Celebrity Worship for Wisdom, Fun, and Edification
TR was a progressive member of the elite. His family was “comfortable” and his father devoted much of his time, energy, and (family) money to helping the poor in New York. Actually associate with them on a more or less equal basis? Well, that was rather different. TR knew very well of his lineage, and so did everyone who knew him at Harvard where he became quite “foppish.” In his senior year he wrote to his sister, “I stand 19th in my class, which began with 230 fellows. … Only one gentleman stands ahead of me.” Harvard did not become coeducational until many years later.
As TR saw the world, only with the guidance and resources of the elite could the poor improve their situations. As he aged a bit he became at home with cowboys on the range as well as with the elite. He positively enjoyed military adventures; his charge up Kettle Hill was such an adventure. “Gentlemen, the grace of God and the Just Cause are with you! Gentlemen, charge!” Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt yelled in his high pitched voice as, on horseback, he led his troops. He believed in a strong United States and considered her truly exceptional. So does Sarah Palin. President Obama? I don’t think he has any interest in or would enjoy that sort of thing. Nor does it seem likely that he will enjoy mingling with the little people, as he evidently plans to do rather more intensely in the coming years. Will his focus be on his worshipful base, or on those whose lives have been royally screwed through his initiatives and who still cling to their Bibles, guns, and Constitution? It does not seem probable that he will pay the latter much attention; to the extent that he does and is rebuffed it will get precious little attention in the MSM.
President Obama shares and relishes the perception that he is of the elite, but is probably mistaken aside from the negative connotations of the word. TR had a very real sense of noblesse oblige and President Obama often affects something similar, claiming that he and his government need more power only to do good things for the little people; our celebrities buy what he is peddling in wholesale lots and offer it at retail to their viewers, undiluted but with a superior gloss suitable for the finest perfume. They seem either to reject or perhaps never to consider the possibility that he wants power for the sake of power. If only the spiteful Republicans would put partisan politics aside and be reasonable like him! The United States and indeed the whole world would be transformed magically via his awesome powers of mind and communication to accept uncritically his perceptions of good. All would then be better off, particularly those who, like the MSM, support him in his aspirations; human dignity, prosperity, and world peace would flourish and the miserable wretches in “Palestine” and elsewhere would become prosperous, content, and therefore peaceful. If only oppressive and offensive Israel would listen to reason (him) and cease being a warmonger! Stark reality, Kassam rockets, and other stuff of man-made disasters cannot be allowed to disturb his dreams. Neither can such silly old stuff as the United States Constitution, written for an ancient time and now merely a bothersome impediment to the achievement of his brilliant visions of equality and social justice. How could the new House of Representatives sink so low as to tolerate its reading in the halls of Congress?
President Obama lacks the intensity and nearly all encompassing passion of TR for life, knowledge, and adventure. He also appears, after slightly less than two years in office, to have lost focus and perhaps even interest — he reserves those for important stuff such as vacations, sorely needed to refresh him for the public relations battles ahead, all to help the little people. It is questionable whether he knows what he is doing. He is a celebrity without the human substance with which TR overflowed. His superficiality is a poor substitute and he continues to feast on his celebrity status. He is, according to a Newsweek cover, God of All Things.
In recent years our presidents have enjoyed in full measure the trappings of the rich and famous. We are all, of course, happy to foot the bills, most recently for a few days in Hawaii, even during periods of economic distress and uncertainty; in the big picture $1.5 million for that was a mere pittance and contributed only minimally to the 2010 national debt. And, of course, the little people face catastrophic consequences if the stingy, partisan, game-playing Republicans don’t agree to increase the national debt limit; again (the debt is now a mere $14,025,215,218,708.52). Money is meant to be spent; that’s what governments are supposed to do. It’s needed to help the little people!
I personally don’t take anyadvise, nor do I read anything these idiots have to say at all. It’s a waste of time, and they have their issues for sale, which I’m not interested of buying.
