With this latest Kanye West incident, I realized once again how much I abhor most celebrities. Being a celebrity means that you a. feel entitled to everything b. demand and expect respect and adoration from commoners (people that aren't on the "A List") c. put in your worthless two cents regarding any political, economical or social issue and d. treat people how you see fit (even if this means grabbing the microphone out of Taylor Swift's hand and disregarding any common decency or class that may indeed exist in your being--undoubtedly Kanye West had very little common decency or class to begin with, or common sense for that matter.) The best part of Kanye's horrible display of civility on the MTV Music Awards was his distasteful attempt (a monetary present to YouTube) to delete every recording and showing of his "jackass" (thank you Obama) behavior, in hopes that the general and profoundly dumb public will perhaps believe that Kanye's behavior was a figment of their imagination. Nice attempt indeed.
Don't get me wrong. I know there are celebrities that don't fit into this category. But very far and few between.
Let's take Oprah Winfrey for example. She donates millions of dollars to charity, she builds schools in Africa, and she indeed is a famous philanthropist. She does a fantastic job of portraying a selfless, caring and great humanitarian, but let's be honest, she ain't no Mother Teresa. Her arrogance is appalling. I have yet to watch a show in which she treats a "commoner" with as much respect as she does say...Will Smith. Once again, it's this sense of entitlement. Because Oprah is cuddle buddies with Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Cameron Diaz, she is way out of our league. We can't even hang out in her playground. I can't help but cringe and rummage for the remote every time I watch her constant lack of respect she demonstrates towards, I don't know, a firefighter that saved someone's life. Some of you may disagree. But I believe Oprah has a manipulative power to coerce the public into believing she's the greatest thing since the Internet. Don't be fooled. I truly believe because she announced her undying and unwavering support for Obama, thousands, and maybe millions of people voted for him. That's one celebrity with a lot of power, and that in itself is terrifying.
America or perhaps the media has become an entity of idolatry. And who do we idolize? People like Kanye West, Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt. Despite the fact that many celebrities don't practice or agree with our set of values or our definition of integrity, Americans continue to place these people on a pedestal. Because they're extremely wealthy, or famous because their dad is Lionel Richie, we tend to look at them with a sense of adoration and forget to address that this person may not know crap about anything valuable or noteworthy.
Maybe we should think twice before we let Tom Hanks, Sean Penn or Arnold Schwarzenegger influence our decisions, beliefs and value systems. Maybe if people realized that things America places value on, i.e. money, fame, power and influence, holds no true worth, then maybe the media wouldn't create this celebrity-crazed society in which we live. Let's not forget that celebrities are just people. Most of whom don't have college degrees or any valid credentials to support their sacred opinions and beliefs that we so dearly hold on to.
I'm done. Peace and love.
