Bread and Circuses
If anyone still has doubts that the United States is definitely well into its "Bread and Circuses" phase, the Anna Nicole Smith saga should dispel them.
I have never seen anything on TV that even came close to the nauseating spectacle of Judge Larry's courtroom last week. I tried to avoid it, but clips still made it to the only two TV news shows I watch, Countdown and The Daily Show.
Face it, this woman had absolutely no socially useful talents or constructive accomplishments whatsoever. She was an ambitious, self-centered, manipulative gold-digger with nothing more than a pretty face to her credit. She didn't deserve any of the national attention she got in life, nor does she deserve what she's getting in death.
No one should have to die young, especially from drugs as she and her son did. I feel genuinely bad for her family. But they just don't concern the rest of us. Thousands of ordinary Americans die tragically every day; where are CNN's Breaking Stories about them?
I see a far bigger tragedy in Anna Nicole Smith than her death or that of her son. It's the message we're sending to millions of young girls: if you act just like her, you too can become rich, famous and widely admired. Who needs brains, talent, education or hard work if you can just find a lonely old oil tycoon and give him a lap dance?
I have never seen anything on TV that even came close to the nauseating spectacle of Judge Larry's courtroom last week. I tried to avoid it, but clips still made it to the only two TV news shows I watch, Countdown and The Daily Show.
Face it, this woman had absolutely no socially useful talents or constructive accomplishments whatsoever. She was an ambitious, self-centered, manipulative gold-digger with nothing more than a pretty face to her credit. She didn't deserve any of the national attention she got in life, nor does she deserve what she's getting in death.
No one should have to die young, especially from drugs as she and her son did. I feel genuinely bad for her family. But they just don't concern the rest of us. Thousands of ordinary Americans die tragically every day; where are CNN's Breaking Stories about them?
I see a far bigger tragedy in Anna Nicole Smith than her death or that of her son. It's the message we're sending to millions of young girls: if you act just like her, you too can become rich, famous and widely admired. Who needs brains, talent, education or hard work if you can just find a lonely old oil tycoon and give him a lap dance?