One of my best friends recently sent to me a copy of the last column Ben Stein wrote for E! Online in 2003 titled "How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?” Ben's column makes the reader feel good about himself while pointing the finger of blame for the reader's lack of values on Celebrities.
I agree that celebrities are not heroes but Ben has blamed the celebrities instead of the people who idolize them. As part of the news media Ben takes a little blame but the news media only sells what the Public buys. It’s the Public’s moral values and senses of civic and social duty that are lacking. Ben has pointed the finger of blame in the wrong direction.
Ben said, “Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails”. Are these the only people that are eating up the wealth of the nation and ignoring the “have nots” that eek out a meager living or none at all. BS. We appreciate what Ben wrote because WE are not riding in limos and Porches nor having our nails done by Vietnamese girls and are therefore blameless. Is it only the rich celebrities that are not doing their share? BS.
Ben has made his reader's feel good about themselves, good about their under-appreciated public servants and angry as hell at the rich people that aren’t helping out. I think Ben's last column was just "feeding the monkeys at the zoo". This kind of editorializing only further divides the people of this country. We the People are the problem. We make the celebrities. We made Ben Stein. We accept the mentally ill trying to survive on our streets. We accept the employment of underpaid illegal aliens.
THEY are not the problem. WE are the problem. Jesus said, “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
