Monday, February 27, 2012

On Being Out of the Pop Culture...

So, the Grammys were last night, or maybe it was the Oscars. Some award ceremony happened, where overpaid, pompous morons whose intellectual capacity needs specialized scientific instruments calibrated to sub-micron particle levels to measure are feted for their ability to sing a song or pretend to be someone they're not. They arrive at these ceremonies in limosines the size of ocean liners and then lecture us on saving the planet, wear outfits that cost more than the gross national product of most third world countries and prosletyze against the evils of capitalism, and scoff at those simple-minded folks who believe in things like family and G-d and country, yet happily take their money at the box office or sell their visage to hawk products to the plebes.

Needless to say I did not watch.

What's frightening, though, is that people, for some strange reason, equate a person's ability to read from a script prepared by someone else as worthy of admiration, even adulation. They look up to these vacuous, empty people as some sort of role model, as though being able to regurgitate someone else's words back verbatim while pretending to care about what they're saying is a talent that any 8 year old hasn't mastered. I mean, if the ability to fake sincerity is worthy of an award, the Academy ought to back a dumptruck full of gold statues up to my house for my daughter alone - just listen to her opine about the unfairness of her brother getting to stay up later than her...

We need entertainment; that much is not my issue. The economy is bleak; society seems to be unraveling at the seams at times; places like Greece or the UK or Detroit seem poised to fall into the abyss of lawlessness and anarchy; it's simply too much to face without the gibbering voices of the TV "family" tell us that everything will be okay in soothing tones and oh, while you're here, please buy the latest gizmo you can't live without. It's the sad reality that we place so much emphasis on celebrity worship; that the latest plastic surgery undergone by some empty-headed starlet gets more air time than an ongoing plot by the current administration to illegally supply firearms to an adjacent country in hopes of ginning up support for domestic gun control.

It's times like these I fear that the dystopian futures predicted in Fahrenheit 451 or RoboCop were too optimistic...

That is all.

8 comments:

Ancient Woodsman said...

The absurdity was illustrated none so fine as by the spectacle of Ms. Piggy being better dressed (and behaved) than many of the human females.

No, I did not watch it, but try watching any news at all this morning without catching some scenes from that - what term is that Tam uses - group omphaloskepsis?

Hans said...

This future sucks, where can I get a different one? (and where's my flying car!)

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

I think the operative phrase is "bread and circuses".

I also seem to recall that situation being one of the signs of the inevitable fall of a great empire.

Which brings to mind another phrase. I think it has something to do with history and being doomed to repeat it.

I fear we're too late.

jetfxr69 said...

There was a time that "Actor" was a profession not only "not honored", but actively "dis-honored".

Running away to join the circus was a bad thing. Also Vaudeville, Burlesque, etc. Those were not words or descriptions that drew great pride or adulation.

See the treatment of the thespian company in...Hamlet?

North said...

Woke this morning to news of "blather blather Oscar blather blather" and this year I didn't even have an inkling of when (even in very coarse measurement) it would be (was) on.

I had the misfortune of witnessing some music award show and laughed out loud at the nominees - none of who I had any idea about. Could have been made up names. I think Dirk Thirsty and the Trouts won best new artist.

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

And on a relevant note, this school shooting in Ohio this morning has taken a back seat on Yahoo, all day, to several different Oscar stories. It's now moved to the fifth page of pictured stories, and is still the 3rd or 4th headline down in the "news" box.

As the bread gets more expensive, the circuses are being given more and more emphasis to drown out the republic's growing problems.

Jennifer said...

OH! It was dance monkey group masturbation night? I had no idea.

Ed said...

About 2000 years ago someone was quoted talking about "actors". I recall that he was from Nazareth, by the name of Jesus, and he used the Greek word for "actor" - "hypocrite".