In a 2010 reality of rising costs, flat wages (for those lucky enough to have a job), foreclosures, 401k loss and just about every social, political and environmental ill you can dream up, one of the few free sports left to us “small people” is the amusement of watching the rich, famous, powerful and greedy stumble over their own hubris and excess to fall on their pretty faces.Admit it people - last Thanksgiving was a real downer for a lot of us. But witnessing the fallout of Tiger Woods smashing into a fire hydrant before the world became aware that he was an epic manwhore, was good clean fun for those not named Elin Nordegren (side note: I wonder if she noted the irony before she decided to place a well placed swing at her hubby’s cranium). Tiger, as we have all seen by now, will be more than OK, even if he lost his family in the process. His wealth, fame and prestige are (largely) intact. Tiger is definitely not one of us, is he?
Because for the rest of the world, the ones who swim upstream in the ever thickening sludge of actuality, had we made even one of Tiger’s mistakes, our lives would be effectively over. Had we been the ones to crash our vehicles in the fog of an Ambien coma, I think arrest, if not a heavy fine, would follow in short order. If we made a mockery out of our own image as a solid, sober family man, only to be exposed as a total hack, we would not be able to pick up business as usual after hiding from the media for a couple months. Respect would be lost, prospects forgone, and a broken family in the “real” world cannot be atoned via a large alimony payout.
And now we get to the heart of my post. Is anyone else demoralized by the consequence-free environment in which the top 1% of the American public lives? I extend benefactors’ rights to corporate and non-human entities, as well as the golden ones who enjoy society’s free ride. I realize it is not good for my soul to root for the downfall of anything, but it feels cold and alone out here sometimes in the place where the laws of physics rule. In my world, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. But not so for the banks, BP, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Roman Polanski, or our favorite whipping boy of the moment, Mel Gibson.
Charlie Sheen held a knife to wife Brooke Mueller’s throat last Christmas. We are now approaching mid-August while Charlie decides which option he likes best from the probationary roulette wheel. Meanwhile, he has gotten a huge raise from CBS for the next, and possibly last season of his hit sitcom Two and a Half Men. Our man Charlie was hardly a choir boy before this. Anyone want to wager on the fortunes of you or I had we found ourselves in a similar scrape?
Roman Polanski drugged and raped a 13 year-old girl in the 1970s, and has enjoyed 30 years of freedom as a European citizen and Oscar winning film director. On Monday, Switzerland effectively closed the book on any hope of justice served, by denying the U.S. government the right to extradite the pedophile. Let’s just say I had been caught en flagrante with a grade schooler. Mary Kay LeTourneau anybody?
Wall Street is hiring again. The very charlatans who led us into this prolonged economic predicament are back and feeling better than ever, while the rest of us choose between groceries and filling our prescriptions. BP has been allowed to lie and fuck up everything it touches for months, but we all know that in the end, they will survive, even if the same may not be said for the Gulf of Mexico. If I went to the shores of Lake Michigan right now and dumped even one gallon of crude into the bay, I would be arrested as an eco terrorist (rightfully so) before I had time to get back to my car.
What I am trying to get at folks, beyond the larger, obvious and unchangeable circumstance of life not being fair, is that it isn’t only the financial gulf that widens perceptibly between the haves and the have nots. There is, quite literally, a whole separate reality for the privileged, that may go a long way toward explaining the seemingly disproportionate current anger of the middle and lower classes. We are so helpless, even after playing by the rules, while those who flaunt every one of society’s guidelines, fly away unencumbered, free to continue worsening the lives of those around them. And they will, because unlike the rest of us, they haven’t learned a damned thing
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Great post. I worked in the Cubs clubhouse at the height of the (now fraudulent)Sammy Sosa homerun era and the Kerry Wood and Mark Prior pitching mania. It was not uncommon for me to see these men, all of them with generational wealth - some of them married, calling phone numbers that they received in the mail from scantily clad female admirers. Significant amounts of cash, at least to the bottom 99% of us living in the "real world", were thrown around like Monopoly money on expensive dinners, parties, card games or just to get the batboy to shag fly balls for the starting pitcher the next day. Yeah, a lot of the guys donate significant amounts of money to charity but that's just one aspect of their public relations and endorsement portfolio. Nothing pulls on the public's heart strings like a photo op of (insert celebrity here) playing Connect 4 with cancer boy or bubble girl, cameras flashing.
ReplyDeleteYou're well within your rights to observe and even revel in the misfortunes of the class elites. How much of the cross that is the exaltation of these people to demigod status should be bare? In an era where all publicity is good publicity, our collective voyeurism as a society towards celebrities, whether it be in admiration of or disdain for them, only serves to exacerbate the mostly unfounded fame and reprehensible behavior that we ultimately admonish them for. So, how do we ensure that celebrities and other public figures are treated the same as the average Joe or Jane, especially in an era where monied interests can essentially pay for Supreme Court decisions and slaps on the wrists for serious offenses? I'm sure you'll discuss some possible solutions in a future post. Thanks again for this post.
You don't point out an interesting paradox that I wrestle with. If I oppose the actions and lack of accountability on the part of these people, isn't writing about it giving them yet more attention they don't deserve? And would I care enough to write about their lack of accountability if say, they were my neighbor across the street rather than a celebrity. Most likely not. I am trying public attention to the way they publicly flaunt laws and morals. Isn't it ironic?
ReplyDelete...like an Alanis Morisette song.
ReplyDelete