When I was little, we all had people that we all came to love and admire. Everyone from Muhammad Ali to Bruce Lee were all everything short of Real Life Superheroes that everyone loved and all wanted to be like. Today it seems like the well has run dry. All we ever hear about today are criminals and the bad things that our so-called "celebrities" have done. Everything from Brittney Spears and her ongoing drama with drugs and the media, to the demise of once icons like Michael Jackson and O.J Simpson. Where ever happened to all of the American Real Life Superheroes that once served as Icons for almost every young person in the country?
We confuse celebrities with heroes. A hero jumps on a guy in the subway to keep him from getting run over by the train. A celebrity plays the role "based on a true story."
In the past, the media played along, not playing up peoples flaws. People didn't really hear about Roosevelt being in a wheelchair, or JFK having mistresses, or Marilyn Monroe going overboard with booze and pills. If the media still did things the old way, Bill Clinton would be perceived as a respectable family man, Britney Spears would still be a role model for young girls, and Michael Vick would be on the Wheaties box.
Not necessarily. I'm neither a hippie or a socialist (okay, okay, your mileage may vary), but I believe we need heroes. Everyone should have someone to look up to. I know I have a hero. J.
As screwed up as things are right now(especially with the Media), we could really use them both right now (both role models AND heroes) Even as children we had cartoon characters that we all looked up to. Toons ranging anywhere from the really old ones (like UnderDog) to the more modern ones like Dragonball Z. Even THEY are disappearing!
I don't know which of us is gayer--me for using the first line or you for knowing what I was talking about. :tex: Thankfully I don't know "It's Raining Men".
Careful Sherlock, remember what happened to this guy not too long after saying almost those very words to Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon...
Showing a bunch of flag-draped coffins every time your poll numbers needed a boost didn't exactly help either, fucknuts.
The world is full of heroes. We're just not smart enough to recognize them anymore. We want to pick everything apart, reject anything or anyone who isn't perfect. Back in the old days — people knew heroes were flawed and didn't care. I personally blame it not on the hippies and socialists, but the Baby Boomers, who were brought up to believe they could have anything they wanted, now. First the boomers ruined drugs, sex and rock and roll through excess — then politics and the business world. As the generation that immediately followed (post 1960 birth) we learned you couldn't trust anything, couldn't depend on anything and you needed to be cynical about Boomers' "Fad of the week."