Kevin Mazur/Getty ImagesActress Gwyneth Paltrow says fame in the Internet age is as dehumanizing as war.This from the New York Times online Linda Stazi article in gossip section
“Earlier in the week, Gwyneth Paltrow, People’s “Most Beautiful Woman in the World, 2013” whose parenting opinions made her 2014’s “Most Annoying Woman in the World,” has given up that title to become the “Most Moronic Woman in the World.” Paltrow recently upped her idiot quotient when she compared slights lobbed against her on the Internet to the horrors of war. “It’s almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanizing thing,” she said, adding, “My hope is that as we get out of it, we’ll reach the next level of conscience.” This from someone who seems to be not just unconscious but unconscionable.
Again, Paltrow’s not the first entertainer to compare acting to the ravages of war.
We all know what Tom Cruise said last year, but did you know that the world’s most failed father/patriot, Billy Ray Cyrus, whose triple platinum album “Some Gave All” about soldiers dying in war, is just as Hollywood a guy when it comes to the soldiers he sings about?
He told GQ that “some gave all” is a motto he learned from a Vietnam vet, and then, compared it with “Hannah Montana?” I swear! “Hannah Montana!”
Forget war. Fame is hell.”
I’ve always been amazed at the stupid things that our so called “stars” will say. The inane stupidity that comes out of the mouth of folks in Hollywood would fill several good-sized books. But what I find uniquely intriguing is the latest batch of comparing their trials and tribulations with the media, their work on the stage, or their work on a movie set to war. I worked on the mine crew for several years. Almost everyone on that crew were former Marine combat veterans. Over lunch one day in a cramped and dark and damp area of the mine they told me that the reason that they went into mining was they missed the rush and the adrenaline of combat and the closest thing to match that was working in the mine. In the mine they have the opportunity to blow things up; they have to constantly be on guard as to what they were doing; they have to be extremely aware of their environment and every moment and it was close to what they experienced before. When I asked the question if they were comparing mining to combat they unanimously said no. “That is like nothing else you’ll ever face”, they said. It was the rush and the excitement and being on edge that they missed and this gave them a chance to remember some of it. I have never thought over the years of telling people that my time in the mine was like being in war. I’m not that stupid.
So are the stars that stupid? Are the Gwyneth Paltrow’s, the Jay-Z’s, The Tom cruises and all the rest that stupid? I think the answer is yes. But I also think there’s more. They really do believe that they are that special, that worthy of praise and adulation, that they would compare themselves to people who really have given the last measure of devotion to this country. Their need for acknowledgement and worship, and praise, can never be filled no matter how many award shows are on television, no matter how many tabloid pictures are taken of them, and no matter how the rest of the public fawns over them.
There are leaders who act like that in the church as well. There are leaders who act like that in the country too. Ronald Reagan once said you’d be surprise what you can accomplish if you can surround yourself with people who don’t care who gets the credit. The obverse of that is true as well. You will be horrified at what can happen if people want credit, praise, acknowledgment, and are constantly looking to find a way forward and upward at the expense of others.
Jesus is our Savior. But the Bible says he is also our example. The concept of servant leadership was a big deal a few years ago even among industrialists. It’s faded again sadly.
How does Jesus define a hero? John 15:13 – Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
How does Jesus define a leader? (Matthew 20:26-28).
In the Christian realm, all leadership should be servant leadership.
