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Something to Ponder

Entry 2204, on 2022-02-11 at 14:15:00 (Rating 3, Comments)

I recently found a social media post titled "Something to Ponder". It was advancing the concept that the people we tend to take most notice of, and hold in the highest esteem, are really not the ones who deserve our accolades.

Here's the basic text of the post: "The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance... I've needed a doctor; I've needed a teacher; I need farmers every day; I have needed an auto mechanic, a plumber, a house painter and a lot of other everyday people. But I have NEVER, not even once, NEEDED a pro athlete, a media personality, or a Hollywood entertainer for ANYTHING!"

I'm not the sort of person to completely reject the importance of non-essential roles in our society. Sure, I agree that doctors, teachers, and farmers are important from a practical perspective, but there is more to life than just survival, so I think entertainers and sports people also have a place.

But the critical thing is that we tend to treat them as being superior to the rest in some ways. There are many celebrities (I will use this as a generic term to describe them all) who are treated extremely well: they are constantly the center of attention for the media, they attend award shows which make them feel important, and their opinions on various matters are regularly publicised for us all to appreciate.

And those really are all BS. I guess the attention of the mainstream media reflects the fact that their readers want to hear the tedious details of celebrities lives, so we should blame the readers rather than the publishers of the news. But that doesn't make the phenomenon any more valid.

The stats show that not many people watch award shows any more, probably because the unbelievable hubris of the participants in how they see themsleves, and in their insistence on regaling us with their tedious politically correct opinions on subjects they know nothing about (in general; I'm sure there are exceptions). But despite their decreasing relevance, the celebrities continue to extol each others virtues unabated. Who are they trying to fool? Themselves, I guess.

I often see celebrity's opinions being presented and promoted on TV and the internet, as if we should pay special attention to their ideas. But why would I care about a celebrity's opinion on foreign military policy when they know no more about it than the average person on the street. In fact, they tend to be so influenced by the extremely woke environment they live in that their opinion is probably worth less than the average person's.

In addition to these criticisms, celebrities tend to make a living out of creating a fantasy world. People who work in entertainment and sport live in a very artificial world - more so than most of the rest of us - so you could make a case to say they are exactly the people we should be ignoring!

I enjoy a good movie or sport event as much as anybody... Actually, I don't. I half watch good movies and TV shows (probably about 5% of them) and completely ignore the rest, so I suspect that if they stopped making movies or TV shows it wouldn't worry me too much. Other people seem to be very enthusiastic about watching new movies, so I might be the exception, but I suspect most would cope if they had to.

And I sometimes watch cricket on TV, but that's quite rare, and I have little interest in other sport, especially rugby, which I find very tedious. So I appreciate the skills of sportspeople and the drama of a close game, but if that all stopped tomorrow it would be of no great concern to me. But again, many people seem to include sport as a more important component of their life than me.

So I fully agree that entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance. Many of them are very skilled at what they do, and their activities while practically completely pointless still enhance some people's lives, but that isn't really that important.

On the other hand, our lives would become quickly problematic if doctors, teachers, famers, mechanics, plumbers, and painters disappeared. I agree, I can do without them in many cases too. It has been many years since I went to a doctor, and in many cases I can self-diagnose anyway. Sure, I can't prescribe myself any drugs I might need, but that is purely an administrative problem, and not related to the value of doctors. However, doctors are undoubtedly important and we should value them to some extent.

And I think the quality of teaching is extremely poor, so I don't have a lot of respect for teachers. That is, apart from their resilience in surviving in a job where they have to maintain the discipline of 30 students, plus participate in the ridiculous levels of bureaucracy required, and put up with the parent, school management, and other teachers. Anyone who can do that day after day deserves some level of respect. Also, teachers perform a very important baby-sitting role for families where both parents work.

Farmers perform an obviously important role, because food production must be the single most critical function of any modern society. I know many farmers do work long hours, and do hard physical work. Theoretically we could all produce our own food, but in reality that is impractical, so I think farmers should be quite highly valued by society.

And similar, but lesser, arguments could be applied to mechanics, plumbers, and painters. I can do the basics of all of those jobs, but I always get a professional to do anything other than the most simple work. So while they might not be quite as essential as farmers or doctors, these jobs, and others in the same general area (electricians, computer experts, etc), deserve some respect.

What about other job categories? Let's get more controversial and list politicians, police, and managers. Well, you might guess where this is going. I find it difficult to respect politicians, not because the role isn't important, but because that job tends to attract the worst type of people. With the police, I respect their work in most cases, but they do enforce bad laws as well as good, so they lose some respect on that basis. And managers: well it's no secret I consider them the lowest form of life, so there's no need to go further there!

On many occasions I have talked about respect and how a simple "respect" or "don't respect" rating is insufficient to capture the subtleties of the true situation. I usually give a rating of 0 (no respect at all) to 10 (full respect) so let's rate the professions I have listed in this post on that basis: Farmers 8, Doctors 7, Police 6, Mechanics 5, Plumbers 5, IT Experts 5, Electricians 5, Painters 5, Teachers 4, Sportspeople 4, Actors 3, Politicians 2, Managers 2.

Note that I only rate my own profession 5, so I am trying to be realistic here. Also note that I have no one above 8 or below 2. I'm not sure who those are reserved for, but I felt like I needed a category below even politicians and managers, possibly for axe murderers and the like! Whether anyone deserves a rating above 8 is more difficult to know.

I should include one last important note here: that is that I'm not suggesting every person is defined by their occupation or that everyone doing a particular job are the same. I'm sure there are individual examples in every case where the person deserves a lot more or less respect than I have listed above. But those ratings are more for the job rather than the person doing the job. They are also an average and very much an approximation.

So while I think my basic point is valid, don't take those ratings too seriously! Apart from that, I still think this gives us something to ponder.

Comment 1 (7107) by Anonymous on 2022-02-24 at 12:22:59:

I want to challenge your consistency. You think "western civilisation" is the best but you don't like some of the most important parts of it like managers and lawyers. Comments?

Comment 2 (7108) by OJB on 2022-02-24 at 21:49:35:

Comments, sure... Western civilisation is good, but not perfect. Also, lawyers and managers aren't unique to Western culture; they also exist in others. I think management could be a worthwhile activity, and maybe in some cases it even is, but in many cases today it is just hugely bureaucratic and pointless. I don't think I even mentioned lawyers, so I'm not sure what you are referring to there.

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