It's a shame that folks hate politicians so much. And I mean, folks really hate them, passionately, more even, I think,
than any other group in society. Except maybe child molestors or people who work for tobacco companies. People forgive any
other kind of criminal, it seems like, and when you're a rock star or an actor, you can use any kind of drug or have sex with
who or whatever you want to, and people think it's awesome. It's even expected of them. We expect Hollywood marriages to last
like 2 weeks, and we expect rich hot chicks to go out and get wasted and pole dance.
No matter what their political views, politicians are generally well-educated, extremely intelligent, and as a society
we entrust them with a lot of power...power to make laws and settle disputes and change the course of history, to
go to war and put people in prison and decide who lives and dies.
Rock stars and movie stars and sports figures are generally none of those things. They're generally stupid and over-privileged.
They might have good looks and talent, but spend a lot of time screwing everything and doing drugs and trashing hotel rooms,
and we love them. We look up to them and we admire them and consider them successful.
I know that everything I just said is generalizing and maybe prejudiced against normal celebrities and towards politicians.
But I do think that my generalities and prejudices are more nearly true than those of the opposite extreme which most of the
rest of society seems to lean towards.
And here's the thing.
We hold politicians to these impossible standards of behavior and personal conduct. Not only can they never screw up,
they can never have screwed up their whole lives. When someone runs for public office, their opponents and the media dig up
dirt on them going all the way back to kindergarten. They have to have perfect lives and perfect grades in school, perfect
kids and perfect marriages. They even have to dress impeccably.
So why do we let the celebrities tell us who to vote for?
I mean, if politicians have to be perfect, then the only people whose politicial opinions should could, should be the
ones who are also perfect.
I like to think that I'm pretty apolitical, but only in the sense that I totally do not give a shit. But it just seems
that every election year, we hear more and more about celebrities and who they endorse, and it always strikes me as extremely
inconsistent to value the opinions of those with no standards of personal behavior as to whose behavior we should hold to
impossibly high standards.
