Steve’s Stuff

I’m always amused and slightly disturbed when a celebrity takes it upon themselves to advise me on politics. When you think about it, these tend to be amongst the least educated and probably the least in touch with reality. Lets take actors as an example. If they even go to college, it’s for acting. Having gone through an arts program myself, I know that one must really seek out critical thought if so desired because most public institutions sure aren’t going to force it on you. The majority of popular entertainers have little or no college experience. Not that a college degree guarantees the ability to think critically, but it does imply academic experience, which is typically the path to knowledge and rational thought. Of course there are a few exceptions such as James Woods who studied at MIT or David Duchovny who has a masters in English lit from Yale. These are rare cases and I have yet to hear Duchovny step up and tell me who to vote for. I might consider his opinion if he did - I’m sure he’d have a good reason for it.

Musicians are another example. I have no idea why I should listen to the political views of a trio of guys that wrote “Fight for your right to party”. The Beastie Boys write some fun music, but their popularity in no way says anything about their knowledge of things other than beer, bongs, and boners. I think it’s hilarious that so many magazines mistakenly think I care what they have to say.

It’s the same with Sean Combs (aka - Puff Daddy - aka - P Diddy - aka - Diddy - aka - something else by now I’m sure). He didn’t necessarily force his opinion on me (although the “get Bush out of office” message was clear enough), but he did tell me to “Vote or Die”. It was great to see such important world figures as Mariah Carey and 50 Cent (aka - Fiddy) attempt to educate youth on the power and importance of voting.

One could argue that it’s admirable for these celebrities to use their access to a large public forum to raise awareness about certain issues. Sometimes this is probably true, but it’s not like they have the gift of discernment. They voice support for whatever they’re told to. Very few go hunting for causes to support. Tim Robins is an exception - he has a gift for showing up at every protest staged anywhere.

One excellent example of a celebrity supporting a worthless cause is Kevin Federline showing up to speak at a protest to keep the penny in circulation. He says of his appearance, “I ain’t down with the metric system, yo. That’s why I pimped so hard to get the penny back”. I doubt he had any idea the penny was in jeopardy, but I’m sure his manager thought it would be a good idea for him to have an opinion on something and this was the fastest, easiest way for him to get his opinion out there. (random digression) Interestingly, during his widely publicized divorce settlement he told a British new source that he was demanding “50 million dollars or, like 70 million pounds.” Apparently the dollar is doing rather well according to K Fed.

My point is not to rip on celebrities, KFed notwithstanding, but to point out how completely stupid it is that they have such a prominent political voice. The scary thing is, young people DO listen to their opinions when they should be listening to others. I’m not arguing that we listen to the intellectuals either. If everybody followed Chomsky’s ideology, America would be dead and we’d be in anarchy right now. The intellectuals always posit great utopian ideas, but they never work because the world is not perfect, nor is it capable of becoming perfect at any time.

One could also argue that since the 60s, art has become increasingly political as seen in the music of Bob Dylan and others. This is a whole other debate. Art is one thing - popular recording “artists” are completely different. Where Dylan may have spoken for a generation, there’s no way that Diddy is speaking for me. Same for the Dixie Chicks. Actually, same for anyone who has appeared naked on the cover of a magazine.

What we really need are some rational, critical thinkers to help us understand issues - preferably free from party politics, but I’ll take what I can get. We need a balance between accessibility and intelligence. Maybe Jon Stewart is a good example. He seems to know what he’s talking about most of the time and he’s wise enough to point out the idiots in *both* parties. In the meantime, I guess it have to do the leg work and educate ourselves. That’s actually not such a bad idea. Thinking for yourself? nah - it would never work!