Are We Vicarious Bimbos? 

Everybody on the planet that has a web site was discussing the subject of Paris Hilton yesterday, and how she was headed back to jail.  I must admit watching the whole thing with a certain level of satisfaction. How, after all, can one watch events like that, and then see equality under the law finally win out despite it all, and not feel satisfied over the outcome? Well, of course not everyone feels that way, which is the subject, here.

.
Despite watching it yesterday, I didn’t bother with blogging it, for a couple of reasons….  But I think the most important one, was that I didn’t believe the situation would stick long enough.  I figured she’d manage to wriggle our way out of it, yet again. And she yet may. Certainly they’re trying to soften the blow, here. (Pardon the pun)

.
I notice, for example, that she’s spending at least the weekend in what passes for a mental health containment unit. initially, I thought this might have been a situation of either they were going easy on her again, or perhaps the Sheriff’s department is trying its best to accommodate the situation .  After all, the other prisoners were likely to take offense to the treatment provided this primadonna.  But I wonder, if such a venue isn’t appropriate; I don’t know of anyone who can watch that situation, particularly as regards the impending train wreck that her life has become, and not wonder about her mental stability, or rather, the lack of it.
.

In watching this, however, one almost gets the feeling that the whole thing is being orchestrated for a purpose.  Or, at least WAS, at the beginning.

Think; Here is an individual who apparently has no redeeming qualities about her whatsoever.  None.  There are Hookers in any city or town in America that have talent that this woman does not have.  Those same streetwalkers probably have more in the way of morality about them as well.

She can’t act. (Save for the crying scenes we were treated to these last few days.) If you’ve heard the recordings that they’ve released on her, she darned well can’t SING.  (Though, given the quality of most popular these days, that certainly doesn’t inhibit her recording career .) She’s not known as a dancer.  Her philanthropic qualities are of something less than legendary status.
.

So, how does one so bereft of any outstanding talent or redeeming quality, call attention to herself with such outstanding success?  On what basis is it that she attracts such?  And, come to think of it, on what basis — does she garner the kind of sympathetic support she has ? Publicity. The kind of publicity that only being a flagrant slut can cause.  I can’t help but wonder if at least some of this isn’t an orchestrated effort to get her name out in front of the public.

That said, there are two types of publicity, good and bad.  What could take such bad publicity and turn it into a positive as she has apparently done, here?  After all, the woman has turned into something of a cultural phenomenon.

The only thing I can think of, is the issue of money.  She’s certainly got it.  Indeed, it it’s probably the only thing she’s got going for herself.

Speaking of mentally unstable, and as an aside, I see where the left is already starting to blame others for her misdeeds .  And guess who they are blaming?  Jules Crittenden observes:

My mistake, she’s not an irresponsible privileged and pampered victim of society at all. She’s a victim of Bush, or would be, if he suspended habeas corpus in the United States. It’s all clear to me now. Thanks, TalkLeft, for the translation of “habeas corpus” and the explanation of the politic ramifications of the Paris Hilton affair:

… Paris will spend the weekend in the medical facility of the jail and her lawyers will file a writ of habeas corpus for her on Monday. Habeas corpus literally means “bring forth the body.”* At least she still has the right to bring one, unlike those at Guantanamo, and if we don’t watch the Republicans in Congress closely, none of us may in the future depending on what crimes we’re charged with and where they decide to house us.

* In Pig Latin, which is linguistically a close cousin to Bushian Newspeak, that’s “Ring-Bay Orth-fay the Oddy-bay.” It literally means “habeas corpus.”

Leftfield revels in the comeuppance:

No one is above the law, not Administration Lapdogs like Scooter Libby and not Pampered Princesses.

Interesting how that all gets rolled together.  Sounds like class warfare.

Yes, isn’t it?

Frankly, (and here’s the point of all of this)…  given the number of “second chances” she received, before finally being told to get her shapely and much- used booty to the hoosegow, I wonder about the long-term consequences of cases like this. Consider with me; What finally sent her to the slam, was ticking off the wrong judge. The message being sent, is that it’s OK to flaunt the law, but you’d better not flaunt the black robes. Is that really the message that we want to send? That doesn’t seem to make a great deal of sense, but there it is.

I think what we’re dealing with is another level of class warfare… in reverse.

Seriously.

BBCT Photo:Ace

There is an undercurrent through all of this, that suggests a sentiment amongst much of the country, that the rich and privileged still get protected from the consequences of their crimes. That’s supposed to be a bad thing.  And yet, look at the amount of support that she receives in public opinion and news coverage.
So the question becomes do the rich and famous get a pass on the consequences of their crimes, because a goodly number of us want it that way? I commented the other day about the amount of coverage that she was getting.  Since then, Matt Drudge has spent the last several days in wall to wall “Paris Hilton” mode as have a number of other sites such as TMZ, and so on. The mainstream news organizations have not been immune to this either, as I’ve pointed out recently.  Much as I bitch about it, I’ve been forced to comment a few times. but I think I’m beginning to understand why all this is true. The first conclusion that one draws, given news is driven by polling and popularity contests anymore, is that there is a good deal o demand for this subject; the public wants it so.  Why?

.

The answer is both more complex to describe and simple to understand, than most people will admit. And, lest we forget this, it’s the same thing that drove the over-wrought coverage of Anna Nichole Smith.

.
I think it was Robert Frost, who poetically suggested that there is something in human nature that doesn’t like a wall.  We, the common people, the less than millionaires, face many walls…. which in reality is what drives class warfare, from both sides.

.
We’re never going to be a rich.  We’re never going to be young again.  In all likelihood we’re never going to be as irresponsible as we were in our youth. However we are cosmetically altered, we won’t look that way again, much less be that young.  The concept of running around in public in a short dress with no underwear, is a concept restricted for our wildest fantasies, as is the concept of multiple sexual partners in one life, much less one night.  all responsible people sees that the kind of choices that Paris Hilton makes are self destructive.

.

Yet there is a certain side of us that refuses to let that kind of fantasy disappear .  And so, when, despite our innate understanding of the self destructiveness of the situation, along comes somebody who has all of those qualities, we watch with a certain drooling longing.  What develops, is a relationship which is both distant and highly vicarious in nature.

.

It’s my opinion that from a viewpoint of the protection of our society and our culture, it is more important in this case than most, to make sure that the law does, in fact, get enforced.  Failure to do so, can only encourage more of the irresponsible behavior that Paris Hilton has so flagrantly engaged in.  I will leave to your own thought processes the consequences that would incur.  There are those who would argue that this is making an example of Paris Hilton. Perhaps that’s true.

.

On the other hand, she’s the one who put herself in that position of being that example.

Hot Air has lots more