On Paris Hilton
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmaAVitfnmU]
I just finished watching this music video for a song titled "Paris Hilton," a really catchy tune that arguably expresses a majority of America's sentiment with regard to the girl "famous for being famous" (click here for said sentiment on T-shirts and other such gear). Clever.
And yet, in saying that, I wonder: What does it feel like to be completely loathed by an entire nation? Now don't hear what I'm not saying: I'm no fan or defender of the hotel heiress; in fact, when I heard she was going back to jail to finish out her reduced sentence after being released from her initial three-day attempt, I was more than a little glad.
Actually, I was really glad. Perhaps, I thought, we might have a respite from the media's ongoing preoccupation with her. Perhaps this will provide a much-needed lesson in humility for her and her "parents" (or at least those adults who claim biological responsibility for bringing her into the world - as a mentor of mine once said, "There are no illegitimate children, just illegitimate parents"). Perhaps our justice system can't be bought quite as easily by the rich as it first seemed to have been (though the jury's still out for me on that one in general).
But in watching the video, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper, and considering my own thoughts concerning some of this, I was surprised by how much we - how much I - seem to hate Paris Hilton. And that can't be right or good, regardless of how easy it is to do.
In the song, "Origin of the Species," Bono puts it well when he sings:
"Some things you shouldn't get too good at like smiling, crying, and celebrity"
While I'll let Paris make application as to the "smiling, crying, and celebrity" parts, I would add "hating" to the list of what I need to not get too good at, especially when it's aimed at someone I can seriously rationalize as "deserving" it. Sure, she deserves justice (not to mention more than a few swift kicks to her designer pants as to what life's about), but she doesn't deserve my hate.
And, if I can preach a bit, she doesn't deserve anybody else's, either.