{"id":17578,"date":"2012-11-02T08:44:42","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T13:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=17578"},"modified":"2012-11-02T08:44:42","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T13:44:42","slug":"the-rise-of-celebrity-endorsements-is-a-sign-of-political-immaturity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/11\/02\/the-rise-of-celebrity-endorsements-is-a-sign-of-political-immaturity\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise of celebrity endorsements is a sign of political immaturity"},"content":{"rendered":"

In sp!ked<\/em>, Patrick West<\/a> points out that celebrities who push political agendas or social issues are actually a sign of the failure of the political class:<\/p>\n

This paradoxical egotism — protesting against \u2018selfish\u2019 right-wing people in order to make you appear morally superior — was mercilessly parodied in the 2004 film Team America: World Police<\/em>. In it, marionettes representing the likes of Susan Sarandon, George Clooney and Matt Damon are shown as self-important dupes of Kim Jong-Il, parroting liberal-left vacuities. \u2018As actors\u2019, says Janeane Garofolo\u2019s puppet, \u2018it is our reponsibility to read the newspapers, and then say what we read on television like it\u2019s our own opinion\u2019. Like all good parodies, it helped to change the way people think. Sean Penn\u2019s intervention on the matter of the Falkland Islands earlier this year generated unflattering comparisons to the movie, and I imagine Matt Damon still fears to speak on humanitarian issues, lest he be met with a collective cry of \u2018Matt Day-Mon\u2019.<\/p>\n

Still, this hasn\u2019t deterred the likes of Clooney and Whoopi Goldberg continuing to make known their support for the Democrats — who are liberal-left, and therefore Good People — in opposition to the Republicans, who are right-wing and by extension Bad People. Now from the pop world they have been joined by Katy Perry, who last week performed at a Las Vegas fundraiser for President Obama in the forthcoming presidential election, and by Madonna, who on Saturday declared at a concert in New Orleans: \u2018I don\u2019t care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama.\u2019 Having been met with jeers and booing, the Material Girl backtracked. \u2018Seriously, I don\u2019t care who you vote for as long as you take responsibility for the future of your country\u2019, she recanted. \u2018Do not take this privilege for granted. Go vote.\u2019 Other Democrat supporters include Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, Will.i.am and Jay-Z.<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

In terms of hollow egotism, popstars are not far removed from actors. The latter are fantasists and (literally) professional liars, pretending to be someone they aren\u2019t, displaying emotions they don\u2019t have. Popstars are often likewise insecure, craving attention and praise, to be told what good people they are — and consequently ensure that the world knows it.<\/p>\n

They have been up to this sort of thing for years. Consider the self-important proclamations of John Lennon, imagining no possessions but having lots of them, Sting\u2019s crusade to save the Brazilian rainforest and its noble savages and, of course, Bono, the humanitarian tax-avoider. The latter two featured in Band Aid, an ostentatiously big-hearted scheme that raised funds for governments in desperate need of more Mercedes-Benzes and Kalashnikovs. This is what happens when you combine paradoxical egotism and a Something Must Be Done mentality. Today, it\u2019s the same toxic compound — intensified — that\u2019s behind the grandstanding and aggressive \u2018caring\u2019 censoriousness you see on Twitter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In sp!ked, Patrick West points out that celebrities who push political agendas or social issues are actually a sign of the failure of the political class: This paradoxical egotism — protesting against \u2018selfish\u2019 right-wing people in order to make you appear morally superior — was mercilessly parodied in the 2004 film Team America: World Police. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,53],"tags":[480,122,200,101],"class_list":["post-17578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-politics","tag-hypocrisy","tag-movies","tag-music","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-4zw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17579,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17578\/revisions\/17579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}