Friday, December 14, 2007

CELEBRITY WORSHIPING CULTURE

When Barach enlisted Oprah, I lost "faith" with him. This is one of those "ah hah" moments in our culture. Are we truly the celebrity worshiping people that we seem to be. Some 40,000 or so showed up for Oprah. What is it about so many of the American people that they would do this. I wouldn't walk across the street to see Bono, Oprah, the President, whoever. But, I surely am in the minority.

I am amazed. What is it? I don't get it. Even my daughters are reading People Mag. And, I must admit that when I get Sunday's Parade, I am always turning to the personality page of the magazine. I say again, what is it about us that would make us such celebrity worshipers? For instance, is Oprah's opinion better than anyone else?

I often feel that I have to be careful when I say something about Oprah: she is black and a woman and if I had any desire to be PC, I would be violating PC big time. Please. And, what other dynamics are at play here? Why would Barach Obama choose to do this? And, what about Hillary? I would think that she would feel really put out: isn't Oprah a champion of women in general? Hillary is the only woman in the race. So, can we say that if you have an African America, Barach, and a woman, the AA wins out?

What is this? My brother who has been in politics his entire life has a view that sounds slightly racist, maybe? But, interesting. He says something like, "anytime you have a black in a race, all blacks will vote for a black." He gave this advice to another brother who was running for office against several others. He lost! Guess what--there was one African American in the race. My brother lost to him.

I don't know nor have a clue about all the dynamics but I think that as a possible Barack supporter, I'm now switching. Why? Well, someone who is into celebrity worship simply is not going to get my vote. This letter to the editor of an unnamed newspaper said it best: I am paraphrasing:

Oprah Winfrey's decision to endorse a presidential candidate is not simply misguided, it is dangerous. This is not voting by reason. It is rather voting by a mindless mass of individuals being shamelessly manipulated as part of a cult-of-personality movenment.

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