Are today's stars running scared?
Friday, March 18, 2011 at 8:46 With some honorable exceptions, are today's stars running scared of the bully state?
"What on earth has happened to the tradition of stars breaking taboos and causing mayhem?" asks Tom Miers on The Free Society.
It used to be said that the decadence of Western rock culture was a sign of our free society. The rockers reacted against the conservative mores of the post war years, and the more they were condemned the worse they behaved.
What started with floppy haircuts swiftly graduated to orgies, drugs, swearing, sex acts on stage, trashing hotels and general hell-raising. Smoking and drinking were minor props to the carnival of chaos ...
The whole point of rock ‘n’ roll is that it’s meant to break taboos and rebel against the established norms of boring old responsible society. So you would have thought that the stars of today would love nothing better than sticking a v-sign up at the PC brigade, not to mention the health lobbyists.
So what have they to be afraid of? Not falling sales, surely. Really bold establishment-bashing improves popularity among the young.
Perhaps there’s something else. Being a rebel now involves not so much teasing old fuddy-duddies as teasing government. And government carries a big stick. The bully state is starting to clamp down on opinions and behaviour it disapproves of. Maybe the rockers are running scared.
Reader Comments (6)
Yeah they are running scared in the main - it's like the McCarthy witchhunt of the 1950s again. I think we need a blog to highlight the heroes like Kate Moss and the villains like Duncan Banantyne. In fact, I think I'll create a post like DP's psychotic anti link so people can add celebs to it as a way of showing our support for their free thinking souls
It is mainly entertainers who flout the smoking ban. All the time, during TV documentaries.
O/T R5L 12.14 am (early morning) today. Landlord of the Lass O'Gowrie in Manchester, near BBC and University was talking about St. Pat's day. Discussion got more general. He said that when he took over over in 2005, all he had to do was keep the pub clean and well stocked. But there was a sudden massive drop in custom when the smoking ban came in. He said we'll have to get used to fewer pubs in future. Not often you hear a publican state plainly, on national radio, that the smoking ban caused a sudden massive drop in custom in what was one of the best known and most popular pubs in the area (with a middle class clientele). Worth a listen.
Well, we all know that smokers are disgusting,evil,murdering,smelly,knife welding,drug taking,peasants don't we??
Hey,anything's better than smoking....
Carry on taking drugs,go to rehab,hide in public toilets,beat up the wife,or a photographer,get legless,..the choice is endless! We'll all forgive you for these petty phases...
But smoke???? How very dare you!!!!...hmmmm,something's very wrong here??!!
Kate Moss has shown many celebs the way by not cow towing. Sadly though many celebs who smoke (there are many) and tolerant non-smoking friends are keeping their heads down. Stephen Fry smokes and has even said he agrees with the ban so don’t expect any support from people like him.
You tend to find that celebrities jump on politically correct band-wagons when it suits them, because of vocal public support ( aids is a good example as was apartheid). The smoking ban isn’t a politically correct issue.
If you suddenly saw a public ground-swell against the smoking ban then celebs would come crawling out of the woodwork in their droves.
Joanna Lumley does occasionally smoke and has voiced her opposition to the smoking ban in Scotland when it first came in. She is very strongly against the ban north and south of the border. There aren't many celebs like her.
Celebs (in the main) suffer from a pathological need to be loved. Smoking is not a lovable pastime in modern eyes, alas. And certainly not a fashionable one - which is what really matters.
Much better to put on a stage smile and a red nose once a year, or trot off to Africa to photo-op with some smilingly grateful natives against a background of picturesque (and low-carbon)squalor - and thank them for their endearing inability to rise from the poverty which keeps so many Westerners (and not just at the United Nations) in lucrative employment.
I just love 'em.
Sadly, Joanna Lumley - being possessed of intelligence, beauty, courage, and an independent mind - doesn't really qualify as a Proper Celeb. More of an Honorary one, I'd say.
Rock 'n Roll finally died on the day when Keith Richards put out the cigarette on stage at O2 after being warned by the security. That was the last breath.