I think, and believe, the majority of americans tune them out too.
Celebrities today remind me of the club of “cool” kids in high school. If you were one of “them,” you were accepted, they agreed with everything you did, and you could never do anything wrong in their view of the world. But if you were not part of their “club,” then you needed to be attacked, ridiculed, and in some cases destroyed. And it simply wasn’t enough to destroy you, they convinced everyone else in school that, if you didn’t agree with their view of things, then you must be as “stupid” and as “lame” as the person they were making fun of.
Sounds like what the far left and the main stream media did to Sarah Palin? Anybody who takes all of their political views from celebrities deserves what they get, which is usually some really bad political leaders. After all, Obama was and still is the darling of most of the celebrities out there. So how is that working out for America these days? How’s that “Hope and Change” thing working out for you?
Oh, and by the way, another insidious thing about celebrities. They will never admit that they were wrong. Ever. Same thing with those kids in school. Need I say more?
Exactly.
I wish the ‘celebrities’ would speq their opinions prior to reaching the stars so they’d not become rich nuts.
Celebrities are the ultimate followers; in fact, very few are leaders. I can name just a few on one hand who are truly leaders in the sense they do not like the spotlight to simply be in the spotlight. However, the ones that do just became parodies of themselves.
Lady Gaga is a good example. She’s an amalgam of Madonna, Dale Bozzio, & the comic book character, Dazzler, fused into one being. Her shtick is old before she even uttered one word. I don’t seek advice from celebrities. They have no real value beyond their entertainment thing.
Couric could be a producer of a muslim version of “Leave It To Beaver”.
Ward could be a used-Koran salesman who comes home at the exact same time every night to smoke sheesha and read the Islamic Gazette.
June comes down from the attic where she is made to pray separately from the family, serves grape falafel’s and gently chides Ward into having a talk with Beaver whose drawer of t-shirts are not folded in a manner that is Sharia compliant.
Wally could be an extremely popular boy who disdains the company of girls or even looking them directly in the eye and is a star soccer player at Yassir Arafat Madrassa High School he studies religious dogma and cell-phone technology at.
Eddie could pull pranks like pointing Beaver’s prayer mat towards Las Vegas instead of Mecca and get his buttocks rapped with a rattan cane at the end of every episode accompanied by a verse from the Koran as subtitle.
Judy could constantly get Beaver in trouble at madrassa by shaking hands with him or pretending he yanked off her head scarf and called her a “smelly old camel”, and Whitey could be a sleepy-eyed buck-toothed Christian who’s always teasing Beaver about worshipping meteors and Mohammed being Jesus’ sidekick.
Hi-jinx ensues as Beaver goes out of his way to be rebellious by holding hands with girls in public and eating pork chop sandwiches which results in Beaver confessing to old Gus the fire-starter that he’s afraid Ward will clobber him with a rattan golf club. Gus always gives Beaver a quote from the Koran to calm him.
Hilarious! Spoken by a true Leave it to Beaver fan!
I want Katie Couric to interview fire goddess, Pele; however, the trick is on Couric. In order to see Pele, she must jump in an active volcano’s crater into the molten lava. While in the lava, Couric could inhale the noxious fumes from Mother Earth to prove Global Warming exists. She might get better ratings with her Pele interview.
I have heard Couric is moving to CNN since CBS will not renew her contract; she’s also going to take a pay cut. If you put Couric & Anderson Cooper in the same room, they could almost be identical twins.
These people are professional pretenders. Why would I care what, or if, they think?
celebrities thrive and exist to be needed
at the same time, there is a desire for anonymity
so…
celeb’s, in their inherent narcissism, love to proclaim their “brilliance” and “understanding” of the wolrd but, simultaneously, must parrot the same speech from the herd of hollywood in order to maintain anonymity…
sick stuff isn’t it?
