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True Story – ad Absurdum
“They invent ways of doing evil” – The Apostle Paul, Romans 1:30. This begins as a true story: When I was an outcast, oddball, “loser” in high school, bottom of the pecking order and always in danger of getting picked on or beat up, I came up with the idea of pretending to be a Satan worshiper. I found this could be helpful to me in several ways: 1. It made people think twice about picking on me. 2. It brought me the attention I craved as an awkward, outsider teenager. After all, any attention is good attention. Now let us imagine a nightmare scenario. (Think along the lines of…
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Life the Movie: One Big Cultural Reason for Trump’s Success and What it Means for Our Future
There’s this scene at the end of the movie of The Truman Show where Jim Carrey, who plays the unwitting star of a reality show about his life, finally figures out that none of it is real. Like the voice of God speaking out of the “sky,” The Truman Show producer tries to persuade him to stay, “You were real,”…that’s what made you so good to watch.” Truman/Carrey pauses at the foot of a stair case leading up and out of the giant dome of his set, then takes his final bow and makes his exit. The millions who have watched him since he was a toddler explode…
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Why We Love Celebrity
So I guess there’s going to be a royal wedding “across the pond” on Saturday. Just like when the groom’s mum and dad got married, there will be pre-dawn wedding watching parties over here in the States (since for some reason, the Brits couldn’t be talked into waiting for American prime time, I suppose). The royal festivities have put Kate Middleton, about to become “Princess Catherine,” in the celebrity spotlight. And oh, how we love our celebrities! Celebrities are people who are famous, sometimes simply because they are celebrities and not because they’ve done anything especially noteworthy. Technology makes it possible to feed our insatiable hunger for “celebrity news.” 24/7…
