"Don't let Bieber make decisions for you". Brief George mention

From Western Courier

Don't let Bieber make decisions for you

WC Editorial Board

Issue date: 2/14/11

There are starving children in Africa.

There are millions of displaced Haitian refugees.

Millions of ocean dwelling animals have suffered from the BP oil spill.

You've seen it on the news. Help is needed. But how many people would actually help if Bono didn't tell you to?

What? A hurricane? If only Clooney would have told me sooner.

There's this weird paradox in the United States, especially involving celebrities and their daily lives. It's not so much that most of them lead normal lives when they're in their homes. It's that we're obsessed with everything they do. Celebrity culture and gossip has infiltrated our basic programming and feasted, leaving the majority of adolescents and (God forbid) young adults euphoric and violently tuned into the lives of other people.

Perhaps we use their lives as models for how we live our own lives. Perhaps we enjoy finding the faults in others, to make ourselves feel better about what we're doing.

Whatever the case may be, it seems celebrities rule everything we do, including helping people.

You can't open a magazine nowadays without seeing Ashton Kutcher or Bono telling us to give to the starving children, Clooney telling us to send relief to Sudan. It's seems silly to think that this type of campaign is the only way to get through our thick skulls. Are we that unsure about ourselves that we need advice from celebrities about how to make the world a better place, some reaffirmation that the things we are doing are, in fact, the right things.

The sad thing is, it works. Celebrities yell jump, we jump. It's even more upsetting that we can't pursue proactive outlets, such as charities ourselves.

Twitter is another imploding pop culture wasteland. Search for Kanye West's twitter. Seriously, do it. You'll laugh, maybe cry. For good or ill, it's worth it to see what entertains our society.

When Alicia Keys started an AIDS charity, "Keep a Child Alive," many celebrities pledged to stay off all social networking platforms until they raised $1 million. Lady Gaga, Ryan Seacrest and Elijah Wood were some of the celebrities who participated.

It's hard to believe that people actually participated. Where have all the principles gone? The "dead celebrity" campaign only raised $161,000 before it essentially flopped. That's a lot of money for the sake of reading a few dimwitted posts. Who has the time for that?

Perhaps we need to start making our own decisions and not harp on the whims of those making our movies.