#12. The Celebrity Issue
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." Ray Bradbury
My sister used to be a terrorism analyst. She specialised in sub-Saharan Islamic extremism and spent much of her day watching, sourcing and verifying beheading videos. When she got home of an evening her favourite thing to do was to sit down and binge watch The Kardashians.
Lighter and fluffier than a helium-filled kitten, watching The Kardashians was her way of unwinding and escaping all the tragedy she’d had to witness that day. My dad couldn’t get his head around it; why would such a bright young woman waste her brain on such vacuous nonsense? It’s just a bit of harmless fun, she would tell him. But is it?
Watching The Kardashians is certainly far less harmful to the individual than watching extreme violence every day but, at a societal level I’m not so sure.
This week, an over-indulged millionaire man-child slapped a comedian in the face in front of a vast audience and then proceeded to collect an award and cry about it as though he were the victim.
Never in my experience has such as small event created such a massive media shitstorm which, let’s be honest, we all willingly got swept up in. But it doesn’t matter because it’s just harmless fun, right? Except, on the same day as the ‘slap heard around the world’, temperatures in the Arctic hit 30 degrees, 40 degrees in the Antarctic. More than 23 million people continued to starve in Yemen and roughly the same number in Afghanistan (I am sure we’ll be getting the numbers for Ukraine soon). And, inevitably, the British PM refused to admit he had been fined for breaking his own laws.
All this proves that, yes, the world can be awful sometimes but celebrity culture is not an antidote, it’s an anaesthetic. It might be time we woke up.
Mooreish Words
Journalist and activist George Monbiot spotted the anaesthetising effects of celebrity culture back in 2016, just as reality TV star Donald Trump was about to become president, and wrote a piece that resonates all the more in 2022: Celebrity isn’t just harmless fun - it’s the smiling face of the corporate machine.
If you struggle to cope with the relentless barrage of bad news but want to stay abreast of current events may I recommend downloading the Goodable App. Goodable promises, ‘No politics, no negativity. Just real news that makes you calmer and healthier’, see…
You might also consider subscribing to Positive.News a website and beautifully produced print publication ‘for good journalism about good things’. Their regular ‘What Went Right This Week’ feature is a particular favourite of mine.
For those in Singapore, you can purchase Positive News magazine from Basheer Graphic Books in Bras Basah Complex, which is home to a phenomenal range of niche, international and independent publications too.
Mooreish Sounds
Hearing (bad) news dissected and discussed in a calm, considered, insightful and even entertaining way, is why I have subscribed to the recently launched ‘The Rest Is Politics’ podcast.
Produced by the people behind The Rest Is History, this weekly pod unites former UK Labour Communications Director and mental health advocate Alastair Campbell with former Conservative MP and international development expert Rory Stewart to give an insiders’ view of British and international news and politics from both ends of the political spectrum.
Campbell was a huge figure in ‘90s politics, which is my awkward segue into the latest release from Singaporean singer/songrwriter Vivien Yap who has collaborated with comedy rhythm kings WOKFUNK to cover her own song ‘Everything Stays’ live, loud and with strong ‘90s/Beabadoobee vibes if that’s your bag!
Mooreish Visions
Adam Curtis is an English documentary filmmaker who splices old footage into new narratives to explain the world around us and reveal what we cannot see. He is deeply critical of consumerism and celebrity culture and this short film commissioned by Vice is an excellent and eye-opening example of his ouvre from 2016 (OMG what happened that year? Oh yes, Bowie died and Trump survived to become president!). Warning, it does contain some violent and disturbing images.
See all of Adam Curtis’s films for free at https://thoughtmaybe.com/by/adam-curtis/.
Mooreish Art
If that film makes you want to escape this world DON’T turn on the Kardashians, book a room at Swampland Resorts instead!
Swampland Resorts is a ‘B Grade horror comic’ created by journalist, screenwriter and filmmaker Mike Watt. It features 97 regular characters plus occasional guests. It is bloody and gory and generally in terrible bad taste. I think it’s great! Go visit at https://www.swamplandresorts.com/.
Finally, In the before times I used to do quite a bit of work in Sri Lanka where I met photographer Nazly Ahmed who has just released his first book, ‘Colours of Colombo’, and it’s gorgeous. This is what he says it’s about:
‘Colours of Colombo’ is an attempt to find the magic in the mundane moments of everyday Colombo; through cultures, communities and the constantly changing urban landscape, paying homage to a city, and to all those who live in it and call it home.
Go see some of the photos and maybe even order a copy at https://colombo.photos. You can also, follow Nazly on Instagram @nazlyahmed.
Right, I’m escaping to Aus next week to see how those guys are doing, will report back in a fortnight cobbber!