"People wonder why we rip on celebrities, when all around there are pages of shit glorifying celebrities like Winona Ryder. And celebrities view themselves as the fucking Mozarts of their time. Even fucking Ray Romano thinks hes an enlightened individual. These people all think they’re enlightened artists and therefore speak for the country. But I haven’t met one celebrity who wasn’t a little bit fucked up. Actors and actresses are the worst, because they’re just fucking monkeys. Half the people in this country could do what they do but for some reason they think their opinion matters." - Matt Stone, co-creator of South Park
This reminds me of an article, Elegant Nonsense, written by Victor Davis Hanson where he reminds us
"Nearly 24 centuries ago, Plato warned not to confuse innate artistic skill with either education or intelligence.
The philosopher worried that the emotional bond we can forge with good actors might also allow these manipulative mimics too much influence in matters in which they were often ignorant."
It is hard to react to these opinionful celebs. Not hard because I don't know what they're saying or who they are or why they are doing it (which, now that I think of it, is all one muddled mess of self-adulation and self reproach). It is hard because I can't experience their rhetoric (that's what it is, please show me a well structured argument) as their sympathizers do. I can't feel someone's emotions reacting to Richard Gere's emotions saying
"If you can see (the terrorists) as a relative who's dangerously sick and we have to give them medicine, and the medicine is love and compassion. There's nothing better."
A logical train of thought, with each premise building upon its predecessor towards an airtight conclusion - that is something my brain can sink into like a fat man in a lazy boy. Now, of course, most arguments are not airtight, but it'd be nice if there was at least the attempt towards honest discourse across ideological lines rather than this complete ignorance of the possible validity of someone else's view.
I can't empathize with it. I don't even know anyone who does, which would be nice; then I could at least try to understand how someone finds these celebrities to be a worthy source of intelligent thought. They're not inundating our society with celebrity fodder for nothing, right? There are people that are impacted by what a celebrity thinks and how a celebrity acts (in real life). It is sad but it is probably true. Let's put it this way, celebrities influence our purchase habits, not limited to entertainment: it can be expanded to include the individual manner in which we express our freedom through consumer decisions, adorning ourselves with that which will be the perfect combination of however we wish to be perceived, a tool to manage day-to-day self esteem levels. For all the confidence people have in their own individual worldview (to the point of belligerent argument), it seems we live in a society that is in constant need of reassurance of its identity, of what their Self should be, and the manner in which they should use their freedom.
A final thought from VDH:
If retired actors and entertainers wish to become politicians — an old tradition, from the empress Theodora to Ronald Reagan, Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger — let them run for office and endure during a campaign sustained cross-examination from voters. Otherwise their celebrity is used only as a gimmick to give credence to silly rants that if voiced by anyone else would never reach the light of day.
In this regard, we could learn again from the Greeks. They thought the playwrights Sophocles and Euripides were brilliant but not the mere mimics who performed their plays.
We're an appearance-based society and this is yet another manifestation of it. We'll take a superficial truth that wraps us up and tucks us in Any Day. Why do people so easily accept an appearance as Reality? The simplest answer is probably the most correct: It is very convincing. But how does it convince us? Reason is like the security guard that George Costanza gave the rocking chair to in an episode of 'Seinfeld' leaving the store open for robbery. It has fallen asleep, leaving emotions to run amok, unregulated and without a solid standard of value. We can only hope that it will awaken, en masse, before a growing problem metastasizes and leaves us with a few very ugly options.
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