Friday, December 7, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Cheap Ploy or Are People Just Fucking Nuts?
I know the media is making Hillary Clinton's campaign out to be explosive, but sheesh- I had hoped not literally.
I'm sure by now you've heard ad nauseam that some crazy fuck held Clinton's New Hampshire campaign office hostage, demanding to speak to the Fembot herself. My roommate questioned immediately if Hillary's campaign had planned this themselves to divert attention from the question planting controversy.
[Oh, and pay no attention to the fact that Bush frequently plants questions and, oh yeah, requires nothing short of a loyalty oath for people to even see him "speak." I use the term "speak" loosely, as what Bush does when he opens his mouth can hardly be considered speaking.]
This country is in a sad state if we think that every news event is a publicity stunt.
Certainly I think Hillary is taking advantage of the situation- who wouldn't? But I think the unsettling aspect of this story is not that politicians would do anything for a photo op, but that this country is full of Grade-A, All-American apple pie nutjobs.
Aside from obvious mental illness, obsession with celebrity and notoriety is dangerous one. Julia Roberts recently chased down paparazzi after they were harassing and endangering the lives of her children (and rightly so). Obsession with celebrity has provoked countless chemical dependencies, even ended lives.
Why do we care?
I'm certainly not feeling sorry for these poor celebrities - they live their lives in the public eye to a certain extent, and are well compensated for it. I'm just saying we take the obsession too far.
Let me back up here.
I think, actually, that the underlying point is a lack of respect for privacy. I recall discussing in at least two of my classes last week that younger generations brought up in the computer age have no problem with volunteering information about themselves online and in fact do not even expect a basic level of privacy. These are people just a few years younger than me.
Advertisers especially have jumped on this. They have even ruined Christmas for one man. If advertisers can do this in the name of "market research," what's to stop the government from compiling data about your every move? And what's to stop Wal-Mart or Google from running our country anyway?
I have no solutions.
And thus, on this bleak note, I close my blogging venture and leave it at the mercy of my professor.
You know I'm no optimist.
I'm sure by now you've heard ad nauseam that some crazy fuck held Clinton's New Hampshire campaign office hostage, demanding to speak to the Fembot herself. My roommate questioned immediately if Hillary's campaign had planned this themselves to divert attention from the question planting controversy.
[Oh, and pay no attention to the fact that Bush frequently plants questions and, oh yeah, requires nothing short of a loyalty oath for people to even see him "speak." I use the term "speak" loosely, as what Bush does when he opens his mouth can hardly be considered speaking.]
This country is in a sad state if we think that every news event is a publicity stunt.
Certainly I think Hillary is taking advantage of the situation- who wouldn't? But I think the unsettling aspect of this story is not that politicians would do anything for a photo op, but that this country is full of Grade-A, All-American apple pie nutjobs.
Aside from obvious mental illness, obsession with celebrity and notoriety is dangerous one. Julia Roberts recently chased down paparazzi after they were harassing and endangering the lives of her children (and rightly so). Obsession with celebrity has provoked countless chemical dependencies, even ended lives.
Why do we care?
I'm certainly not feeling sorry for these poor celebrities - they live their lives in the public eye to a certain extent, and are well compensated for it. I'm just saying we take the obsession too far.
Let me back up here.
I think, actually, that the underlying point is a lack of respect for privacy. I recall discussing in at least two of my classes last week that younger generations brought up in the computer age have no problem with volunteering information about themselves online and in fact do not even expect a basic level of privacy. These are people just a few years younger than me.
Advertisers especially have jumped on this. They have even ruined Christmas for one man. If advertisers can do this in the name of "market research," what's to stop the government from compiling data about your every move? And what's to stop Wal-Mart or Google from running our country anyway?
I have no solutions.
And thus, on this bleak note, I close my blogging venture and leave it at the mercy of my professor.
You know I'm no optimist.
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