Awards For The Bestest
Source: Chelsea Clinton Gets Another Award, This Time for Handing Out Grapefruits to the Homeless
It may not be for me to cast aspersions on the recent honor conferred upon the former First Daughter, but it’s curious that she is such an award magnet. For those not enlightened as to the activities of the modern day Mother Theresa, Chelsea has recently collected trophy hardware for her humanitarian work from, surprise, the Clinton Foundation, who would obviously know of her efforts intimately. At the moment, I can’t recall the previous year’s winner. This follows on the heels of a Lifetime Impact award issued by Variety magazine last month. Now she’s being recognized for helping in the cause of hunger issues in New York by handing out grapefruits. We don’t know how many grapefruits she passed out, but obviously it was award worthy.
Come to think of it, the whole industry of awarding people for all kinds of spurious accomplishments seems to be in a continuous long term bull market. We recall the former President Obama receiving a Nobel Peace prize even before his hand had left the bible during his swearing in ceremony.
We know that during the year, the entertainment industry loves to hand out awards celebrating any and all permutations of entertainment to participants. People have become trophy sluts. Old time Oscars and Emmys are now joined by all manner of coveted awards, from People’s Choice to any of the MTV awards. No doubt the winning of the top new young male artist in the rap/dance video game theme song genre for Saturday cartoons are coveted prizes for all of the 2 people in the running.
This peculiar fondness for participation trophies has trickled all the way down to the mundane masses and is now part of the school system. We are all aware of the shunting of outright victory/achievement trophies to the more ubiquitous participation awards. To paraphrase Oprah, I’m special, you’re special, everyone’s special…and they have awards to show it. Somehow the advance of society has left in its wake, entire generations of people for whom a trophy or award is tangible manifestation of their self worth. There is no more glaring example of this than having to witness the breathless, self important speeches of winners at entertainment award shows.
As the usual faux humble line goes, it’s an honor even to be nominated. For the very small segment of society that didn’t get an award, well, maybe next year.