Priorities

people are fucking stupid.


they play shit on the radio so repetitively. WHy the hell would someone go out and spend 15 bucks on a cd that they can hear for free on the radio.


anyway my point is that musicians and actors and directors an people of the like are the least important people in our society. its a shame to see billions of people flock to kiss their asses at their every whim.

These kids (and even grown folk too) should have better role models. Teachers are very underrated by both students and nonstudents alike. they are supposed to be teaching kids how to be good, productive humans.

Instead everyone's learning how to sell rock and pimp hoes and bling bling and all that. Fuck that that dont have anything with being cool at all. That just says "look at me I have more money than i will ever need and i dont know how to do anything responsible with it."


Let's say that instead of buying a 2000 dollar bottle of champagne, they gave it to an organization like the YMCA or something like that. doesnt it just make a little bit of sense??

 

indeed....now go out...make the money and set an example. I'll join as soon as I can

 

i completly agree but there are so many people who look up to these people now its ridiculous. These people are not very important they make movies and get billions of dollars. It is to the point of us following there relationships. The real people we should be looking up to are our presidents and teachers, role models people who have won the nobel peace prize not many of the people that I know can even tell you who won the nobel peace prize last year. Instead the people who we should be looking up to are weak underappreciated or not worthy. But i am afraid not many of my friends follow the news, not many of the people care about the war on terror but can tell you every peron jlo was has dated.

 

I always thought millionaires singing about life in the hood was a little off. But remember, kids (and people in general) are stupid and have no reverence for intelligence or accomplishment. Does the celebrity driving a $100,000 car realize that it took a team of engineers years to design the model, or a much larger team of experts to design the production and distribution of the vehicle? No, he's just on his way to work in his pimpin' ride determined to help make a world where kids are too busy pimping hoez and selling rocks to do anything as productive as design cars.

 

I think millionaires singing about the life they came from isn't as crazy as the manufactured pop-stars that are everywhere right now. Dressing like prostitutes and targeting young audiences that can't even drive cars yet. Don't even make their own music, or pick out their own clothes.
But hey, I listened to a little New Kids on the Block in my pre-teen days (yikes!)

 

Why does it matter? who cares if people dont follow the 'proper' news but know all about some pointless celebrities life? So long as people are happy enough why worry?

 

OK. so people are happy, but when Hollywood gets nuked, and all our beloved pretty people are killed, I would bet it becomes an even bigger story than 9/11. WHo cares that it wont damage one crucial element to anything we do for the betterment of our country.(except maybe silicon valley)

 

Why worry? Because these fucking idiots are the leaders of tomorrow, and at least the voters. Why worry? Because I don't want a fascist, totalitarian goverment. That could easily happen with an easily distractable populace, and a largely ignorant one at that. In fact, it already is happening.

 

Yeah more people know who Walker texas ranger is than alan greenspan

 

What is worse then people looking up to hollywood is people bitching about it. I for one look up to Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, George Lucas. I respect these people alot. Actors and plays have been around along time. Guess what *GASP* people still looked up to Shakespear are you bitching about him? No, why? Because he isn't in the here, and he isn't in the now. In a hundred years people like Lucas and Jackson are going to still be admired by the "upper class society" who thing it is classy. Just like people now think shakespear is classy. There are alot of stars out there that give their OWN cash money to charities, watch good morning america around christmas, but now your going to say its for tax cut WHO THE FUCK CARES they are giving their money to people who need it. Insted of bitch'n about the people who are against the war *yes thats right remeber how many celebirties spoke out against the war?* why don't you go spray paint your car with postive messages, or do you look up to what your car repersents to much? Oh, let the angery post come now.

