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Thursday, June 30, 2005
In defense of Oprah
I'm going to be guest blogging over at Clever Peasantry this holiday weekend. Looks like I'm going to have some good company, too, so be sure to check it out.Now that CP is safely on his way south, we bravely attack this post in his absence:
We here at CP are quite sure that Oprah is the devil.
Oprah is The Color Purple and Beloved. Book clubs and make up shows. Celebrity interviews and a detailed review of colon health. This might be ignorant, but I suspect she's the most powerful black woman in the history of the world. Sometimes she squanders that power by talking about how often her staff changes her linens. Sometimes she abuses that power by puff interviewing George W. Bush.
Sometimes, though, she uses her power for good. For all the nonsense about angels, she does project a positive message of community and empowerment.
Oprah contains multitudes. She's contradicts herself constantly. One show will celebrate frugality, the next show she'll be pimping $100 t shirts and $1,000 sheets.
Is Oprah the devil? Absolutely. But she's equally a goddess. She has been everything bad about day time television and the only show powerful enough to even try to be good.
Regardless of the truth about this shopping excursion, Oprah remains irreducible. Whatever she is, she's also a lot more.
7 Comments:
I did a crude search on Google news for Oprah Hermes (the store that turned her away) and got 649 results. I searched for stories about the school Oprah is building in South Africa and got 39. It's the same old thing, we can't stop talking about someone when they say/do something stupid. We don't bother to notice when they are noble and giving.
By 
, at
12:38 PM
Oprah does a lot of great stuff. She also does some pretty dumb stuff. I suspect, at bottom, she is more or less like everyone else in that respect.
Before I leave I have to defend the good name of my wicked attack on the devil ;)
Oprah is the devil because her entire existence is a morally insufficient and wholly abnormal answer to problems that require more than the efforts of a single individual. She is the ultimate "quick fix" and her wealth is the only thing that provides the rosy colored tint needed to cover up reality 1 hour at a time.
In this specific case, she has the nerve to think that those poor folks working inside should bend the rules to her sorry rich behind. I have worked my fair share of service jobs and the sense of entitlement by certain persons of great wealth is nothing to be scoffed at. Eventually, the fratboy/rich girl behavior moves beyond simple contempt for store rules and into the more rarified air of middle management and politics.
It's not just that she did this in a single case...it is her entire attitude towards life. I remember catching a show where they had women with horrible acne. Oprah told them that all they really needed to do was buy a $350/jar creme made out of seaweed and everything would be A'OK.
I know she does a lot of charity work and that she gives a lot of money away to good causes in Chicago. Fine. This is excellent. However, I think this creates a false sense that things should be addressed by individual charity rather than solid public efforts. I know that this is the flimsiest part of my argument, but I believe charity should be kept private so that people don't have to base policy or ideas around the uneven and unguaranteed donations of individuals. Individual wealth should not the answer to social problems.
I think this is a line that needs to be held because we've all heard the line from the Bush administration that individual charity is what makes this country great; individual kindness is what makes this church program really work...and so on and so forth. No it's not. It helps, but only after the pieces are put in place by the whole.
I do not believe that this is the way good societies should react to problems.
Oh well, mostly I hate her because she is rich and she flaunts it. The rest of this is just nonsense that masks my jealousy ;)
cp
By , at
1:30 PM
I really don't like Oprah because I think her interviews with Gore and Bush back in 2000 were dreadful. She made Bush look very safe and homey for the soccer moms. I wish Oprah would've used the interviews to distinguish the candidates rather than fluff them both.
All that money and fame would corrupt any of us. I used to think Tom Cruise was fairly normal. Now he is going around saying psychiatry has no scientific basis, that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance when referring to the brain and anti-depressants should be outlawed. Russel Crowe, who in my book gets a lifetime pass for "LA Confidential" physically attacked a hotel desk clerk because he would not authorize an international phone call. I am an X-men fan and in that comic is a villian named Proteus. He starts out as good kid until his mutant ability manifests. Turns out he can make his thoughts become reality. It ultimately corrupts him and drives him mad. You can buy reality with enough money. On the whole continuum of celebrity Oprah is fairly sane--(as sane as
a Streisand loving lib can be).
By , at
9:40 PM
Wow, Sean! You almost made it all the way to the end of a comment without taking a shot. You must be in a holiday mood :)
I just couldn't help it. Happy Independence Day!!!
By , at
5:18 PM
