The Mean and Nasty

I get sick to my stomach every time someone on television says the words, ‘……and Paris Hilton is going to jail/was put in jail/just got out of jail!’ because within a fraction of a second, the air swells with the sounds of cheering and clapping. All those people, cheering together because why? Someone got their due?

I look around at the real problems in the world and wish people would invest a fraction of the energy they put into caring about Paris and Lindsey and Britney into something much more worthy of their time. I know a number of great causes and with the combined strength of a few million people, man we could do some good!

I don’t mean to come across all high-n-mighty. I enjoy a good Go Fug Yourself just like the next person. But where the one seems like a jab at a fashion choice or a bad hair day, this feels like mob mentality when everyone across the country is thinking and feeling ill of a particular person. How can that person ever hope to be able to move past it? Isn’t that energy damaging?

I realize that in this case, Paris has snubbed her nose at the law and conventionality many, many times. I also realize that she is not generally portrayed as a kind person and has made many a public mistake. She may truly be a mean person. But, I doubt it. If you are religious, she’s your sister. If you’re not, she’s still a human being. A very young, sometimes stupid and surely immature human being. And I would tend to blame her permissive parents much harsher than her. But, who can say, really? I don’t know any of them personally.

In my experience with my own life and with my own kids, if a person is continually reminded over and over how they screwed up, they don’t improve very fast. It’s not helpful, is what I’m saying. Now, increase that by the size of America. What kind of chance do these girls have of really turning things around? Would we let them change or take their attempts seriously anyway?

The insatiable thirst we Americans get for the scoop on our celebrities is truly disgusting to me sometimes. We cheer them on, encouraging them to be more bizarre and get more attention, and then we turn on them after we use them up. Like an old tube of toothpaste but with less mint flavor. And then we mock them and jeer at them. It makes me sad.