 

all

First of all, i dont think people are gonna compare george lucas to anyone who makes a difference, like greenspan, clinton, or anyone like that. its all about the fact that nobody knows about political people. I for one dont know who is who, but i sure as hell know who Tim Robbins and :Morgan Freeman are. I should be more worried about who is doing things that are geared for the government.

but i dont know.... im going to go get durnk now. holdon

 

Not everyone is a politicaly geared person. Most people who follow hollywood insted of the goverment choose to do so on their own freewill, because they don't care, its sad yes but they aren't hurting us. As for as lucas not making a diffrence? The man owns all to him self. Lucas Arts, THX, SkyWalker Sound, and many other things look at all that comes out of those comapnys and tell me that dosen't make a diffrence econmy wise. The Movie and Media industry effects the econmy, it gives money to Greenspan so he can mess up the econmy over and over again.

 

Oh by the way if your going to name off people who make a diffrence at least use the CURRENT presidents name....Your just helping to prove your point.

 

Yoda vs Britney. I bet on Yoda but i think Kris sounds like you are putting them on equal ground, in the same place. Lucas likes to sing about ho's?

 

hehehe. Yes Lucas likes to sing about ho's remeber Jar Jar Binks . All i'm saying is that there are people out in hollywood that help more then they harm. Britney helps too, she helps teens across America masturbate lol.

 

When you go out to get drunk two things COB. First I hope you head over to Yellow Springs if you're lucky you should be able to hook up with some intelligent people there. Second make sure there's a designated driver that stuff after all is important.

I'm responding to your thread because one of my biggest complaints is celebrity worship. I'm pleased you "hate" celebrities.

Unfortunately this gets into my heavy duty stuff which I hardly expect you or anyone to fully understand or accept but maybe someday everyone will and if there are any questions just let me know I can prove it all. This heavy duty stuff basically supports what you are saying about celebrities.

First of all merit does not exist. It's an illusion. No one merits anything. Consequently celebrities don't merit their fortune or their fame. Criminals don't merit punishment. (Protective custody is indicated for practical reasons of societal protection not "merit".)

Second, since merit doesn't exist you can't reward (or punish) people for what they "deserve". Instead you just treat people the way you want to as a function of what you want to accomplish. (Which is what everyone does anyway even though they think of things in terms of "merit".)

Third, the only way to act morally toward others is to take their self interests into account. And this has to be undertaken with consideration of equality.

The bottom line is that society should function in a way that equally and intelligently distributes power and wealth. No actor or executive or athlete or genius or whatever should have any more power or money than anyone else. Sound like communism? I'm not affiliated with it but hey I can't change the facts.

Don't BLAME the celebrities. Blame is a merit illusion. It ain't their fault. Just spread the money and power around.

Another way of saying the same thing is "Nobody merits anything but everyone did the best they could under the circumstances -- they really did you do believe in causality don't you? -- and so in this shithole of a world if you want to speak in terms of merit well then everyone deserves nothing but the very best."

If money and power were equally distributed you'd still have people who were more famous and popular and thus still more powerful than others. But with education this inequity could be moderated.

One of the big limiting factors is the basic stupid nature of the human race. Hence: celebrities. The human race sucks. But they can't help it. They do the best they can. They don't merit punishment. They just need to be helped.
.
I absolutely totally believe that the most beautiful athletic intelligent outgoing popular person that ever existed should not have it materially better than the most wretched piece of shit a dog can imagine. Lebron James move over. Or whoever.

***

When I was a kid there was this kind of obscure tv program that came on Sunday evenings called "The Littlest Hobo". It featured a german shepherd. The show had this really good theme song. I liked the theme song. I remember it still.

I am the world's littlest celebrity. Hypocrite that I am.

 

The thing is, if people want to work harder to achive more then they should not be "hated". These people you are attacking aren't the ones worshiping themselves, yes i'll admit some may be self absorbed, but you shouldn't attack them. Attack the society that worships them. They have achived riches, fame, glory. They did nothing more then work harder then us. Simple as that.

And please do not stoop as low to question our intellegence. While we may not belive the same as you, it dosen't mean we can't grasp it. That is the biggest downfall of humainty, not idle*yes i meant to spell it this way* worship. It is the I'm greater then you ego that so openly shows it self.

