I will never understand why we as a culture hate people who do things. I don’t think it used to be this way. There was a time when the movers and shakers and doers were revered in this country, and people aspired to be like them. Now, if someone is found guilty of reaching for the brass ring, we’re on them like pirañas going after a cow caracas.
Okay, so I’m sure you’re wondering what brought this on. I realize this is already old news, but today I read about a 13 year old girl named Rebecca Black. Her mom hired a production company to shoot a video of her daughter. The company provided the crew, the song, did the final editing, they took care of it all. In a world where Justin Beiber can go from a boy singing on YouTube to pop sensation, movie star, and multimillionaire, this type of vanity viral video production makes sense. Okay, maybe it doesn’t make sense, but at the very least I can see why parents might go for it.
So this young girl isn’t responsible for much of the end product, and it wasn’t very good, but she at least went out there and made a music video. She got off her butt and did something. It probably wasn’t easy, either. I imagine she worked hard over the few days of filming to product enough footage for the production company. The point is, she *did* something most people don’t do. She reached out for the brass ring.
The response? Vile. Horrible and vile. People have called her a bitch and a whore. One person even said, “I hope you cut yourself, I hope you get an eating disorder so you’ll look pretty. And I hope you go cut and die.” Really? Is this really who we are as a culture, that we call a 13 year old girl a bitch and a whore and hope that she dies because she’s in a music video we don’t like. Remember, no one was forced to watch this video. The individuals making these comments choose to watch it, and could have turned it off at any time.
It makes me sad that we live in a culture that feels entitled to attack and destroy anyone who aspires to do and be something more than they are. My father had what he called his “theory of characters,” which says that interesting people do interesting things. He taught me to be a character, to do interesting things, and I live by that philosophy to this day. It sounds like this girl is dealing with the hate and bullying, and I hope she continues to be someone who does things.