Panic Industry

Well, one week later and the whole Miley Cyrus drama seems pretty much forgotten. Time has moved on or at least the media have, keen as ever for fresh meat.

So, what’s been the buzz since then? Sure, the whole Barak Obama/Hilary Clinton stoush and who will lead the Democrats at the next election to what they assume is assured victory, even if these preceding months will have given the Republicans, what George Bush certainly had not – an actual chance of another term.

And on a completely serious note, the terrible tragedy to the Burmese people and the difficulties the UN and aid agencies are having in providing assistance; that has made the real news. But in the world of the hot-off-the-press tabloids and Google searches, it has been all about Britney Spears filming another episode of HIMYM.

In 19^th century England William Makepeace Thackeray wrote his brilliant novel Vanity Fair (which some of you may know better as a movie starring Reese Witherspoon). Thackeray was an insightful writer, whose view of society was sympathetic yet not idealising. Thackeray knew that without exception we are all subject to weaknesses and that our society is one of hypocrisy and opportunism.

It may be more than one hundred years later but little has changed. If only Miley Cyrus or her parents had read Vanity Fair the novel instead of the magazine, they may not have been so surprised by recent events that have scandalised poor Miley.

It is almost winter, and in the late afternoon the sun came out from behind the clouds, so I went and opened the venetians as far as I could. I just wanted to feel a little of the sun’s rays, so rare lately these days…

One of the neighbours walked past, and I don’t care too much who looks in through the lounge room window, but I thought it was probably a bit rude that he did. He’s walked past a hundred times so he’s seen it all before – the bookcase, the old settees, me sitting in front of the TV. But he looked again.

Maybe he can’t help it; maybe we all just can’t resist that urge to look into our neighbours' windows.

But what if he was there all day looking in? What if there were ten others too, and they all had cameras and were yelling out, “Violet, Violet,” all day long or any time I stepped outside.

Although celebrity gossip may seem to have been borne in the modern era, with the rapid dissemination and ease of access that technology such as the internet provides, the interest in others and the the need to put certain people on a pedestal, is certainly not new and has been around for as long as humans have existed.

At different times in history humans have celebrated or decried their fellow man and woman. This serves many purposes. Some of these purposes serve the human psyche. It is healthy and natural to be interested in the details of someone else's life. In essence, life's mysteries take a lifetime to unravel. We look to others for clues to help us understand, both our own life and life in general. Identity is fluid and uncertain, we look to others to find out who we are.