Also that is not communism, it is socialist. If you must undermine our intellegnce *Mine or Child of Bodom* get something such as socialsim and communism straight.

 

Kris?

Yes hating or, more specifically, actions taken out of hate are completely unjustified as spelled out in my own definition of morality above.

It's true it's kind of condescending of me to suggest other people won't understand what I'm saying. The reason I made that comment was to introduce a factor to try to get people to think twice before they respond reflexively with "What you're saying is a pile of shit". But you're right it would have been better for me to just say "Think carefully about what I'm saying before you dismiss it as just a pile of shit."

Those who work harder don't deserve more and shouldn't have more. Merit doesn't exist it's an illusion. What one calls "merit" is just a translation of one's desires. So focus on desires not merit.

Socialism and communism share certain elements and either term is ok with me. In either form you want to keep the good stuff and drop the bad. Maybe one is democratic and the other not and that raises issues for another discussion.

 

And I forgot to say one important thing. Merit is not just an illusion, a contrivance that ultimately is nothing more than a manifestation of a person's desires. What I forgot to say is that merit is a tool of manipulation.

 

SDS, I'm not dismissing you're comments out of hand, but I believe very strongly that people who work harder, and thus contribute more to society deserve to get more out of society in return. If someone wants to contribute to society and gain nothing in return, there are a thousand NPOs who sorely need volunteers(and mad props to all volunteers).

I think a valid question in this case is this: Do entertainers contribute as much to society as they get out of it?

That is a hard question to answer, without a doubt. Human beings always have had an insatiable appetite for entertainment in one form or another. Entertainment is a major part of life in every society ever to flourish on this planet, sometimes it takes the form of religion, sometimes music, sometimes sports, sometimes plays or movies, sometimes games, sometimes just simple socialization. Life on earth can be pretty rough, sometimes people just need to forget about that for a little while and enjoy a few fleeting moments of life. Entertainers deserve to be paid for providing that service to society, if you ask me.

With that being said, some entertainers make far more money than others, it is one industry where harder work doesn't neccesarily equal a greater contribution to society. Just as an example, lets compare two bands, Metallica and Sol Diem. Both bands are comprised of talented musicians, and both bands put a comparable amount of work into playing a show or recording an album, but the amount of money and recognition they recieve from their music is radically different. Metallica makes millions, the members of Sol Diem still have to work day jobs. In today's celebrity culture, hard work and talent isn't worth as much as recognition, I'm guessing that everyone reading this has heard of Metallica, but unless you live in Denton you probably haven't heard of Sol Diem. As a matter of personal taste, the music of Sol Diem brings me more entertainment value than the music of Metallica, but to society as a whole, far more entertainment is derived from Metallica than from Sol Diem. The two bands put a comparable amount of work into any given song, but the entertainment contribution to society made by one Metallica song is greater than that made by a Sol Diem song simply because more people will listen to and be entertained by a Metallica song.

Does Metallica deserve more money per song based on the work they put into it? No, the work is basically the same. But do they deserve more for their contribution to society? Yes, a Metallica song entertains far more people than a Sol Diem song.

Now, does Sol Diem deserve greater recognition than they have? I think they do, they're a talented band, but recognition in the entertainment industry is sort of like a lottery, Metallica won that lottery and they have worldwide recognition.

Now, on another related issue, the people of America today are probably spoiled on a vast wealth of ready-to-serve entertainment. Entertainment has become a bigger part of our lives than probably any society in the history of the world. Entertainment is a good thing, but like any good thing you can have too much of it. I think that too much entertainment has made us soft and dependant. Is it going to kill us? Probably not. Should the government regulate it? That would be a violation of the basic human right to chose what one does with one's own life. Would society benefit from a total lack of entertainment? Hell no. Would individuals and society benefit if they decided to spend less time on entertainment? Absolutely.

People are funny. I'm done rambling now.