so, i taped the jfk jr movie sunday night. i don’t know why, but i thought it might be interesting in a historical sense. i should have known better. i mean, it’s a tbs original movie, for god’s sake.
after getting home from a very long and mostly unfulfilling monday at work, i pressed “play” and started to watch it. half way through, i became utterly disgusted with myself. i couldn’t belive i was watching such tabloid schlock. if i were jon-jon or jackie-o, i’d have been thrashing about in my grave. i stopped the tape, lept from the futon and stalked into the kitchen where i started to do something productive instead of giving into the celebrity hype machine and gossip mongering which made that piece of tripe possible.
seriously, what did john kennedy jr do beside be born to an american president (albeit, a very popular one)? what about his life made him deserving of such fame and devotion? nothing. he was smart and charismatic, yes. he was charming and handsome, yes. but did he contribute anything to business, science, or society? not so much. so why are the fawning and fussing?
yes, it’s a sad story. the kennedys do indeed appear to be cursed in some manner. tragedy seems to haunt them from generation to generation. but, really, do you think that makes them worthy of any more attention than a non-descript family in the mid-west who have had just as many losses through the years?
the more i think about it, the more the idea of celebrity disgusts me. just because someone gets paid a lot of money to act or sing or paint or write doesn’t make them worthy of such blind devotion. there are equally talented people out there in the world who don’t do it (whatever that may be) for the attention, but for the love of the craft. there are even people out there without such singular talents who are much, much better people in many small ways that even the most lauded humanitarian. why aren’t they praised in the same manner as the guy who gets on tv?
maybe it’s human nature to seek someone to idolize. we’ve had gods and kings and actors and politicians and heros all though history. we’ve immortalized these leaders in marble, bronze, paint, poetry, prose and songs. maybe we’re all just lemmings with toys and a big vocabularies. maybe we just don’t know how to be happy with who we are. putting our fates and dreams in the hands of others… doesn’t it all seem a little silly? they can’t possibly care about each and every one of us. we should take care of ourselves. praise ourselves for all the skills and talents we possess. maybe if we stop relying on others to make us famous, we won’t need to exalt pop culture figures to make us feel complete.
right on.
i think the only thing that made me sad about jfk jr dying was just that he came from such a long line of seedy and scandalous people, but had tried to hard to be good.
You are just jelous because someone didn’t make a movie about you. You are fake. Okay, Okay, now I know what you are going to say, no I’m not fake. But, yes, you are. You think because someone else thinks for you. It’s not fair for you to say that there was nothing spectacular about JFK. He was a great president. He did many things before he was assainated. You shouldn’t judge a movie before you see the whole thing. Can you imagine if you were part of the Kennedy family? Would you like it if someone was putting down your family. No, I can guarantee you wouldn’t. By the way, the mid-west family wasn’t a popular family. How can you say he didn’t contribute to business, science? Do you really know anything about him?
*yawn* okay, it was fun while it lasted.
thanks for playing!
Yeah, come on. Would you want to live in a world without George magazine? I wouldn’t.
Wait. I do?
uh, dinkie, she said jfk JR, not jfk.
And learn to spell.
jfk himself wasn’t quite so great as most like to think. most of what we know now is the myth, which, i must admit, is mighty grand. the truth? the civil rights bills he is so famous for pushing forward were headed for defeat until he was killed, after which his people rushed to ensure a posthumous legacy. he’s considered a great president for what he might have done had he lived, rather than what he actually did do. fair enough; his memory gets to play host to everyone’s idea of the ultimate president. what’s the harm there?
yes, i know you’re talking about jfk jr, but i felt like writing, and there’s really not much to say about jfk jr, is there?