Viewport

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Why would anybody...

...want to be President of the United States? ....be famous?

Okay, money, maybe. But I am getting a bit more disgusted than usual at our society's fascination with dissecting the rich, powerful and famous (or infamous). I'm sick of all of the presidential candidates and we aren't even through with the primaries. I am tired of the train wreck they call Britney Spears. And I don't want to know what the mentally ill gunman who opened fire in a Chicago university lecture hall had for breakfast.

Why do we have to know all this crap about people just because they are politicians, singers, movie stars or mass murderers? I don't even want to know these things about people I know. And what human being out there could withstand any of the scrutiny of the slobbering packs of papparazi or press?

And it seems as though there are cameras everywhere so even the non famous are caught doing disgusting things and displayed on the tabloid news programs. Programs like American Idol and Survivor turn even the most vile and untalented individuals into microwave celebrities. But when the bell goes off they are done and has beens.

I used to think it would be cool to be famous. I wanted to be a celebrated author that people marveled at and wrote fan mail. The beauty of being a bestselling author is that you can be eccentric, a recluse and dress badly. And still people will think you are cool. I thought that until Hunter S. Thompson blew his brains out.

I really don't want people sifting through my trash looking for trash. I don't want people snapping photos of me under the bathroom stall at an airport. And I wouldn't want any of my bad days turned into a mental breakdown by the media and broadcast at noon, five and 11 o-clock.

And I really wouldn't want to be the President of the United States and have most of the world think I was satan just so I could age in dog years in the Oval Office while political pundants debated my IQ.

I guess when it comes down to it, being a nobody is really something.

6 comments:

BlazngScarlet said...

I couldn't agree with you more!

I too once aspired to be a famous writer ..... then I read my stuff and realized I only had a future in writing business brochures, and on a good day .... greeting cards.

I like my nobody life. :D

K. said...

I have to say that since the kiddo has entered our life, the time I spend watching the news or reading 'news' online has really gone down. Our TV is rarely on anymore. I read the local paper online. I read BBC online. I listen to NPR at work for background noise (how snobbish).

I'm blissfully ignorant of much of the crud that passes for news lately.

Of course, I make for even worse of a conversationalist now than ever before........

Hayden said...

I'm with k, and I don't even have a kid to blame. TV hasn't been on in months. I got a new LCD screen tv for a billion bonus points, (to replace my -get this! - 19 year old set!) it's still in it's box for 2 weeks now. about a year ago I made the mistake of looking up Paris Hilton just in order to find out who she was.

I am the antithesis of cool and with-it, the very antidote to cultural knowlege.

But somehow I still seem to do just fine - go figure!

Bottom line - I not only don't want to BE them, I don't want to KNOW about them. Looks like a HELL of a life to me. ((shudder))

Time said...

Blazngfyre,
Don't give up. There's big bucks in brochures and greeting cards.

K.
With the writer's strike, you haven't been missing much anyway. But you really must be lost when it comes to what's happening on LOST.

Hayden,
Television aside, I'm not sure how you can turn on your computer without at least being exposed to some pop culture.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't matter how famous or unknown you are. It hurts just the same when an idiot in a minivan runs you over while your out walking.

Hayden said...

oh, you're right! I do get pop culture through the PC, but it's really disjointed and weird. You get snippets without having a clue what everyone is on about. It was the pc stuff that finally pushed me to look up Paris Hilton. I used to feel really weird about the disconnect, but - the alternative is watching tv, and I just can't do it. I turn it on and the next minute I forget and I'm up wandering in another room "doing something."