The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 2 of 13)

Sarah /p>

Judah Friedman is missing something important in his treatment of Miley Cyrus. He assumes that singers, mercenary athletes and similar people are people worthy of attention, emulation and idolization. He's dead wrong.

He writes: "The second someone has that [hero] status we destroy them. No longer can children watch a show and just dream of becoming a singer; they now also have to think about the fact that their hero is a fake and somehow she isn't who they thought she was."

Why is it good or even desirable that children grow up idolizing performers? A performer, after all, is someone who specializes in presenting illusions and making them seem pleasant. Why not hold up for public praise people of serious and substantive attainments -- the engineer who designs sturdy buildings, the priest who comforts the dying in a hospital, the doctor saving lives or vaccinating children? Lawyers, priests, doctors/nurses, engineers (what used to be called the traditional "professions") all deal with real-world situations involving substantive human problems. On a more modest level, a manual laborer -- a mason, a technician, a waitress -- can be held up, idolized even, as an example of good living if they work hard and solve real human problems in their own working life.

On the other hand, a performer, no matter how "talented," is at most a menial, a servitor who makes his or her living providing a distraction from reality and man's real conditions of life. At best, they are frivolities; at worst, they are net detractors and subtractors from the social order. (See, for example, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. The prosecution rests.)

Calling someone like Miley Cyrus a "hero" is an even more blatant offense against clear thinking. A hero is "a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for brave deeds and noble qualities." How on Earth does a 15-year-old posing semi-nude qualify as distinguished? How are her actions noble or brave? A combat soldier in Iraq (no matter how you feel about the war) has courage. An aid worker distributing food in Myanmar has noble qualities.

Miley Cyrus is no "hero." The overwhelming majority of her fellow "performers" are not, either.

p>Certainly the "entertainer" deserves (and will have) a place in society. Let them work, let them earn their livings, let them exercise such talents as they may possess. But please, please don't tempt our children to limit themselves by giving these people attention and status they do not deserve. br> -- Mark Schaeber /p> p> Forgive me. I am an older person who knows little about what youngsters like and adore. I have watched the Hannah Montana phenom. All well and good until I saw the exorbitant prices Disney charged for one of her concerts. Parents were scrambling to buy the tickets for their little girls. It gets better. One mother lied about the death of her husband in Iraq to gain sympathy and a free ticket for her six year old daughter. Is that Miley's fault? Maybe not. Disney knows a good thing when they see it and is more than willing to charge these prices. P. T. Barnum said it's outrageous. Miley's parents agreed to a photo shoot of their daughter. I saw the photos and in my old decrepit thought process said to myself, "something is wrong with these pictures." A little too pouty and suggestive to me. Is the criticism fair? The criticism should be directed to her parents and Disney. Is Miley a hero? No. A hero is a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for brave deeds. The "heroes" in this are Disney and Miley's parents. They showed their "heroism" by having their young daughter pose for "sexed up" pictures. That takes "courage." If anything, Miley was used by the people who should have looked out for her. She should set an example for young girls. I guess I'm old fashioned. I would not want my daughter to see the pictures of Miley. I'd direct her attentions elsewhere. br> -- Clasina J. Segura

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