Not the President. He’s no U.S. Grant, but he’s no FDR either. Who do we have to look up to? It seems like anyone who has had even the faintest sniff of power, recognition or respect, has somehow squandered it. Here we are leaderless and wandering, but we still flock in herds of pop culture and mass media. If we are so easily grouped together, or a “flock” as I said, who is leading us? I don’t necessarily have the answer to that. If I did, I’d probably be taken out and shot by Bill Gates and the New York Times Co., a.k.a., “The Powers That Be.”
But I know who shouldn’t be leading us. Rock stars are the number one offenders. This came to my mind as Nirvana is set to release their greatest hits album. And nobody has been a rock star/anti-rock star so seamlessly and perfectly as Kurt Cobain. I know many of you still living in 1991-94 as if it were your own personal version of Groundhog Day, revere this man and find him to be pains poet laureate. But look somewhere else. Unless the conspiracy theories are true, he killed himself. He hated that you loved him. Well, to clarify, what your revelry brought him was fame, and fame brought him to decisions on his personal convictions about selling out. And in essence, by not selling out, he copped out. If he were not a rock star would we respect him?
Offender number two: athletes. I’ll admit that for quite a long time they were my heroes. I bought the shoes, the posters, the jerseys. Take Michael Jordan or “Air Jordan” or “MJ” or “I wanna be like Mike, Jordan.” Recently, he put his foot down and refused to keep paying a mistress who tried to extort money from him. Good for you Mike, don’t let her take what’s rightfully yours, what you earned, your keep. He’s always been linked to high stakes gambling. But since he’s, well … him, we’ll make an excuse and just say he’s competitive. I’m sure we can all think of an adulterous family member/friend with a gambling problem. But I don’t think I’d say, “Oh that’s just uncle Al, he’s competitive.”
Finally, there are the third offenders: religious figures. I could stop here and you’d all get it. But, “lemme ‘splain it,” as Archie Bunker would say. Obviously we have the priest disaster. You could peg me for an atheist and listen to me tell you that religion brainwashes everyone, but then I’d be an idiot and closed minded. The problem goes back to revering other humans. In my understanding of Catholicism (I attended a Catholic high school, so there), it is contradictory to submit our respective wills to those who God has already pegged, as it’s put, as sinners. These men who have perpetrated these heinous acts are flawed. Have faith in religion, by all means, but most religions as I understand them were designed for spiritual extension, not individualist submission.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, revere you. Invest time in you. Find out what your favorite hobbies are, not those of J.C. Chasez. By being an expert on you, you will no longer have to find meaning or direction from some person who is just like you, but richer and better looking.
-Zach Hosseini is a sophomore journalism major.
