As IF Times

Source: LeBron James Faces Backlash Unseen Since ‘The Decision’ – The New York Times

That’s the thing with free speech in a free society; any idiot can say anything they want without concern for any repercussions from the state.  At least that’s the theory. What you don’t expect in a free society is that something that someone says, causes actions to be taken  by another state.  The recent furor over the events surrounding LeBron James, Daryl Morey, the NBA and China and the Hong Kong protests should make some issues very clear to those people ( and there are a lot ) not paying attention to the state of society.

The first issue is the very basic identity of what it means to be an American.  Freedom is the prototypical American trait; fought for by the original founders and enshrined in an hallowed constitution;  supported numerous times by the sacrifice of the nation’s own sons for other nations; and the reason that every aspiring immigrant yearns to become a citizen. legally or otherwise.  The only people who seem to take freedom for granted are the people who live there and have never been without it.  You would think that any American would hold this aspect of their society as sacrosanct and worth defending passionately.  It wasn’t that long ago that anyone seen to be undermining core American principles was viewed with great scorn and suspicion.  Just ask Jane Fonda.

The second issue is the corruption that seems to be the flip side of the coin of obscene wealth.  This is hardly new; it’s been a characteristic of society since they first started making them.  Someone always climbs to the top of a society’s pile. Kings, Robber Barons, Gangsters and Dictators have always wielded huge amounts of influence in a society and generally, the public fared poorly if they happened to get in the way of the powerful elite.  A few generations ago, the perceived dangers of having too much concentration of power in industry led to the breakup of AT&T, then the most powerful and dominant communications company in the world.

The rise of the recent generation of Internet based companies was supposed to be different.  The Internet companies today dwarves the size of AT&T at its peak and their influence today is truly global, not just national. Even as they dominate all aspects of culture and commerce, they stridently craft their public image as being socially responsible, or as they call it in today’s parlance, woke, a nod to their hippie roots.

As it turns out, the most powerful multinational companies in the world, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter as well as retail behemoths such as Nike and Starbucks are every bit as sinister in their commercial activities as their antecedents in the world domination racket.  It seems that warm fuzzy guiding principles which are framed in corporate hallways are less important than shareholder value.  When you consider the size of the Chinese market, it’s not hard to see why that nation’s sensibilities are at the front of corporate decision making. This is Animal Farm at the corporate level. At least the old Kings and Robber Barons didn’t pretend to be doing good things for the people.

The third issue is as important as the first two and that is the realization that entertainers are not cultural and political savants. They sing, they dance, they juggle and they run around throwing and catching balls.  In other words, they are well paid to entertain us doing children’s activities that we wish we could do for a living instead of pushing either paper or brooms.  As a group they are endowed with skills that others will pay them to perform.  They’re lottery winners.  But you wouldn’t heed someone’s opinions on geopolitics just because they happened to win a lottery!

Yet this is the delusion that many of them operate under today.  They think that a narrow physical skill set entitles them to pontificate on things that are clearly out of their intellectual plane. More often than not, their utterances are not well thought out, have little basis in reality and usually fail the simple test of logic. As in this recent case, they can be terribly confused philosophically. They are out of their intellectual depth.  It’s easy to pile onto James for his recent comments, but he’s not alone.  There’s a long undistinguished list of ‘celebrities’ who continue to embarrass themselves by their uninformed utterances.  All Lebron James did was to prove that they should just stick to running and dribbling a ball…no thinking required.  There are lots of geniuses who want to play ball for a living.  James plays ball and wants to be a genius.  Neither is likely.  At least here, in the bosom of a free society, he’s able to express his vapidity.  Too bad for Hong Kong.

Source: NFL free agent Ryan Russell reveals hes bisexual in letter he calls my truth

In this current era of pervasive self absorption, the word “celebrity” has lost all meaning.  People in societies everywhere have always been fascinated with the lives of those apparently leading more interesting ones than their own.  The rich and powerful to be sure, but also the famous by virtue of their appearances in popular entertainment.

In America, that fascination focused on Hollywood stars beginning in the 40’s and 50’s when actors were credited with the personas they portrayed in their roles. Larger than life characters such as John Wayne, Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe and other assorted entertainers of the day provided ample headlines for the common folk just plugging along in their comparatively dull lives. Some may recall a very minor actress named Rula Lenska who did hairspray ads for Alberto VO5, supposedly a celebrity, but whom no one had ever heard of.

To this day, tabloids are still bursting with breathless headlines on the activities of the current crop of “celebrities”.  We’ve long passed the Brad and Angelina stage and have now moved on to various one hit wonders who are having their 15 minutes of fame.  The real outlet for celebrity adulation has moved on to new platforms now that the internet has become as common as wall outlets.  Social media is now the medium for spreading fame and notoriety.  Presumably, the exploits of everyone and anyone can be offered for the world to ogle.  It’s the democratization of fame.  Let’s not kid ourselves, what we are fed is still manipulated by small cabals of influencers; someone always runs to the front of a mob and pretends to lead a parade.  But notionally, we can now be exposed to the banal utterances of anyone who has opposable thumbs.

Now we are free to consume stories like the one in the linked article in which the hero exposes his personal truth to a presumably rapt audience.  No one has heard of the guy before, but he obviously thinks that his revelation is important enough to share with his fan base of 3.  The modern narcissistic selfie culture has made everyone think that their mundane exploits and banal observations are worthy of exposure on par with those with genuine accomplishments.  If a guy gets exposure for finding a cure for snoring, that’s one thing, but to expose your sexual proclivities, your preferred handbag, your recent meal at a chi chi restaurant is to spread spam.

This self delusion of importance has affected every level of society.  Consider the present crop of characters vying for the Democratic Presidential nomination.  It would be impossible for a screenwriter to make up the nutters that constitute the contenders.  Most of them are so deluded in their self importance and abilities that in another time, they would be confined to padded rooms wearing suits with the fancy arms that tie at the back. The idea that any of them have any standing at all speaks volumes about the makeup of the general population that first elected or supports them.  The message is that being a rational person with simple math skills is not really that important in potentially guiding the path of 330 million people.  Apparently being gay, or a skateboarder that fries burgers and changes tires, or a believer in healing crystals, or claiming native heritage, or a member of a visible minority, or a believer in junk science, or having sat in elected office for over 40 years is enough.

You would think that the democratization of information would allow people to make more critical judgments of the world and those around them.  But the opposite has happened.  Instead, people gravitate to those that reflect their own sensibilities and “truths”.  In doing so, they elevate those fringe people who would otherwise just mercifully and harmlessly yell into their own voids.  Fame and the delusion of its importance is a drug that has permeated all of our modern culture.  It allows for confirmation and self aggrandizing on a scale never before seen in history.

If you’re the Queen of Instagram, ie: Kim Kardashian, you may have a coterie of groupies hanging on to your every wardrobe malfunction.

But for all of the other would be celebrities out there, you’re all a bunch of Rula Lenskas.