Celebrity Still Lives (Unfortunately). A Plea To Stop Emphasising With The Enemy

I have a piece of news for everyone.

Someone you don’t know and have never met, a young mother, has, sadly died.

How do you feel? Well I’m sure that, given the circumstances described you feel sorry for the family left behind and sad at the potential of a life cut short. I’m sure too though that the news won’t radically affect your everyday situation and having paused for just a brief moment you will move on with the rest of your day and never give the matter another thought. All of which, I think, is very right and proper, after all how do you empathise with someone you don’t know and have never met?.

Why then has there been this national obsession with the death of Jade Goody? Frankly my attitude is that, apart from a brief acknowledgement about the grief of her family, I care not one jot. Let’s get real here.  I did not know the woman, apart from the lurid details of her sad life which she managed to ram down the throat of my attention seemingly on every occasion. It’s not that I don’t care about Jade Goody (I don’t, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make) it’s that this national obsession with the lives of other people (so called celebrities) is, to my mind, total madness.

I’m not arguing for the eradication of fame. People who are acknowledged, and indeed may be lauded, for their talent and/or abilities have always had a place in human society. Those who contribute in politics, the arts, science, sport or entertainment etc. deserve recognition (as something of an actor myself I freely admit I do it for the acclimation and applause). I believe however that in the case of the famous it is their talent, ability or achievement which should be honoured, not merely their lifestyle. Having such individuals as role models and striving to emulate their achievements is a good and positive thing, I just don’t believe that empathising with a group of people who flaunt their excessive and decadent lives helps any of us in any way.  

Jade Goddy’s approach to and use of  her so called celebrity, like that of all the other parasites who live off the bloated, rotting, corpse-like body of “star publicity”, leaves me feeling as though a particularly unattractive, smelly, vagrant has suddenly whipped up their T-shirt and forced my face between a pair of wobbly, rancid breasts. I don’t care about how many drugs Amy Winehouse has taken, how much botox some sad old soap star has had injected into their face, or which drunken football player has shagged which silly girl in some over priced hotel room.

I do however have a circle of friends whose lives touch mine in ways that change and affect it every day. I hope too that I touch the lives of those I know. The fact is, that apart from this small group, the rest of the world’s population have very, very little relevance to my physical or emotional wellbeing. It is virtually certain that non of the ‘celebrities’ who parade themselves across the pages of the glossy magazines will ever affect or change my life in any way.

I think we should concentrate on those we know, love and can actually interact with, rather than these posing ponces who constantly, drunkenly debauch themselves across our televisions and newspapers.

Jade Goody, like that other rabid, ravenous, slathering put-bull of a publicity seeker Princess Diana, is dead. Jade, again like Diana, is someone you only ‘knew about’, not ‘knew’ in any real or meaningful sense. Don’t waste any emotion on either of these women, or any of their ilk, save it for those real people whose lives you are a part of. Show them you care; not about some fantasy idiot your saw on TV or in Hello magazine, but the real people who also care about you. Save you emotion, love and care for those you ‘know’ and stop emphasising with the enemy.