| Egocentrism |
3 November 2003
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Whining Celebrities -- Grow up
Perhaps its the recent solar activity, but the media were covered in a thick coating of whining last week. Rod Stewart, Princess Diana's former butler, and even a Nobel prize wannabe appeared to be upset with the grim hand of fate. Those at the bottom of life's barrel may have grounds for complaint, but to see the winner's of the existence lottery carry on so makes one ill.
Mr. Stewart, who's career has gone on too long, had a good rant about never winning a Grammy, not being invited to Sir Elton John's parties and having the media pick on him for having a girlfriend young enough to be his daughter. Sir Paul McCartney's much younger wife is never the target of the press, according to Mr. Stewart, though because of the knighthood. Whined Mr. Stewart, "I don't know why I haven't got any honor [meaning a knighthood, or perhaps, he really doesn't have any honor]. I do my bit for charity."
Meanwhile, a new book is out by Princess Diana's butler, Paul Burrell, that seems to have Prince William upset, and "Wills" mood has got Mr. Burrell in a snit. In a forthcoming meeting between the two, Mr. Burrell has promised to give the Prince a piece of his mind. One doubts he has that much to spare. After all, he is on record as saying a single phone call from the royal family (or more accurately, the middle class Germans whose ancestors stole the throne from the House of Stewart) could have stopped it all; "Having served the Royal Family for 21 years, is one telephone call too much?"
And what can one say about a man who claims his work on the MRI technology, which saves so many lives, deserves Nobel recognition? Raymond Damadian has taken out ads in major newspapers to demand that this year's Nobel laureates in medicine, Paul C. Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield, share their prize with him on the grounds that their work was largely based on his. Perhaps his work does merit such recognition, but the public tantrum only diminishes his standing in the eyes of the casual observer.
The servings at life's banquet are never quite what one ordered, nor are the portions always fair. While California burns, while the poor die of malaria, bad water and AIDS, while the Aral Sea vanishes because of man-made eco-catastrophe's, it might be prudent for those wallowing in success to bear one thing in mind: their problems are pitifully insignificant. The rest of the human race doesn't want to hear about it, and they might just sleep better at night if they got round to thinking about something other than themselves.
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