This is my first post and currently am not even sure if this post will see the light. To make things clear I do not hate celebrities but what I am against is celebrity worship. Am not a great example of following what I preach. I too do have favourite personalities, despise a few and of course am prejudiced but I am trying to change that. I have stopped blindly support one's action whether be in on their respective field of work or outside it. I too have wasted hours having heated arguments trying to prove my favourite person is the best and trying to belittle his/her rival. These arguments left a sour taste in my heart after they ended because I would have strained my relationship even though for a short period of time.
It was then Yuvraj Singh made a comment 'people forget what they did for the country in past'. That comment angered me. I was a huge fan of Yuvraj and I was critical of his slow inning's in T20 cup final. What angered me was his fans were behind him when he was fighting against cancer pouring all their love and support. He was making huge money from advertisements and endorsements largely due the his fan following. He was happy and receptive of their comments and action then, but the moment he was criticized, he shot back at them at the first opportunity. I realized I was wasting time and energy on celebrities who do not have effect on me directly or indirectly.
But in retrospect, I realized there is nothing wrong in what Yuvraj said after all he played a crucial role is lifting 2 world cups. He deserves nothing but respect even after few bad innings as he did deliver w needed most. But something here is unsettling. I am not pinpointing Yuvraj here in fact all the celebrity behave the same way. Their bashing of paparazzi is a way of indirectly bashing us fans. Why would reporters and photographers hawk celebrities like vulture circling around corpses, because they are in cups of finding a bestselling material. If fans cared less about these gossips there wouldn't be paparazzi. Criticizing paparaz is right from their point of view, everyone has a right to protect their privacy. It is just like Eminem said
'Wanted to receive attention for my music
Wanted to be left alone in public,excuse me'.
But still I feel it's unfair for fans who spend their time, money and love more than required on these famous personalities only to put in their place or shown the door when they expect something more. The way all celebrities rally around when some of them is trolled or sort of abused online. Even though what they are doing is the right thing it doesn't feel right to me. I am not trying to justify the trolling or verbal abuse of celebs. Of course those are vile things to do against any human let alone celebrities but what I am trying convey is to ask the common man why go through the ordeal of trolling in the first place? Why do you waste time making fun of them? Why give them attention if you are so vexed by them? And finally why love them more than they deserve?
What they are doing is entertainment. Keep them there. Show them their place before the opposite happens. The Entertainment they provide is a short period of time where you forget the reality to enjoy yourself. That is the amount of time you should spend on them 'a short period'. Why analyse so much into a match? Why choose who should be playing in the main XI? Why collect stats to support you argument? Why try to collect small small nuances or background stories or find hidden meaning behind certain scenes in a film? It's not our job, there are specific people to do those jobs. Ours is just sit back enjoy. Doing these things of course increments joy and pleasure in enjoying it. As said before it is medium to escape our reality. So there is no point in getting all worked up about them or even getting to a point of being obsessed with them. It simply isn't worth it.
Be fickle about the entertainment you choose. If you are supporting a actor/actress and if they are providing a string of disappointing person, then change your preference. There is no need in analyzing the recent dip in their performance and also no need to let them bask in the past glories. If total film industry is not providing ample works that suits your taste and stop watching films all together and change your mode of entertainment no meaning in complaining the trend after all any mode of entertainment is to make you happy. Make these celebrities work hard to hold a longer span of your interest. They is no defend or celebrate their works. We have to take their performance for what they are and just make sure whether it is up to our likings. That's a single thing we got to do. We are paying up and in turn getting a service but it seems it opposite is true. We are waiting hours together just to get a glimpse of them, spending more than what is needed on a match/concert . Why create such huge demand? They just doing the job they are good at. We are making them look like they doing favours for us.
If we let go our personal preference in a particular celebrity there are few advantages. You will start find their field of work become more interesting. Like if we stop Messi Vs Ronaldo argument and accept they both are great legends, we will start to see there is more to football than them. If a support single player/ team our expectation is on small set of people to maintain our likable standard. But we have more generic view we expect a general import in the sport which will in turn develop the sport.
All the ranting here is not because of trolling celebrities and other fans neither it is because of supporting celebrities actions blindly even though they are not in the good intentions of the society. Of course I am not envious of their popularity or wealth. The reason is this celebrity obsession is serving a for more nefarious purpose. This is providing a perfect distractions from the actual issue. Gladiator is perfect example for this. Initially it was introduced to keep the unemployed and poor entertained and stop them from revolting against the government. Over the years it became more successful and emperors were compelled to do the more spectacular than the previous year. The pattern is happening over and over again only now our governments had found less brutal ways to keep us satisfied. Even though it seems I am targeting sports, I am equally appalled by the affinity of people toward film stars or in general famous personalities. There is separate supplementary in newspapers dedicated to track celebrities news. Why is there is no light shed mysterious and unnatural deaths of Indian nuclear scientists? This has been a sick pattern for last two decades including Homi Bhabha's death. Why are there no supplements tracking the promises made by politicians? Why are there no supplements tracking disaster management steps taken even after the frequent occurrence of life taking floods and storms. Why is there immense pressure on an underperforming artist/player to hold their place but politicians are let loose?
In India celebrity affinity gives raise to another issue. It makes all celebrities pre-qualified to enter politics. I am against film stars entering politics but if we aren't so obsessed by them we would wait till they prove themselves in political arena before giving them a chance. We would accept them as Rajya Sabha MPs just like.
I accept art and sports makes our life more beautiful and seems like it adds a bit meaning to it. But with one person dying every second directly due to hunger or hunger related issues, art becomes a luxury few can follow. I know being knowledgeable in these form of entertainment not only makes experience more intriguing, it also makes us look cool infront of our acquaintances. But I like to redundant here. They are not the reality. Being knowledgeable in what affects us might help us build a better tomorrow. I am not asking to deprive ourselves of entertainment but just remind ourselves that the are far more eminent things requiring our attention energy and time.
