Your obligatory commentary on the thing that crudded up your timelines today.
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All day I’ve watched 140 character commentary flit past on the State of the Beebs. People have very strong opinions about this kid, bordering on hatred. Apparently he was somewhere and he did something and he was arrested. Last week he was somewhere and did something and the police came. Somewhere back there in the Legend of Bieber I think there’s an incident with a monkey, too.
The simple truth is this: I don’t care. Arts and Entertainment is one of my responsibilities here at Good Men Project (the others: cleaning the fro-yo machine every night and feeding the parakeet), so I feel obligated to comment on this breaking news but I just. Don’t. Care.
This is news for those in the Bieber camp whose livelihoods depend upon the kid. It’s certainly news for Justin Bieber. For his fans (which, apparently, no one admits to being) it’s news in the human interest sense of the word, but for the rest of us? This is not news.
Granted, tabloid journalism has always been around, which is what this story is, but the line separating gossip and news has become so blurry that I’m not sure we can all see it anymore. The 24 hour news cycle doesn’t help, either, with its constant need to fill the empty space.
The only way that I can handle the onslaught of information that hits me everyday is by defining “news” as “that which may have some impact on my life.” That’s still a broad net, covering everything from the neighbor’s house being robbed to the island of plastic floating in the Pacific. What Congress does impacts me, so that’s news; what congressmen and women do in their private lives doesn’t (gossip). If I didn’t put that little filter on I would be distracted to the point of stupification, and then I’d probably really be into this story. But I’m not.
Okay, I care a little bit. I feel bad for the kid. I know how this game ends for the Beebs. His fifteen minutes will eventually run out, his accountant/manager/label/mom/uncle/somebody will run off with whatever money is left after the strippers and coke. If he’s lucky he’ll have a run on a weight loss reality show with Screech, play the county fair circuit, that kind of thing. If he’s unlucky he’ll OD broke and alone in a motel room.
I don’t wish either outcome on the kid. What I’d really like is for him to hit whatever bottom is in Bieberland before it’s too late. I’d like to see him get it together, whatever that means in that world, and do whatever it takes to live a life imbued with meaning.
But I fear that one of those other outcomes is inevitable, and when it happens; well, I guess I’ll have to write another piece like this. But not until I feed the parakeet.
Want a different perspective? Read Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Biebers
Wait. You guys have a FRO-YO MACHINE AT WORK?!
Here’s the only part I care about — when a celeb or anyone gets busted for driving under the influence there needs to be a mandatory sentence and it should be really unpleasant. I’m not suggesting hard prison time that endangers their lives, I’m suggesting a real deterrent that causes people to think it all the way through before they get on the road and endanger my life, my family’s life, the life of my friends, and the life of every stranger on the planet who is innocently sharing the road. You can drink or smoke or swallow or inhect… Read more »
Highly over-rated kid.
My only contribution to this is that it consistently blows my mind when rich people get DUI’s. If I had his cash, a chauffeured limo would take me everywhere.
I don’t care either. For me the point is that the cult of celebrity pervades every culture and it’s not a good thing. It doesn’t matter what your Congress says or does because this phenomenon is not limited to America. Having said that, other cultures look to America as the paragon of celebrity and emulate it, whether it’s Canada or Europe or India (from where I’m typing this) or Japan. Governmental reforms will accomplish nothing. What we need is an overhaul on our priorities as a culture.
There’s an interesting discussion I had a few years ago with a VERY well read friend. I was ranting and complaining to him about ‘news’ stories like these (gossip), people generally gossiping about others in their everyday life, things like soap operas etc etc… that kind of what I’ll loosely call entertainment, distraction is probably a better word though… Anyway, he told me that there’s a philosophy that’s been around for thousands of years (greek originally) about how all these kinds of things that sensationalise the trivial to make it feel more important are actually a mechanism of distraction for… Read more »
The rest of us define news as “that which is NOT covered by the Arts & Entertainment editor.” Get back to work, Jim.
Clearly millions of people care or he wouldn’t make entertainment headlines. Not to mention he employs a lot of people and probably carries a heavy burden for his age. I can name half my friends at one point in their life who did exactly what he is doing. Only lucky for us we weren’t followed and ridiculed when we made mistakes for the entire world to have an opinion on. The real question is why do people enjoy seeing others fail? This kid is probably under so much pressure to make other people $. He probably is never alone…his life… Read more »
I am more interested in hearing about the fro-yo machine and parakeet. Any posts about them? Does the parakeet have a name?? The world must know!!!
