The Sheen Saga will inevitably run its course, on that Aristotelian dramatic trajectory with which we've become all too familiar: hero-villain-redemption-death. And when the "news" is over, there's always "entertainment": Cops, Hoarders, Real Housewives, Biggest Losers, Lock-Up, Glenn Beck.
So desperate is the need to profit that not even personal misery is exempt from having a "For Sale" tag clipped on it. And when the market is flooded with such products which serve to only distract us from our own personal struggles rather than enlighten or cure, a kind of emotional transference kicks in which threatens to undermine the essential ability to manage our individual realities. "Charlie Sheen is going crazy on TV. Things must not be so bad for me."
In modern times it began with the fetishizing of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, creating from their lives and deaths a kind of sick iconography which made tragedy hip and marketable to the masses and has devolved even from that nadir to where we as a nation literally pull up a chair to watch round-the-clock updates of the guy perched upon the ledge solely for the moment he inevitably takes flight.
But the persistent lowering of standards in sensitivity toward both "The Famous" (as well as, by extension, "The Anonymous") is a dangerous societal characteristic -- a weed -- which has been allowed to flower, permitting the soulless forces of corporatism to overwhelm our senses and our sense.
This is no accident. Looking at what has become our daily social and political diet, there seems to be a clear bias against introspection, an unabashed love of the trivial, a disdain for objective analysis and a conscious attempt at creating convenient "truths" which justify the wholesale rejection of formerly espoused attitudes like compassion, service, thrift, prudence, humility.
The corporate sponsored spectacle in Wisconsin and the other brazen attempts by those wealthy right-wing power brokers to strip the rights of decent working Americans is made possible only by the numbing up and dumbing down of people's real lives, courtesy of a corporatist-complicit media willing to dangle mollifying baubles in front of its audience's eyes -- Charlie Sheen is crazy!!! -- to keep them from seeing the real acts of madness being committed in the congressional back rooms, legislative committees and the ruinous right-wing think tanks.
If those well-heeled thugs get their way, all Americans will have is a media-provided menu of concocted realities and contrived portrayals of misery for the public to dine on, instead of the actual calamity taking place beyond the frame: a corporate mega-grab of all remaining cultural and democratic real estate. It's a Capitalist Cancer running amok, one that doesn't destroy the body as much as it transubstantiates it, transfigures it into something resembling sentient but which is really numb, crazy, desperate, deserving of real help.
Poor Charlie. Stay tuned.
Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheStevenWeber
Just, wow.
Charlie Sheen - and James Dean and Marilyn Monroe and all that - are ultimately not your point in this article. It quickly devolved (to use your word) into a paranoid “Us vs Them” rant, describing the evils of the right wing and their latest attempt to f up America through the attacks on unions by the Wisconsin Republican Party. Wow.
Just, wow.
I fear that left wing vs right wing isn't even the overall point with you; you seem to be obsessed and consumed by your fears in a way that goes beyond Sturm und Drang. You seem to be literally compelled to express your political anxieties regardless of the original subject. As though you are in constant pain.
Anyway, I'm befuddled by your general complaints against capitalism. The system allowed you to be what you are, which is a highly successful entertainer. I'm sure you've lived quite well because of it. Certainly there are those who've abused it, but overall, it's unquestionably allowed America to be the wealthiest nation – per capita – in recorded history, and also allowed us to be the most generous in helping our neighbors.
I'm anxiously awaiting your next expose'.
i find your writing illuminating.
just like a bolt of lightning.
Also, I believe I do get your point in this post and many others as well. There are some corrupt republicans at the top running things. It's hard to be a republican sometimes because of these people. Most are not like you describe but they are not the ones with the money and power so they don't matter as much in this regard. I am definitely for more lobbying regulations. I think that's a large part of the problem.
From the CIA "World Factbook":
"This entry shows GDP on a purchasing power parity basis divided by population as of 1 July for the same year."
1-Qatar-$ 145,300-2010 est.
2-Liechtenstein-$ 141,100-2008 est.
3-Luxembourg-$ 81,800-2010 est.
4-Bermuda -$ 69,900-2004 est.
5-Norway-$ 59,100-2010 est.
6-Singapore-$ 57,200-2010 est.
7-Jersey-$ 57,000-2005 est. (No, not your Jersey)
8-Kuwait-$ 51,700-2010 est.
9-Brunei-$ 50,300-2010 est.
10-United States-$ 47,400-2010 est.
Woooooohooooo - We are still in the top 10.
And that also goes for the Union situation in WI. It'll be what the majority wants. And that's why WI will lose it's so called "right" to collective bargaining.
I've never seen so many spoiled cry babies as those in WI right now. The people they should be angry at are the union heads who made promises of elaborate benefits that could NEVER be paid for. They are screaming and crying for things that THERE IS NO MONEY TO PAY FOR. They are screaming and crying for their "right" to a system that produces EMPTY PROMISES. It's a scam.. it doesn't work except for the union bosses who are getting wealthy off of the backs of the workers.
cont..
I don't get why anyone would have to pay to collectively bargain for benefits etc. Is there a law against a group of people in a workplace getting together and asking for certain things or they will look for work elsewhere? Seems to me that no one's rights are being threatened.
what do you think is going on in wisconsin? your republican christian buddies are doing just that.
It really must be comforting to have lived your lives so fully insulated on the inside of a rationalization. Just, for your friends sake, remember to let some air in once in a while!
As for Sheen he is merely the latest example of "How To Get Media Attention Without Really Trying"--just spout outlandish nonsense on the air and act as childish and belligerent as you can. But the fact is, if Sheen put all the energy that he invests into being a putz, into developing his craft as an actor, he'd blow the likes of DeNiro out of the sky. He is only 45 and looks old enough to be my father. He may not make it to 50.
We're not far from throwing people to the lions on "reality TV." You know they're itching to do it.
I disagree with everyone who throws out a diagnosis of CS. NOT ONE person posting here KNOWS what CS has/is/was. All they know is they can post something and, hopefully, appear smarter than they really are. It is very unfair to people who have been DXed and are doing something about being a productive citizen.......
The good news is that *actual* news should (!!) end the absurd coverage of Sheen.
Delusion, they name is (snickering) Vanguard2008.
You are fooling yourself here.
The media is bombarding people to make THEM believe they want it!
Don't blame the people that fast...
Brillant, Mr. Weber, just brilliant.
Merci/Thank you.
Truly, watching the circus that is the tragic unfolding of Sheen's drug infested psyche, is unpleasant to me, as I've never liked witnessing a train wreck at full speed. You just know that it will crash, and I can only pray something miraculous can happen before the inevitable.
That said, what is happening, all the while THAT is happening, is more frightening, and people seem to take little or no notice whatsoever, and that is indeed the real tragedy.