Making It Up As I Go Along #212

MONDAY…
--- Busy day at work with a tour to give and trouble on Laura’s computer and just general questions and tasks to do. The day goes by pretty fast that way though.
--- Squash is good tonight… just as it’s nearing the end, I’m doing better.
--- Lots of e-mails to deal with between work and squash… some catch up.
--- An example why celebrities are largely idiots. Singer, Morrissey, in talking of why he’s boycotting Canada over the seal hunt… “Canada has placed itself alongside China as the cruelest (sic) and most self-serving nation…" Is this guy insane?

TUESDAY…
--- Sunny and warm (well 12 degrees or so). I even leave for the day with my jacket in hand… and yes, this is designed to make those blizzard people in Newfoundland hate me a bit.

WEDNESDAY…
--- Somewhat busy day at work with a walk in the evening. It’s my first neighbourhood walk in quite some time.
--- Some Fawlty Towers on DVD to end the evening off.

THURSDAY…
--- Sunny and 16 today (60 F for those not knowing the conversion). I chat with Tina at lunch today. Far too long since hanging out with her last.
--- Spring drivers are out. I almost get ploughed by some jerk who drifts over to my lane on a whim. I honk on the horn and he just ignored me. I don’t know if he even knows he did anything wrong.

FRIDAY…
--- Hectic half day with both teams for CNI at work at the same time.
--- The reason for the half day of hecticness is the office curling tournament. Of course, this happens on the most summer like day of 2006. Sunny and 22 today (72 F). It’s my first time curling ever and it’s kind of fun. But jeans aren’t the pant to wear for such a time, even loose ones like the ones I had are no match for sliding out of the hack. And yet another use for duct tape!

SATURDAY…
--- Some napping, phone time and e-mail time in the morning and early afternoon.
--- Over to Derek’s in the evening for supper and a bit of a birthday party for his wife. A pretty nice night out.


Celebrity Over Substance

I know, it’s a topic I’ve been beating to death lately. Beating like… oh I don’t know… like a Newfoundlander on a baby seal. But it just seems I’ve been seeing more and more of how the public pays closer attention to the ignorant words of a celebrity than to the knowing words of experts.

The seal hunt is one example to use. More than ever, the anti-hunt protestors are gaining support. And it’s due to Brigitte Bardot demanding meetings with the leader of a country foreign to her own. It’s due to Paul McCartney spewing the words of an activist and ignoring the words of scientists. It’s due to his wife who sulks like a baby when her words aren’t taken as gospel. And it’s due to Morrissey (a singer, for those unfamiliar) comparing Canada to Communist China in its level of cruelty and selfishness.

And the cold hard truth is, even though many people are smart enough to ignore such extreme views, there are many more people who take the sound bite of someone they have grown to love and run with it. You’re considered right if you’re famous and it’s a disturbing trend.

Because the other trend in the world is that the majority is always right. So if Paul McCartney can convince enough people who know nothing about seals other than their cuteness, suddenly it will be decided that the seal hunt must indeed stop.

But remember, once upon a time, the majority of people thought the world was flat and that the sun orbited it. People were put to death if they disagreed with this “fact”.

In many ways, society hasn’t grown all that much.

Another sign of the importance given to celebrities is the Juno Awards. Canada’s music industry award show is little more than a farce. I mean two karaoke loving Canadian Idol contestants are up for some of the most prestigious awards while ground breaking bands loved by serious minded music experts around the world are ignored by their own nation’s awards show.

In the world of the Alternative genre of music, few are seen as a bigger band than Montreal’s Arcade Fire. In fact, I bought their CD while in London, England. I was walking along one of London’s main shopping districts and passed by one of the biggest CD stores I’ve ever seen. And the music being pumped out onto the street was that of Arcade Fire. A piece of home reached me there on a busy London street.

I went in the store and picked up the CD right away. At the cash, the person checking me out saw my choice and, in a very heavy British accent, told me “these guys are amazing!”

But the problem with Arcade Fire is that they haven’t been marketed to death by record labels. And therefore we get to see Canadian Idol contestants being rated above ground breaking musicians. And to the person that doesn’t know any better, Diana Krall’s Christmas album is seen as one of the five best Canadian albums of 2005. And Arcade Fire remains unknown.

Celebrities also train society. Thanks to sitcoms on American television, people become brainwashed into believing these are the roles we need to put ourselves in. We need to play stupid for laughs. Men need to surrender any say in the decorating of the home in which they live. We also need to sit back and remove ourselves from decisions when it comes to marriage. Both are seen as the woman’s job and not only should men not care, but we’ve been trained to believe we’re too stupid to know what we want in either of these cases anyway.

All men are to love cars, cheap beer, football, and bodily eruptions. And the bumbling idiots on American network TV are the ones showing us this. Rather than simply laugh at the ridiculous and look at it as a way we should try not to be… we’ve turned it all around and see these people as role models.

The same holds true for women. Rule the house (cause the man is too dumb to make it without you) but also hold down a forty hour a week job. Being able to do both means you are the automatic boss of the family because you take more responsibility… basically, you’re superior for being able to run both office and home.

There are negative aspects for the woman too. Celebrity led society has trained the boss woman that she can’t be funny or laid back. She must be the strict one, stopping both child and man (cause after all, the man is just another of the family children in Hollywood) from having any fun. She must look down her nose at the sexy, swimsuit model but she must also be seen as sexy at the same time. The woman is being forced into a juggling act much like the man.

It’s all rather disturbing that the world of make believe is pushing for so much influence within the real world. Rock stars and actors look to shape politics on both domestic and foreign policies. And the majority of them don’t know the facts of the matters which they’re trying to influence. Yet the public doesn’t know where make believe ends and reality begins. Playing a character that we admire in a movie, or writing lyrics in a song that moves us shouldn’t grant the artist the power and influence they seem to have taken.

Now I fear that, thanks to a British rock star, half the world will think Canada has switched to communism. Ah life in the Iron White North where seal rights have been stomped on. We’ll soon see seal refugees looking for political asylum in Britain and America. Those poor little seals will be paddling their ice pans for foreign shores, hoping to land on free soil before their boat to freedom melts beneath them.

God bless you celebrities… where would this world be without you?