From My Perspective: Elite Status

If you’re breathing, you’ve heard about the recent Oscar Awards fiasco involving Chris Rock and Will Smith.

Photos of the punch and the constant talk of it have it front and center, over everything else. Even those who didn’t know these individuals squared off, and don’t care, have no choice but to hear about it or see it, over and over and over again.

In my opinion, the Oscar Awards is an elite show, with elite status people, dressed up to look good in front of the world that’s watching. Over the years, these award shows have given this status to these actors, and most of the American public has just watched and let it happen.

If you think about it, these elite people have no real importance in our lives. The only reason actors, singers and the like have this elite status is because we give it to them. We made them this way. We paid money to go see them. We let their beliefs, their values and their actions become our own. If more people focused on their own lives, these people wouldn’t have that status.

In my day of watching movies, I had my own idols I looked up to. Were they perfect? Not a chance; no one is. But they acted in such a way that made you want to be like them. They did good things with their time and money, and led a life free from the drama, the anger and, for the most part, they used their place of power to encourage, to help, to be a role model.

I don’t think todays actors and singers and such have any clue how much people look up to them and what they do, or the impact they have on people’s lives. Or maybe they do and just don’t care.

In the past, Will Smith has offered words of wisdom, given motivational advice, and for some been someone to look up to. He was someone I actually used to admire. But now he’s used his elite status to physically assault another human and, because of that elite status, will get away with the apology he issued after the fact. What he did was wrong, and he should have acted more appropriately. Now there are going to be kids, teenagers, heck, maybe even adults, who think that, since he went off and hit someone because he didn’t like what was said, it’s okay for them to do it too.

Chris Rock is a comedian. It’s his job to find things and make fun of them, people included. If you’ve ever listened to him, his own family (father, wife, kids) are often at the center of his routines. I’m not a huge comedy fan, and I’m less of a fan of comedy that includes some of the vulgarity he uses in his routines. That being said, he’s actually pretty funny. Because I’m not a huge comedy fan, I rarely pay attention to what he’s doing. And get this, because I don’t care for it, I choose most of the time to not give it my attention, or to watch or listen to him. That’s the beauty of it.

Now that Will Smith decided he didn’t like what was said and chose to physically assault Chris Rock, it makes me wonder if anyone who doesn’t like what a comedian says or does will do the same. Will Smith set a very bad example and set a very bad precedent for comedians in the future.

In my opinion, it’s time the elite status people started getting treated more like the average Americans. We, as a general public, have given them far too much power; have given them far too much status, time and attention.

I’ll likely never go see another Will Smith movie, not that I was going a lot before, but now I have no desire to support a man who can’t control his actions and who has no repercussions for them.

Think about this: how many Americans are actually going to go to a theater to watch a movie in the near future? If I were a betting woman, I’d say not many. The average American is going to have to decide between going to a movie or feeding their families and keeping the lights on, or worse, putting fuel in their vehicle to get to work to make any money at all. Some will choose the movie, but by-and-large the majority is going to do the responsible thing.

If this economy and inflation keep up, our elite status actors, comedians, singers and such won’t have a venue to make their millions, and maybe their status will come tumbling along with their paychecks.