celebrity worship ????

[Vronni]

I was reading an email submitted to the EUR report this morning about how people die everyday but when a celebrity like Aaliyah dies,everyone suddenly realizes how precious life is. Do we really do this? Do we value celebrities lives above everyone else's? Do we view tragedy different if someone is famous rather than just a regular person?

[Tastey]

Makes a difference but I don't think their lives are anymore valuable.

I heard someone say why had we not heard anything about the other 9 people that died and I said because they weren't famous. They said well their lives are important too and I agree but their lives are not news.

For instance if a co-worker passed everyone here at work would be talking about it but if someone who worked 3 miles down the road died it would not be newsworthy to us. Not that's it's any less of a life but it doesn't affect you.

A lot of people feel like they know celebrities so their deaths touch more people than the average Joe on the street.

[Toffee]

I just can't get into the shrines and stuff that people have for their celebrities. Here in the Bronx there are many murals and shrines.

[Vronni]

I hear what you're saying,Tastey. But, why do you think that people feel closer to a celebrity that to the "average Joe" who probably has more in common with them?

[Tastey]

It's notoriety not so much as a closeness. It's also the fact that most people think celebrities live perfect lives so it's shocking that someone whose life is supposedly perfect could lose it. Most people also think that celebrities somehow have more to live for. :confused:

I don't think we should look at it that way but unfortunately society does.

I mean Aaliyah will be missed by her fans, and of course her family.

But it's also a tragedy to see a young mother die from overdose of drugs leaving behind several children with a parent or grandparent who does not the energy let alone the money to raise anymore children.

For some reason because she was a celebrity our society will see Aaliyah's death as the BIGGER tragedy. Personally I don't.

[Andre98]

She pretty much said what I was going to say with a about a thousand more words than necessary. I'll add that it is also because so many people die, there is so much suffering, and there is only so much grief we can stand.

It's not that you don't care, but it would drive you crazy to have your emotions in a constant state of sorrow. Bombs keep blowing up in in Middle East, people are still being killed in throes in warring African nations too. The celebrity factor just brings one tragedy to the masses. I had the strange experience years ago in Philly of being at the scene of a big fire in an apartment building. Some people didn't make it. The friends and relatives that gathered to see if their loved was alright were screaming and crying as they found out bad news. Right there next t them, there was a woman that found out her daughter made it out. She was rejoicing and praising the lord profusely. One of the mourners had to be subdued, she was about to leap onto this lady screaming "Why you celebrating? There aint nothin' to be happy about!" The woman that was rejoicing was crushed, both by the realization that death and grief was being suffered, and by the fact that for a brief moment, she looked like she was uncaring about it as long as her S/O was alright. I remember that odd feeling, that odd expression on her face, as a reflection of some of the bizarre juxapositions of life's experiences we may find ourselves in.

It is also why I added that statistic about how many die and are born on a single day in that other Aaliyah thread. It may even have been the jist of what that dick in the NY Post was trying to say, and it would have had better communicated if he had left out the condescension and bigotry.

[Vronni]

Originally posted by Tastey

But it's also a tragedy to see a young mother die from overdose of drugs leaving behind several children with a parent or grandparent who does not the energy let alone the money to raise anymore children.


I know and that's what's such a shame. People have sympathy for people they have never met-which is fine- but not for people right in their community. Tragedy is tragedy,regardless of who it involves. People want to believe that money makes you invicible to problems but not so,because we are just humans-guided by God's grace