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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Gawker editor Emily Gould demonstrated the knee-jerk immaturity of the young have-not, asserting that celebrities are "protected by piles of money."
John Lennon had piles of money. See how well it protected him?
She's enabling mentally ill people who overidentify with celebrities.
She's going to get someone killed.
When my kids say they want to be rich and famous, I advise them to just try being rich first, and see if that doesn't fill the bill.
- this has nothing to do with celebrity scandal, but I was hoping you would contact me re: global warming. I've read some of your posts on the subject here at Salon and was hoping you could help fill in some gaps in my knowledge.
email me at Auntieentity@hotmail.com if you would.
Thanks!
And yeah, anonymous wealth would be the way to go.
Like the Paris Hilton story. Look at how many so-called journalists erupted in heated public outrage when Lee Baca tried to give Hilton an early release.
Not a single one of those so-called journalists had a thing to say in the way of an apology when the staff at the LA Times went through the actual incarceration statistics for the county jail system and found that most female DUI probation violators get sent to home detention.
The real story behind Paris Hilton's "outrageous" and failed early release was a county jail system that is badly overcrowded.
Nobody cared! An overcrowded jail system is not a sexy story. It wasn't sexy or scandalous enough to warrant coverage in Salon.
BUT happily, the enormous outpouring of misguided rage over Paris Hilton proved to be a good thing for Sheriff Lee Baca. It gave him a good platform for fighting back.
He fought back and he won. Now they're building a new county jail, and the ACLU is consulting in its design.
Along with the new jail, there will be a formal system in place to prevent overcrowding, using home detention and early release.
So sometimes good things do come out of scandal. We will have a safer county jail, and the prosecutors and the lawmakers will be fully forewarned that if they incarcerate too many people for the jail system to handle, then some prisoners WILL be sent home early.
There's a huge difference between celebrity attention whores who want their names in the news no matter what (see the season end of "Extras") and those who have high-profile jobs (actors/musicians) who manage to keep themselves out of the gossip rags.
The former get whatever they deserve, because they actively seek that attention. Don't you think that Lindsay, Britney, etc. knew there'd be crotch shots of them getting out of cars? Of course they did but they need the attention so badly they don't care if they degrade themselves to get it.
Contrast them with others who do their jobs but keep their personal lives out of the spotlight because they don't want the negative attention. I'm going to suggest the Harry Potter kids as an example. Do you ever see any of them in gossip columns, even in Britain? No, because they know how to behave, and they recognize that kids look up to them as examples. Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson are known worldwide, and yet they've managed to keep their personal lives private and have about as normal a life as they can because they're not out there making fools out of themselves on a regular basis. Or at all, in fact. It's also why they don't have paparratzzi chasing after them, as they don't do anything scandalous. Good for them.
Now, though if celebrities were smarter, if they really wanted some distance from the blood sucking parasites that are TMZ, Gawker and well, us they would hire these folks to go to Washington DC and submit our congresspeole and senators to this treatment. They are also public figures, they go out to dinners and do other things that celebrities do, they could start their own, what's your Congressperson doing today paper. Sure it wouldn't make the money that In Touch does, but profit wouldn't be the motive. There would be a bill on the house floor in a few short weeks stating that half this crap that paparrazi do is harrasment and should be illegal.
I seem to remember a remark along those lines being attributed to Bill Murray. It makes sense to me.
Not to be too grandiose, but isn't our celebrity-obsessed culture merely a symptom of an empire in decline?
Our economy has been so good (relative to the rest of the world) for so long (relative to the rest of the world), that we haven't needed to care about what most would deem more attention-worthy events. Despite the atrocities being committed in Darfur, it doesn't change the fact that dog food is 8 bucks for a 50 lb bag at Wal-Mart. Despite humankind's impact on global warming, American Idol still comes on at 8 pm on Tuesdays. The point is that despite the real concerns in the world, most Americans' day-to-day lives are unaffected (or at least not noticeably affected - they surely are affected, but not in a way most of us can detect - we're not being drafted, we're not standing in bread lines, etc.).
This relative womb of safety has led to a shift in priorities, from striving to make it in the world to living la vida aquafina. This has led to an utter lack of intellectual curiosity and an inflated sense of self. Because there's no greater good to contribute to, people see themselves as the only worthwhile goal of life. Technology has merely enabled our national narcissism to flourish - any Tom, Dick, or Jane can start a blog or a podcast, make a ridiculous youtube video that goes viral, or instantly capture what they see on photos, calls, and texts.
Innovation and knowledge are not high priorities in our current culture, because they do not produce instantaneous gratification in the "me-first" milieu. Watching Paris flounder, Lindsay flash cooch, and Bret Michaels wooing strippers and whores does. Watching a trainwreck instantly makes us feel superior, and what is more important to "me-firsters" than that? Never mind the fact that the me-firsters are too thick to understand or care that the trainwreck was created and focus-grouped precisely to appeal directly to their narcissistic cravings. And the circle goes on.
Meanwhile, cultures that are facing actual imminent threats continue to gain ground on us, and will soon overtake us in terms of technology, innovation, work ethic, and power. It's inevitable. The best thing our current or next president could do to actually spur our country off its couches and barstools and into action is to reinstate the draft. That'll turn our attention from Britney's crotch to some "real" issues real quick. But those in charge know better. Those In Charge can't thank the paparazzi, and TMZ, and VH1 enough for keeping the people fed a steady diet of pablum while they erode our constitutional protections and expand their tyrannical power. I guess that stuff's important, but I just found a video of Nicole Richie blowing a bronze statue of a dog! Can you believe how skinny she is?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
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
