Celebrating
elitism
Time to really promote democracy rather than elitism
and oligarchy
Januaey 22, 2004
The Iranian
For a long time now I have been wondering why I find myself so
deeply offended by the sex scandal of Paris Hilton. It is more
than the fact that I receive daily
2 or 3s spam e-mails inviting me to look at her willing or unwilling contribution
to
pornography; totaling in these weeks several hundred invitations to participate
as a spectator in something that is an assault on public morality.
Sex without intimacy, without
love, compassion and privacy is not cool. It continues the exploitation of
women and children by a male dominated society. We as a society
have got to grow up
and stop celebrating wickedness and stop admiring the profane at the neglect
and expense of what can and should be sacred. In the final analysis how fulfilled
does an individual feel who holds nothing to be sacred in their life? How personal
are any of these things to us, which money can buy which are made for us by
corporations including ideas and trends given us by the media?
We live in a world where the right to privacy and in fact privacy
itself has become a rare and precious commodity, so rare in fact
that rather than struggle
to maintain privacy many people cash in on it with scandals to the benefit
of their own careers in a culture that has celebrated lawlessness and indecency
since the frontier days with its brothels and vigilantes and lynchings.
 We
are
introduced by our media to role models like Monica Lewinski and Paris Hilton.
We celebrate crime by making movies and books about serial murderers or
celebrity crime. We come away feeling that if you are a celebrity
like O.J. Simpson
that you are above the law. If you are famous and rich enough
you can buy justice
or if your crime is big enough it will give you the fame and immunity you
seek.
In the case of Paris Hilton there is the added implication that
wealthy aristocratic families
are above the law and are amoral when instead they should be
role models of social responsibility. One wonders why a young
person like her would
even be
attracted
to someone capable of committing such an act of greed and crime and indecency?
Why do we find lawlessness so attractive as a culture? There is something
fundamentally wrong here which is reminiscent of the fall and decline of
the Roman Empire.
I am reminded of the long list of sex scandals of the British
Royals which through publicizing becomes a form of celebration
and normalization of
these acts by
repeated public exposure. Why does the American public adore the British
Royal Family? Monarchy is not about equality or democracy. It is a defunct
vestige
of past corruption which in 1776 we rebelled against. The British Empire
is dead and thank heavens... so let's keep it burried. Thanks to the likes of
Bill Clinton how many parents had to explain to their prepubescent children what
oral sex is? If our leaders flaunt laws and mores then why should the average
citizen respect them?
The message to our youth is yet again that ego gratification
and self interest and the worst aspects of pure capitalism are to be
admired and celebrated. Think of the great capacity to do good
and help humanity that
someone with the wealth of Paris Hilton could achieve even at her tender
age? In the Middle Ages some of the world's greatest leaders were
younger than
her. Every young girl who wears a T-shirt with "I'm a Princess"
silk screened on it is attacking our democratic principles. We need
to stop celebrating
elitism and start believing in democracy and practicing it not just
pay lip service to it.
When TV shows present celebrities being given high fashion accessories
worth hundreds of thousands of dollars by corporations just for product
endorsement
it makes us wage slaves working for an honest living feel like failures.
Where is the celebration and admiration of our middle class and working
class and
family values? And of our work ethic when selling drugs or child pornography
for example
is so much more profitable?
One celebrity during an Oscar ceremony
was loaned a $27 million diamond necklace complete with two body
guards and
another,
a $45,000 watch. This in the face of a long suffering impoverished
third world
where that
money could go to build schools, hospitals, give people livestock
and livelihoods and feed hungry children.
The terrorists would argue perhaps
even justifiably
that the wealth of the West has been robbed from them for generations
to begin with. They watch their birth rights being squandered by the
decadent life styles of the elites while they live in generations of
abject poverty and their corrupt leaders are kept
in place by Western
backing.
Why do
you think there were revolutions in the colonial USA, France, Russia,
China and more recently Iran? Do you think people risked their lives
out of boredom?
We
do not remember the decadence of the Shah's Iran and the American
role in it. We only remember our hostages.
The message of our Paris Hiltons gives ammunition to the rhetoric
of the IRI leadership who called the USA:"The Great Satanic Nation"
and
other Islamic fundamentalists who use the decadence of our society
to fuel hatred and
terrorism against us.
There is much to celebrate that is good about the USA and it
is time to really promote democracy rather than elitism and oligarchy.
The rich
are
rich enough
and they have not been good stewards for us so far and indeed they
need our stewardship to get back in touch with common decency and
equality,
so let's vote them
out come November rather than make them role models. Their greed is
not worthy of our admiration.
I want the next administration to
pass the
biggest education
budget in US history rather than the biggest defense budget of all
former defense budgets combined. If we love and value our children
then let's
give them
education as their patrimony rather than passing on to their generation
the largest deficit in the history of our nation.
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We
are
introduced by our media to role models like Monica Lewinski and Paris Hilton.
We celebrate crime by making movies and books about serial murderers or
celebrity crime. We come away feeling that if you are a celebrity
like O.J. Simpson
that you are above the law. If you are famous and rich enough
you can buy justice
or if your crime is big enough it will give you the fame and immunity you
seek.