The insane level of self-regard and idiotic self-indulgent behavior we accept from our celebrities should embarrass us.
There will always be utterly spoiled brats, but that these blots on humanity should be elevated to glorified status such that they are never held accountable for their tantrums is mind boggling.
The disrespectfully-self-named teen-music singer ‘Madonna’ is the latest in an unfortunately long and growing line of such luminaries. At a concert away from her home country yesterday, she played a song, apparently autobiographical, entitled “Get Stupid”, during which John McCain’s “image was flashed up alongside images of destruction and global warming and of Hitler and Mugabe” (from MSN news.)
This is no different than a rotten child going into the home of another and disparaging and disowning her family because she was denied a treat. It is pathetic, cowardly and ordinarily induces disgust on those who witness the spectacle.
But not if that person is a celebrity. Then, even though fans know better, they reach with all their might to seek justification and a reasonable explanation of their idol’s outburst. They should shun the woman, but they don’t want to deny themselves the small entertainment they receive from the simplistic music, so they relax their own morals. In short, the fans only think of their own pleasures, thus effectively mimicking what they have seen.
Well, all that is not new or even unexpected nowadays. This sort of thing is so common that my indignation probably seems out of place and reactionary.
What makes it worse is the reporting. Try Googling “Madonna Hitler” and you will see numerous headlines like this: “McCain camp blasts Madonna’s Hitler dig,” and “McCain staff slams ‘outrageous’ comparison with Hitler by Madonna.” Note the scare quotes around outrageous which, as the philosopher David Stove has taught us, means “not really outrageous but thought by so-and-so to be outrageous.”
The reporters, people who we are repeatedly told are well educated and discerning, cannot bring themselves to say what is obvious. They instead blame the “controversy”, using their best questions-were-raised style of empty prose, and say it is McCain’s staff that is having the problem.
Look at the bright side: out of all the celebrities who say “if [insert Republican X] wins the election I’m moving to [insert liberal country Y]”, Madonna at least followed through with it!
If you say a modern celebrity is an adulterer, a pervert and a drug addict, all it means is that you’ve read his autobiography.
P. J. O’Rourke
The fact that the press could not bring themselves to recognize the comparison of McCain and mass murderers as outrageous is completely expected. For some reason they imagine that when they do this they are presenting us with even handed, non-judgmental reporting.
My favorite example is the use of the word “militant” instead of “terrorist.” The term “militant” seemed to become more common to me after 9/11 probably because there was more terror reporting. Before that my impression was that it had been restricted to Israel reporting. Since 9/11, the following acts have been carried out by “militants:”
– Seizing a school and murdering the children.
– Using teenagers with Down syndrome as suicide bombers.
– Training unwilling children to be suicide bombers.
– Crucifying the children of parents with undesirable (from the “militants” point of view) behavior.
The fact that journalists cannot bring judgment to these cases is a kind of failure in thinking and morality that cannot exist in anyone who has a thought worth hearing.
That journalists cannot judge the comparison of a John McCain with Hitler as contemptible is a mild outgrowth of such deep, deep stupidity.
When the Tories get back in Madonna may be wending her way back homeif she means what she says.
When do we get to see McCain debate Obama? Does this happen in the states? Come to think of it, when do we get to see McCain? If you watched our media you’d hardly know he exists.
Madonna’s comments are lower than low.
I’ve never forgiven her for when she danced about on stage in the “live Earth” concert with all the nonsense that goes with that. I’m not surprised that she lends her name to anything she believes to be a moral crusade. Anything to feed her craving for adulation and limelight.