Crucifying Celebrities
By Michael Boyajian
There is a Beatles song about John Lennon and Yoko Ono where John sings, “they’re going to crucify me.” And that is what we do today, we crucify celebrities.
Why do we do this to people who entertain us, who make us happy and sad, who bring emotion into our lives and do little to harm to the planet like say our elected officials and corporate executives? Look at Tiger Woods, a golfer. No threat at all to the planet. Yet the media went after him as if he were a family values politician who was caught soliciting sex in a bathroom while calling for the president to declare war on say someone as revered as the Dalai Lama. I mean he was just a golfer. He hit a little ball around on the grass for a living.
I kind of enjoy the award shows because I like celebrities. It’s tough breaking into acting or music and even tougher having staying power in those professions. They deserve all the fame and fortune for their accomplishments. I mean how wrong can I be when the Queen of England regularly knights celebrities like Sir Paul McCartney and Sir John Gielgud?
Being a celebrity reminds me of my first year away from home in college. We were all stars we newly arrived students. In those days the college administrations really put students on a pinnacle and that is what led us all in part to feel like stars. I went from being a shy introvert in high school to some sort of popular figure on campus along with so many other students. And it’s great when we have a college reunion because we forget what the grind of life has done to us and we are all stars once again.
That is why the world loves celebrities because they remind us of our youth when we were all brightly shining stars. So you have to be a pretty unhappy person to want to crucify one of these entertainers who bring so much joy into the lives of so many people.
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