#14: how to get off your high horse

being humble is difficult, but especially difficult if you're an A lister. and with actors like charlie sheen who label their wrong-doings as 'personal choice' and still achieve a weird type of fame and reverence - it makes me think that being humble only gets you silly things like respect. and who would have respect rather than fame? so it’s no wonder we (as a culture) look at hollywoods and think - "sure wish that was me". but so few of us think of dr.brilliantjeet in somewhere, india and think, "sure wish that was me - minus the unibrow".

why are Alisters allowed to crash cars, do drugs, do pornstars, and exhibit selfish behavior so openly, when i'm not even to urinate in public without a $250 fine? not that i'd want to, but i mean... does having a high horse mean having no consequences? i mean, if it were my 'personal choice' i'd be able to punch a snooki-type in the face (yes, it's already been done, but you can't get enough of a good thing, can you?) especially if the worst consequence would be: making it onto TMZ’s nightly roundup.

if it were up to me, i'd take brilliance over fame and i'd take respect over recognition... i really, truly would. although, in truth, someone who isn’t an Alister wouldn’t be able to understand the difficulty of remaining humble, once you get to that level. and it’s probably pure condescension for me to talk about being an Alist without having all the notoriety that goes along with fame. unless this blog goes big time... in which case i’d have tone down the wordiness of these blog posts – because I wouldn’t want you peasants to get confused and all that.

humbly,

saturday musings

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#13: how to hit the panic button

most of you have probably heard about the devastation in japan already, but i don't think you heard about it - in the right way. and yes, i know that critiquing anything about a natural disaster this quickly is like pulling off a scab before it’s healed. but the media's coverage of these events always leaves me in a state of helpless anxiety and i’ve always wanted to understand their need to open-palm slam the panic button with such a cemented predisposition.

the media has always been a catalyst for spreading panic and over exaggerations, but i've never understood the motivation behind it. maybe the media and the government like to play footsies under the table. and the resulting alarm from their coupling is a means of exploiting the generosity of their citizens. or maybe it's because the general public loves the drama of devastation and chaos. it could also be that we've become so desensitized to killings and rapings and general bloodshed and loss, that the media has to naturally evolve its reporting style from tame to hyperbolatic. but what to do, and i mean actually do, when something like this happens?

i think that we’ve been trained to do the only thing we know how to do, and that is: donate. and donate till you can write yourself off into a lower tax bracket. and since the media isn’t going to stop playing wack-a-mole with the panic button, shouldn’t our sympathy-reflex produce a different reaction? because panic is fine.. but it's what you do after the panic that matters.

saturday musings

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