Review: Feet of Clay
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 22, 2014
“So what is a celebrity, this modern day phenomenon that causes my blood pressure to rise? Well, apparently, the label can be pinned on anybody who is deemed by anyone else to be famous.”“Now, you may wonder why I’m bothering to dig deep into the generic force that is celebrity. Quite simply it’s because too many of these twerps get up my nose on a daily basis, and it’s time someone took a swipe back at them.”Charlie Bray has indeed fulfilled his mission in a scathing rant about celebrities. I would have to agree with pretty much everything he says, having learned early on that all human idols have feet of clay.“Now I bet you’ve noticed that the dictionary’s interpretation of fame and the famous carries no riders relating to any skill or talent. And there is the rub.”Well, there I have to disagree. Celebrities of all stripes have a singular talent, the talent for drawing attention to themselves, without which, they would not be celebrities. But as Charlie points out, no other talent is necessary in order to become a celebrity.Charlie’s rant brings up many points about celebrities that you may not have considered: How fame feeds upon itself-for example, a whole entertainment genre has developed of reality shows which give talentless and washed-up celebrities a chance to stay in the public eye.Charlie also delves into the lifestyles and, more specifically into the wretched excesses of the rich and famous, for example “Before he became bankrupt, ex world boxing champ, Mike Tyson began living a life of excess, buying a 38 room mansion, collecting expensive jewelry, exotic cars and rare Bengal tigers.”The Trouble With Celebrity is amusing to read an made me laugh a number of times. But beyond that it also made me sad.  It is a little disturbing to me that our modern world has become so coarse and vulgar that we admire the famous for being famous and the wealthy for being wealthy, that people would be more interested in some inane remark that Paris Hilton makes than in the problems of global warming, poverty or the wars in places like Syria or the Sudan. I hope Charlie’s next rant will be about the mass media that is nearly entirely responsible for this state of affairs.My suggestion for Charlie and all who feel about celebrities as we do is to follow my lead and stop watching television and listening to radio and find serious sources for your news and good books to read for your entertainment. Ignoring celebrities is the best way to deal with them.