Roger Daltrey, singer from 1970s British rock band The Who, told British newspaper The Sun in May that "the last thing the planet needs is a rock concert."
And the singer from 80s pop sensations The Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant, attacked the arrogance of pop stars who put themselves forward as role-models.
"I've always been against the idea of rock stars lecturing people as if they know something the rest of us don't," he was reported as saying by British music magazine NME.
Arctic Monkeys shiver at Live Earth - hypocrisy (HT to Thunderstruck)
Absolutely. Since when do movie stars and pop stars (or politicians for that matter!) know something we don't? I'm discounting those who truly do but I feel they are few and far between. I just recall Meryl Streep at the Alar hearings in the 80's screeching, "What are we doing to our children?!" (ALAR was a chemical put on apples to make them shinier and to delay rotting. Turns out...it wasn't that harmful at all. Kind of like DDT...)
We have the Georgy Clooney's of the world who make great movies and tell us our president is an evil man. The Ted Danson's, who make us laugh on TV and in the movies, telling us that our oceans only have 10 years left (That was nearly 15 years ago if remember correctly.) We have Al Gore telling us our world will end in 2015. (See Rush Limbaugh.com for a countdown...it's at the bottom of the page...we have little more than 8 years left...kind of like the ocean thing.)
Just because someone is in the public eye doesn't mean they are smarter than us. Yes, they have a platform from which to educate. But when the message they are delivering is suspect at best, where is the media? Right there pushing it along. Journalism, as a a means of disseminating information, has fewer and fewer practitioners these days. More people are concerned about making the facts fit their premise instead of having the facts prove or disprove their premise.
But does this give us carte blanche to pollute? To kill off species? To waste resources? No. We are stewards of this planet. We should take care of it as best we can with the understanding that man is the highest form of life on the planet and top of the food chain. Not dolphins. Not monkeys. Not fairey shrimp.
I say that if Al Gore and his ilk are really, truly into this Global Warming issue, then they need to be leading the way by example to stop it. (Which I find hard to do as the earth does what the earth was designed to do and man is extremely arrogant if he thinks he can destroy that which God hath created...good luck with that train of thought!) But I doubt that that will happen. Al Gore hasn't even answered the charges that he's more a of polluter than the president he despises. (Pres. Bush's ranch in Texas was considered more ecologically friendlier than Al Gore's place!)
[sarcasm]But I guess if I put on a concert and play bad versions of my most popular songs I guess it shows I care. And if I care then I can't be all that bad and must be part of the solution and not the problem.[/sarcasm] (BTW...Roger Waters did a great rendition of "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2" last night. UB40 did a mighty fine job on "Red, Red Wine". Bon Jovi, on the other hand, IMO, mangled "Dead or Alive" and called it our "national anthem". What a dork.)
That's my rant for now....
Eric
2 comments:
Great rant, Eric! :)
I couldn't agree with you more. Like you, I don't like self-important celebrities and politicians telling me what's best for me and my family. I find it insulting that they are attempting to legislate their morality on the rest of us, and basically discount those who disagree with them as ignorant and 'ill-informed'. I truly resent that.
If they would simply live their lives as green as they'd like, and leave the rest of us alone, I say more power to them. Unfortunately, they seem to think that the rest of us need to fall in line.
Great post. Thanks!
Thanks...
Add to that...
When they start leading by example and giving up so much of their wealth and gass-guzzling, smoke-spewing big rigs hauling their stuff around, I'll be more apt to listen!
Eri
Post a Comment