5.17.2005

Paris Hilton is a Waste of Oxygen

There are two people in public life for whom I harbor an admittedly irrational hatred: Bill Clinton and Paris Hilton. I say irrational because neither has done anything to me personally, of course. I agreed with most of Clinton's domestic policies (although as noted in my previous post, I would characterize his foreign policy as one of utter cowardice and capitulation). That being said, I found him to be such a reprehensible person I couldn't listen to him on television at the end of his presidency.

He clearly hated women. Hated them. Probably because his mother married an alcoholic and he resented her for it. I do not believe that any sane man could treat his wife (even if it is Hillary) and his daughter the way he did without some underlying rage. I once "debated" a woman at a party, whose arguement in favor of Clinton was that it all balanced out because he pursued pro-woman policies. That is utter nonsense. That is tantamount to praising a man for working at a battered womans' shelter even though he beats his wife every night.

I would have been perfectly happy never to hear the name Lewinsky. But Clinton's compulsions put the entire country in a position that prevented us from avoiding her name. That is his fault.

My other irrational hatred is for Paris Hilton. Although I would certainly like to have her wealth, my hatred has nothing to do with jealously over simply that. What offends me so greatly is that she was born into a life of immense privilege and with that she has chosen a souless life of self-aggrandizement. Her television show is the worst kind of pornography, that of wasted opportunity. She has said that she has no need to go to college because she doesn't need to be productive, no matter what kind of PR propaganda she's been pushing lately.

Think of what an intelligent, caring, compassionate person could have done with her privilege: medical school, charity work, law school. The oportunities would be limitless to make life better for those not born into such obscene wealth.

She is, of course, representative of a major flaw in American society. In many European countries, the "aristocracy" (however you want to define it) is usually born into a world that still upholds nobless oblige: the obligation of the upper classes to work for the betterment of those below them on the social scale. I'm not suggesting that every European aristrocrat does this, but many do.

There is virtually no social pressure on wealthy Americans to seek the same goal. Many do, it is true, but many, many more waste there lives in heedless conspicuous consumption, driving up the cost of gasoline in their SUVs and covering their walls with gold in a vain effort to show they world their "worth."

But what if we restored some sort of aristoracy in this country? One that rewarded a social conscience? One that bestowed honor on someone — anyone — who worked to make our society better? The pursuit of wealth might not seem as important. I would gladly nod in deference to an American knight, lord, lady, countess or duke that had earned the title due to their compassion for our fellow Americans.

People like Paris Hilton are simply a waste of oxygen. There must be a better way to make use of those tiny atoms than in the support of a selfish narcisist who is truly an ugly person in every sense of the word. She and her sickening ilk make me give serious consideration to Communism. And I hate Communism.

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