I am really not asking us to do anything and I have no rights to do so either just pouring our my thoughts.
It was then Yuvraj Singh made a comment 'people forget what they did for the country in past'. That comment angered me. I was a huge fan of Yuvraj and I was critical of his slow inning's in T20 cup final. What angered me was his fans were behind him when he was fighting against cancer pouring all their love and support. He was making huge money from advertisements and endorsements largely due the his fan following. He was happy and receptive of their comments and action then, but the moment he was criticized, he shot back at them at the first opportunity. I realized I was wasting time and energy on celebrities who do not have effect on me directly or indirectly.
But in retrospect, I realized there is nothing wrong in what Yuvraj said after all he played a crucial role is lifting 2 world cups. He deserves nothing but respect even after few bad innings as he did deliver w needed most. But something here is unsettling. I am not pinpointing Yuvraj here in fact all the celebrity behave the same way. Their bashing of paparazzi is a way of indirectly bashing us fans. Why would reporters and photographers hawk celebrities like vulture circling around corpses, because they are in cups of finding a bestselling material. If fans cared less about these gossips there wouldn't be paparazzi. Criticizing paparaz is right from their point of view, everyone has a right to protect their privacy. It is just like Eminem said
'Wanted to receive attention for my music
Wanted to be left alone in public,excuse me'.
But still I feel it's unfair for fans who spend their time, money and love more than required on these famous personalities only to put in their place or shown the door when they expect something more. The way all celebrities rally around when some of them is trolled or sort of abused online. Even though what they are doing is the right thing it doesn't feel right to me. I am not trying to justify the trolling or verbal abuse of celebs. Of course those are vile things to do against any human let alone celebrities but what I am trying convey is to ask the common man why go through the ordeal of trolling in the first place? Why do you waste time making fun of them? Why give them attention if you are so vexed by them? And finally why love them more than they deserve?
What they are doing is entertainment. Keep them there. Show them their place before the opposite happens. The Entertainment they provide is a short period of time where you forget the reality to enjoy yourself. That is the amount of time you should spend on them 'a short period'. Why analyse so much into a match? Why choose who should be playing in the main XI? Why collect stats to support you argument? Why try to collect small small nuances or background stories or find hidden meaning behind certain scenes in a film? It's not our job, there are specific people to do those jobs. Ours is just sit back enjoy. Doing these things of course increments joy and pleasure in enjoying it. As said before it is medium to escape our reality. So there is no point in getting all worked up about them or even getting to a point of being obsessed with them. It simply isn't worth it.
Be fickle about the entertainment you choose. If you are supporting a actor/actress and if they are providing a string of disappointing person, then change your preference. There is no need in analyzing the recent dip in their performance and also no need to let them bask in the past glories. If total film industry is not providing ample works that suits your taste and stop watching films all together and change your mode of entertainment no meaning in complaining the trend after all any mode of entertainment is to make you happy. Make these celebrities work hard to hold a longer span of your interest. They is no defend or celebrate their works. We have to take their performance for what they are and just make sure whether it is up to our likings. That's a single thing we got to do. We are paying up and in turn getting a service but it seems it opposite is true. We are waiting hours together just to get a glimpse of them, spending more than what is needed on a match/concert . Why create such huge demand? They just doing the job they are good at. We are making them look like they doing favours for us.
If we let go our personal preference in a particular celebrity there are few advantages. You will start find their field of work become more interesting. Like if we stop Messi Vs Ronaldo argument and accept they both are great legends, we will start to see there is more to football than them. If a support single player/ team our expectation is on small set of people to maintain our likable standard. But we have more generic view we expect a general import in the sport which will in turn develop the sport.
All the ranting here is not because of trolling celebrities and other fans neither it is because of supporting celebrities actions blindly even though they are not in the good intentions of the society. Of course I am not envious of their popularity or wealth. The reason is this celebrity obsession is serving a for more nefarious purpose. This is providing a perfect distractions from the actual issue. Gladiator is perfect example for this. Initially it was introduced to keep the unemployed and poor entertained and stop them from revolting against the government. Over the years it became more successful and emperors were compelled to do the more spectacular than the previous year. The pattern is happening over and over again only now our governments had found less brutal ways to keep us satisfied. Even though it seems I am targeting sports, I am equally appalled by the affinity of people toward film stars or in general famous personalities. There is separate supplementary in newspapers dedicated to track celebrities news. Why is there is no light shed mysterious and unnatural deaths of Indian nuclear scientists? This has been a sick pattern for last two decades including Homi Bhabha's death. Why are there no supplements tracking the promises made by politicians? Why are there no supplements tracking disaster management steps taken even after the frequent occurrence of life taking floods and storms. Why is there immense pressure on an underperforming artist/player to hold their place but politicians are let loose?
In India celebrity affinity gives raise to another issue. It makes all celebrities pre-qualified to enter politics. I am against film stars entering politics but if we aren't so obsessed by them we would wait till they prove themselves in political arena before giving them a chance. We would accept them as Rajya Sabha MPs just like.
I accept art and sports makes our life more beautiful and seems like it adds a bit meaning to it. But with one person dying every second directly due to hunger or hunger related issues, art becomes a luxury few can follow. I know being knowledgeable in these form of entertainment not only makes experience more intriguing, it also makes us look cool infront of our acquaintances. But I like to redundant here. They are not the reality. Being knowledgeable in what affects us might help us build a better tomorrow. I am not asking to deprive ourselves of entertainment but just remind ourselves that the are far more eminent things requiring our attention energy and time.
I am really not asking us to do anything and I have no rights to do so either just pouring our my thoughts.