Thank you for this affirmation that sane people do exist in the world, who understand that one misbehaving celebrity is not the end-all-be-all.
Well that’s it, Jessica. You’re the next guest at Fro Yo Fridays.
Woo-hoo!
Doesn’t the fact that you wrote the article kind of prove that you do though?
No, it proves that I’m the arts and entertainment editor for Good Men Project 🙂
NO!
I’m quite surprised that some people are completely missing the point of this article. This is NOT an article about Justin Bieber. Again, just to be clear, it is NOT about a person.
The article IS about why we shouldn’t care about such things. It is a great article. I simply uses the Justin Bieber story as an example.
I am in the camp of not caring, I really and truly could not care less about the travails of Mr. Beiber. What does interest me is the sheer schedenfreud people have regarding this story. What does it say about our society when people take so much enjoyment out of someones personal misfortunes and misery?
Agreed, Dave. That caught me, too, the gleeful hatred.
Upon reflection, I would like to apologize for the “prissy” tone of my comment.
It’s just that after a couple of hours of navigating news sites with my daughters (huge Bieber fans), I was hoping for an article that would help them makes sense of all of this. It might just be trashy gossip for most, but my girls are devastated.
I can totally get that. I think the only way to make sense of the Bieber thing is to understand that making heroes out of kids is a dangerous thing to do. One of my kids loves Bieber, and the boys LOVE Michael Jackson, but they know and have always known, that he died of a drug overdose. People make mistakes. Bieber’s could have cost him his life, or another’s life. If he’s using this codeine drug cocktail called “sizzurp” that’s incredibly dangerous. Your girls (and my kids) are going to see a LOT of people in their lives –… Read more »
I am not a fan of the kid’s music, but was troubled by your article. I visit your site for guidance in becoming a better man. I found this article somewhat prissy and I expect more from The Good Men Project.
Here is your guidance for being a better man. I’m sorry you missed it: “The only way that I can handle the onslaught of information that hits me everyday is by defining “news” as “that which may have some impact on my life.” That’s still a broad net, covering everything from the neighbor’s house being robbed to the island of plastic floating in the Pacific. What Congress does impacts me, so that’s news; what congressmen and women do in their private lives doesn’t (gossip). If I didn’t put that little filter on I would be distracted to the point of… Read more »
Brilliant article. The point is….who cares? So what? I get my news from various sources including Cable TV, Droid Apps and good old fashioned Newsprint. I scan the articles that matter to me such as the weather, local happenings, local politics, sometimes national politics, quite often not global politics, and maybe a smattering of science and technology blathering…but, other than that, I simply don’t care. Sometimes, when I’m taking a dump, I’ll thumb through my wife’s Entertainment Weekly or OK magazines for…ok…entertainment and a bit of distraction… But, I really don’t care. Well, I care enough to write this reply… Read more »
I wish that for you, too, Barbaric. If it’s any consolation, my daughter never went through a Bieber or Cyrus phase, though we did have a High School Musical period.
My parents put up with the Backstreet Boys for a bit, but then we moved and I lost interest because it was summer and I had, as of yet, no friends to tell me what was cool (Disney songs are more fun to sing, anyway). Then I fell head-over-heels for Stargate SG-1, hot on the heels of my Star Wars (expanded universe) and Buffy obsessions. There’s always something.
For some reason I care about the Kardashians but not Bieber.
I feel bad for any kid who may have a substance problem, but I can’t help but roll my eyes at privileged and spoiled young people who commit crimes and don’t pay for them. I actually think the best thing that could happen would be if this made him get his act together. A lot of little kids think of him as a role model.
Discretion being the better part of valour, there was no actual need for this article. I kinda expected better from Good Men.
There’s plenty of need for this article, Dave. At least as much as there’s need for any article. I’m sorry you missed the points, and why they are relevant to our audience.
I consider it news since it says a lot about our immigration policy. If Bieber was not rich or white he would have been out of this country a while ago. People have been deported for crimes that do not come close to his.
Rayven makes a solid point!
Thank you, Rayven. That’s been my reaction all day.
Great catch, Rayven. I didn’t even think of that.
Is it sad that this would not have crossed my mind?
Good point.
What was it George Lopez called Canadian immigrants? “Snowbacks,” I think.