I don’t the question is whether or not Sarah Palin is electable, but rather “does she have the experience to be a good president?” Being governor of a remote, thinly populated state for less than two years doesn’t strike me as an impressive resume. I fear she may be on the receiving end of conservative celebrity worship.
Barack Obama was inexperienced before he was elected, and his presidency is a disaster. Just because you’re a conservative doesn’t mean you actually understand what you’re supposed to do once you sit in that chair.
Even though I like Sarah Palin, because she has the courage to stand up to leftist bullying, I don’t think that she is ready for the presidency. I would like to see her get more experience, like in Congress. The mainstream media has damaged her a lot in the eyes of independents. On the other hand, I don’t think it takes much to be a president, if you surround yourself with good advisers. The problem with Obama is that he has surrounded himself with lefties, Communists and Socialists. His administration has fewer business-experienced personnel than any previous to date. And he seems to forget that 50% of the voters are independents, over half who gravitate towards conservatism, and that sooner or later the voters will demand “Stop spending our money!”. Of course, the passage of Obamacare did not help.
Celebratty worship is as old as mankind’s other weaknesses. There is an inherent need for humans to worship other humans. That phenomena can scale from cheering heroics to deifying cult characters. Sometimes it is catharsis sometimes it is surrendering to weaknesses. That plentiful occurance may be why the first commandment was written in stone to be headstrongly ignored.
Palin was professionally sabotaged by pre-emptive lies, which entered the narrative and will not undo themselves. Mark Twain say, “A lie can be half way around the world before the truth can get its shoes on.”
Obama is no Teddy Roosevelt, although he may claim to continue his progressive legacy. No Marxist Utopian is ready to take up chapter and verse of Roosevelt’s book, “The Strenuous Life.”
Thanks for getting as far as the bits about Theodore Roosevelt. I agree that President Obama is no TR and that any claims that he is continuing TR’s progressive legacy are at best misguided. Among many other things, TR was a strong advocate of American Exceptionalism and American Destiny. President Obama? America has been bad and must become more submissive than even at present; only then will she gain the respect of other nations. Somehow, I prefer TR’s approach.
Baby Doc Duvalier, who ruled Haiti when I was there briefly years ago, is back!
Unpredictability and uncertainty are, of course, foreign to Haiti and if President Obama decides to take my well-intended vacation suggestion and spend some time in Haiti perhaps he can meet with him and sort out this crisis; there would be many photo-ops and it must not be wasted.
As I gaze into my crystal ball I see Baby Doc returning to get some of that “donated” money to rebuild Haiti. If O-one shows up it will be to help him get re-elected for a cut of the “donated” money.
There is nothing either one of these sell-outs won’t do for the free money.
Baby, … you might as well start talking up Pat Buchanan…
Talk about giving mouth to mouth to a dead horse.
When progressives like Cheryl Crow espouse using a single sheet of TP in order to save the planet you know they all have a seriously bad case of hypocrisy.
“Want Lady Gaga’s wisdom on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?”
About as much as I want to get hit in the head with a brick.
The purpose of entertainers, which includes athletes, as well as non-talented celebrities (Snooki, anyone? The Kardashian sisters? That Gossett woman and her litter) is to alleviate the boredom of those of us with real jobs.
That’s it; that’s their entire reason for existing. If some of them should rise above that level within their chosen “profession” to the sublime or the spectacular on occasion, so much the better (we’ll give them an Oscar or something), but not much else should be expected of them. The Romans had a category for such people: Greek Slaves. We can roll lawyers and newscasters into that category as well. None of these people are supposed to lead or have and exert power (no matter how much money they have), unless duly elected or appointed to do so.
Once this collection of decadent, intellectually lazy uber-servants learn their place in the proper order of things, the world will be a better place.
Once this collection of decadent, intellectually lazy uber-servants learn their place in the proper order of things, the world will be a better place.
When those whom they entertain learn the proper place of entertainers and cease mistaking their comedy routines for truth and light it will be even better.