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RE: A Meditation on Suicide (& how it affects us all)
It is disturbing indeed that there’s been a 25% rise in just the past year in the States. As to heeding sages or celebrities, one could make the argument that the “sages” of old were the celebrities of their day. People who achieve public recognition have always been deemed arbiters of wisdom by virtue of that achievement. The wisdom of the likes of Socrates and Plato, and even Shakespeare would never have come down to us in history if they had not been celebrities of their day.
I, politely, beg to differ. In the past, ‘celebrity’ was bestowed on exceptional individuals. In the age of Kardashian, non entities are famous for being famous — there is a difference.
But, your supposition is the presumption that the Kardashians, to use your example, have done nothing of value to deserve celebrity. While they have made a career of celebrity (brilliant marketing and brand building on all their parts, especially Kris Jenner's), the elder three have all worked hard to build their retail business and were successful in that venture BEFORE their reality show celebrity status. The younger two are accomplished models and smart businesspeople in their own right.
One may not approve of their life choices or value their business acumen, but there’s more to their celebrity than most will accord them. And, how is silencing them because we don’t like their style of celebrity any less egregious than silencing athletes on the premise they need to just be grateful they made it and shut up and entertain us until they wear their bodies out, then fade quietly into anonymity?
Wisdom has value in itself, regardless of the source. The problem is in a public that has not learned critical think to recognize real wisdom from absurdity.
I agree only with your last line. Debased cultural values & celebrity-obsessed citizens produce a Trump & Kardashians. Nothing admirable about either, they only exploit our basest instincts.
How can you compare the evils perpetrated by Trump to the vapid entertainments put out by the Kardashians? Our societies have always had vapid entertainments. Even the ancient Greek plays were rife with bawdy plots and vapid humor. Drinking songs and roving troubadours had more base material than enriching. Chaucer’s works were pornographic for their day – translated to modern English, those works are little better today. Even Charles Dickens brought scandal down on his head for his less than stellar moral choices. Our founding fathers were no paragons either. History is rife with the scandals of those whose wisdom we none the less value today.
I despise the entire reality show genre, but I’m not so judgmental and condemning as to dismiss kindness and compassion, or wise words just because I hate the reality show phenomenon. As much as I absolutely loathe Trump, it has never been for his celebrity or reality show success – it is for the poison of his words, his mendacity, and the capricious and cruel agenda he is inflicting upon the world.
We agree to disagree on this. In KK, I also see the banality of evil: greed, lust & a host of viciousness that leads a new gereation astray, morally. I see no point in defending the indefensible & to me she and Trump are 2 sides of the same coin — no wonder they get along so well, together.
But, your supposition is the presumption that the Kardashians, to use your example, have done nothing of value to deserve celebrity. While they have made a career of celebrity (brilliant marketing and brand building on all their parts, especially Kris Jenner's), the elder three have all worked hard to build their retail business and were successful in that venture BEFORE their reality show celebrity status. The younger two are accomplished models and smart businesspeople in their own right.
You may not approve of their life choices or value their business acumen, but there’s more to their celebrity than most will accord them.