As IF Times

Source: Mariah Carey reportedly demanding ex James Packer to pay for her home | Fox News

Normally, the lifestyles of the vain and vapid aren’t of interest here since it contributes little to thoughtful experience.  However, it’s difficult to avoid exposure to the breathless stories of their latest romances or sightings or iffy outfits,  since they occupy prominent exposure in all on-line news sources.  While some may actually possess some level of desirable talent, we note that luck is a big part of their success in life.

Notwithstanding the propaganda of the hard work ethic that we are taught to believe, it can be difficult to overcome the inherent advantage some people have simply by virtue of the birth lotto.  Anyone who denies that attractiveness is the HOV lane to success is delusional. If you are fortunate enough to have been born with an inherent talent for music, you are doubly blessed, at this time in history and in this culture.

A third important factor is geography.  While being attractive and blessed with music talent are advantages, it wouldn’t be if you were born in, let’s say, Afghanistan.  Having the dual charms of attractiveness and an aptitude for music affords those lucky individuals in Western culture,  a fairly exalted status; so much so that they are detached from the concerns and realities of the fans who put them there.

The delusion sets in and they actually believe that not only are they charmed, they are entitled to be so at whatever the cost to whomever.  This is reinforced by the army of acolytes who tells them so.

We contrast the demands of Mariah towards her estranged boyfriend to the circumstances of the wife of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un.  She hasn’t been heard from for over 7 months.  Something tells me that it isn’t rent and support demands that are keeping her from the limelight.  We don’t know if she has any musical talent, but it certainly was her misfortune to be born in Korea.

The whining entitlement of Ms. Carey is not that surprising other than the sheer scale of her chutzpah.  We are used to multi million dollar divorce settlements and other large scale damage awards based on entitlements. The real jarring reality is that this view of what she’s entitled to is merely a grotesque version of how society at large views things.  We’ve gone downhill  from the “greatest generation” of 50 years ago to the me, me, me generation of today. You can’t swing a cat these days without hitting someone or some group who feels entitled to some slice of life’s pie merely by claiming such.

Like Mariah’s once powerful voice that could elegantly hit the highest octaves, the bleating of the entitled just sounds like her aged voice now: Shrill.  It’s very sad that her once large voice has been overshadowed by her much larger hands.

Source: The Creator Of ‘Blackish’ Doesn’t Want To Talk About Diversity

Finally, someone gets it.  Hollywood is the font of what eventually becomes the pop in pop culture.  They’ve always enjoyed the role of being shapers of opinions and creators of reality out of mostly fantasy.  From the early days, TV shows portrayed the idyllic American family in shows such as Leave It To Beaver, My Three Sons and Father Knows Best to name a few.  Much of the narrative and accepted norms of American culture were shaped by such shows.

In reality, the squeaky clean lives portrayed by most of these Wasp-y scenarios likely didn’t necessarily reflect the experience of the average viewer.  Westerns were also a big part of pop culture in those days and undoubtedly they were also stylized romantic depictions of the cowboy life.  But in most cases, the stories revolved around characters and situations linked to otherwise normal people.  Characters exhibited many of the bedrock values of American culture; unimpeachable honesty, strength, resilience and bravery.  Those values came to represent Americans worldwide regardless of the actual reality.  People globally embraced these ‘American values’ portrayed in entertainment because there was an aspirational aspect about them and likely different than their native experiences.

Somewhere along the way in recent years, the stories took a back seat to the background as the hurty feely sensitive crowd started to require characters that aligned with some idealized quotient of demographic representation.   In efforts to eradicate perceived stereotypes of races, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme.  As an example, it’s hard to find any cop show on television today which doesn’t feature a black supervising officer.  When and if  Asians are portrayed at all, they are typically doctors or Kung Fu experts…or both.

When stories specifically revolve around the day to day angst about being a minority, the entertainment value collapses and the show resembles a social studies class at Berkeley.  Nobody enjoys a sanctimonious lecture disguised as  entertainment…think Al Gore and Michael Moore. More importantly, one note shows are boring…think Al Gore and Michael Moore.

Far from being inclusive, the balkanization of race as portrayed by socially ‘responsible’ television shows serves only to exaggerate differences in people rather than to portray their stories as…just stories.  The obsessive need to be inclusive ironically creates more division as stereotypes become reinforced and caricatured, probably the opposite of the intent.    The laudable aspect of American culture as portrayed by entertainment was that color and race were not explicitly played up.  They were about themes and about “us” as in the royal “us” which includes everyone. Now it’s popular to showcase “us” and “them” with the implication that the audience will identify with a featured clique.  This is not entertainment and it is not art.  It is the dulling of the edge of creativity that artists are always railing for.  They are forcing stories to be told only through a certain acceptable prism.  It’s as if someone were forced to submit a financial report via the medium of interpretive dance.  We don’t want lectures. We want entertainment.