely that Paris has never had to do something she didn't want to. Most of us have to do many things we don't want to every day. Paris has never been told no. She doesn't even have to put up with petty annoyances like going to the bank.
It's even worse. When she was pulled over they asked her for her license--she said her publicist deals with that. That means her parents utterly failed to raise this child right. And unfortunately many people are following in her footsteps.
Can you say "contempt of court"? Paris showed up hours late for court dates, mocked the judge, her mom insulted the prosecutor, then bragged about how much money she had spent to get Paris off. The judge's specific instructions were that she serve her entire sentence and that she not be given special treatment or house arrest, and the sheriff defied the sentence. Paris was also given officer's food in prison instead of prisoner's food.
Once again, I'm going to say to the guy going on about staph infections and overcrowding in the jail: Jail conditions will never improve as long as rich, white people think there is no chance that they will ever go to jail. The way to improve publicize bad conditions is to put the people with money and influence in the same jail as everybody else when they break the law. If Mimsy Soccermom gets a staph infection and six weeks of baloney sandwiches when she cheats on her taxes, then Mimsy will mount a campaign to overhaul the jail system. Mimsy doesn't care how badly poor black folks are treated when they get arrested for having a nickel bag in the car, because "those people" might as well live on another planet as far as she's concerned.
… 'cos, no matter HOW SICK we are of this Vacuous StickPerson, the Imbecile Media Machine keeps on cranking her out.
This can only be 'cos there's nothing of ANY political, social or CULTURAL significance actually happening anywhere in the United States right now.
A consumer "culture" produces only "consumer" items. And the Consumption Machine (the Corporate Media, which incidentally includes "Salon") drops this crap on us by the truckload every day, non-stop, 24-7-365. Even though it really is a form of "forced feeding" THEY keep telling us that WE can't get enough of it. SO, it's OUR fault for consuming the crap, not THEIR fault for forcing it on us.
Is it any wonder then that, as everyone knows, America HAS NO Culture.
(And now … these messages).
How telling can one caption be?
This one and the accompanying story speak volumes, that yes, will endure. Sadly reminiscent of the Anna Nicole Smith tragedy was this heiress's wailing. The no makeup reality it presented was hard to hear. I know I'm not afraid to say that it caught my attention. Indeed, it put me in an eerie frame of mind. Paris Hilton is representative. Representative of the cupidity that's involved in striving for ideals that aren't balanced in any way shape or form, but are representative nonetheless.
If she implodes. If her claims of stress that go on to make her incarceration cruel prove to be true, her star will once again be our focus. As such, her indictment is our indictment. And to talk of the "help" she should seek, or the just desserts of her sentence without recognizing the same strictures should apply to us with much greater force is the ultimate in denial.
Somebody stop this ride man, I want to get off.
We have overlooked so often the facts that led right to where we are. There is a litany of occurrences that have become an industry of voyeurism. Voyeurs are essentially parasites, though. Behavior perfectly fitting of our consumer culture, and Paris is our paradigm. All along, we knew (or should have known!) she was just toying with us on this "journey" of hers we longed to follow.
Too bad we don't have the kind of money she has to drive away from the cliff!
The reality is she made something of nothing, we didn't. She has turned herself into a brand, we didn't and people care about what happens to her, not about us. I can surely attest to Paris fatigue but the fact remains that there are millions of little rich girls whom we've never heard of; millions who do nothing but inherit, and yet this one had an alchemical ability to turn nothing into something. If I were a CEO I would seriously consider hiring her to do my PR/Marketing but wait...she doesn't need my job offer because once again she seems to have that Midas touch and while I can take or leave her antics, I can recognize her genius and not fall into that tired cliche of Paris bashing. She is young and spoiled for sure. From this experience she will learn and grow...can the population at large?
PS-Video decorating the cell and having daily visits with your dog and this too will be a PR stunt.
Paris Hilton versus The Sopranos. i vote for Hilton. I think the social/political/economic realities being played out in both sagas are wonderful. I think the Hilton saga is far more engaging than the Soprano fiction.
The Sheriff was pissed the Judge told him how to hold Paris.
She would have fared better in Selmer Tennessee where you get a few months for murder!
http://osi-speaks.blogspot.com/2007/06/justice-in-america-today.html#links
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The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
