by
Erik Rush
Whether
one goes back to theater in ancient Greece, the days of Shakespeare, or
various other eras, people in the arts have always tended to be eccentric
and, well, freaky. Maybe it’s a left-brain thing. Whether thespians,
musicians, comedians, or those in the visual arts, they’ve often tended to
lean toward the idiosyncratic and bohemian, libertine lifestyles. Now this
isn’t necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, depending on their
perceived social standing within a culture. Celebrity hasn’t always meant
what it does today.
As I have
mentioned, I was raised on the arts, and did spend some time in the
entertainment industry. I even have a fairly close relative who is a
gen-u-ine Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famer. I won’t disclose who this individual
is, as I imagine they wouldn’t be any happier about this association
becoming public than I would, since we embody antithetical lifestyles and
points of view.
I say
this so the reader will not make the mistake of thinking I’m simply one of
those embittered cynics who scowl at the tabloids while on line at the
supermarket, grumbling: Spoiled, rich SOBs. I have spent a lot
of time with people who are (or were) considered to be legends and
superstars, socialized with them, gotten high with them, and been to their
homes. I possess a familiarity with the business and freely confess that
age 18, there was nothing I wanted more than to be one of them. Years of
exposure to the capriciousness of the business, then gaining familiarity
with marketing pretty much burst my bubble; here I had the naďveté of
youth telling me it was more about talent and hard work than some
coke-snorting record exec throwing darts at demo tapes in his office to
determine who would be next among the anointed.
The
upshot of this exposure to the human side of the entertainment industry
only reinforces what I and many other conservatives hold to today:
Misguided Children of God though they may be, the majority of them are
lost souls, self-absorbed, treacherous and, of course, pathologically
narcissistic. In short: Spoiled, rich SOBs! After all, if one has
the world as their oyster from the age of 19 or so, it takes an
exceptionally well-adjusted person not to spin out of orbit
psychologically. How many people do you know who are that well-adjusted?
Not to
say that there aren’t exceptions within the mainstream of the
entertainment industry; you have your occasional oddball (like Mel Gibson)
who becomes successful via not advertising their faith or politics until
they’ve attained so much wealth and star power that they are virtually
untouchable. There’s also the Country music realm, which has an abundance
of conservatives and Christians. These are tolerated by the mainstream
industry since Country music is the number one radio format in the nation
(Radio Advertising Bureau, 2005). And when money is your god
(referring to the industry, not the Country music artists), you’ll
overlook a lot.
This
methodology – the creation of celebrity worship – is simply to the goal of
creating “other gods” (see the First Commandment). Have you ever wondered
why celebrities are often called “idols”, or pondered the subliminal
connotation which lies in referring to another mortal as a “star” (as
residing in the heavens, perhaps)?
Other
“other gods” worshipped include the planet itself (by environmentalists,
Greens and eco-terrorists; the whole worshipping the creation rather
than the Creator concept), animals (by animal rights activists), races
(by “diversity” proponents and civil rights activists), and sex (by those
generally sex-obsessed, feminists, gender-bias and gay rights activists).
The press
is another story: Owned by many of the same companies (directly or
indirectly) and managed by the same morally-ambivalent individuals and
boards who run Hollywood television and film interests, a symbiotic
relationship developed through which the entertainers a) began to
think of themselves as crusading social scientists, and b) sought
to make life imitate art in America. I suppose they reasoned that we’d be
happier living as they do, divorcing every half hour, doing drugs with our
kids, and getting arrested for sex, drug, and violence-related offenses on
a regular basis.
The
press, as well as the marketing efforts of the entertainment media itself,
contrived to transform celebrities into America’s form of royalty. Despite
lack of qualifications outside their own narrow field, a cloistered
lifestyle, and the influence of their benefactors, many have become less
entertainers and more propagandists.
How and
why the press became predominantly populated with far-Left ideologues
(when it had not always been) is more of a puzzle. It wouldn’t be fair to
say that it’s because journalism degrees are among the most ridiculously
easy to obtain, since there are scores of Ph.D.s in academia who are of
the same mindset. In addition, we used to have ranks of fine, reasonably
unbiased journalists in the media. So I must presume that this was by
design; when most of a population is exposed to something, insinuating
oneself into that something in order or subvert the population is a pretty
sound strategy. I believe that those of the ‘Sixties generation who didn’t
whack themselves out on drugs or follow the Grateful Dead around until
Jerry died, did the same sort of thing in the journalistic field that many
did in politics: They sought to change things from the inside-out. You
want to poison the well? Volunteer to stand guard over it.
Feeling sick yet..?
Discuss
this article
Erik Rush is a New York-born Black
columnist, author and Staff Writer for the
New Media Alliance,
Inc., a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers,
journalists and grass-roots media outlets.
The opinions expressed in
this column represent those of the author and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions, views, or philosophy of TheRealityCheck.org
