I haven't been commenting on the recent spectacular celebrity downfalls-- John and Kate, Susan Boyle, Michael Jackson. I haven't had the stomach.
Photo from here.
I'm still not going to, but now that Sarah Palin has announced her resignation as governor of Alaska, I can't resist a few words on her.
I think all these folks, Palin included, have something in common: that the world has consumed them. I myself feel like a little black crow on the side of the road, picking over bones with which larger meat-eaters have already had their way.
The Internet has accelerated and added larger fangs to our ability to predate on our celebrities, regardless of what they have done to deserve or not deserve that treatment. I wonder if we had such an appetite for consuming celebrities in 1809, or 1909, or even 1979. Somehow I don't think so, though this post suggests we aren't so different from the 1950's.
Jackson, the Gosselins, and Boyle have in common that they are or were entertainers, and are in their own category.
Palin is a politician, and it makes sense to examine her story based on her potential ability to change the lives of Americans for better or worse.
I have written about her before, even comparing her to Aphrodite. She is an example of what can happen to people in the new twenty-first century paradigm of mythology, communication, and the mythology and communication of politics. She was chosen because of the shock value of her story and the big splash her physical beauty made. Candidate John McCain gambled that she could hold her own in rhetoric. He lost that gamble.
We're told that Palin remains popular among Republicans nationwide, and that by resigning as governor she may be positioning herself for a run at the presidency in 2012.
I don't think so. I think she's done, thrown in the towel, said sayonara. Mainly because no politician in an executive position who is aiming for the presidency would quit in the middle of her term. That's like a college football player quitting in the middle of a season because he's looking towards a career in the pros. You don't want "quit" on your resume, unless you are going on to something bigger and better from that "quit." And right now, Palin's just going back to regroup-- advance in another direction, in her words.
Some people have painted Palin as some kind of megalomaniac who will do anything to win, but I've never seen her that way. She is a very conservative Christian with a very large ego, someone who was too big to be contained within the walls of her church building or her kitchen. But she is also a human being who apparently has a limit on the amount of scrutiny and abuse she is willing to take from the media and the Internet predation machine.
She has also probably recognized that her rhetorical skills aren't good enough to match that machine blow for blow. We're talking a very large stage here, with a lot of smart, angry, committed people.
It's tough to admit you're overmatched, and she didn't admit it. She wouldn't. She has never apologized for what she is.
Maybe she will come back, but I don't think so. She's a mama bear with a big set of cubs and I think she's just decided to retreat into the underbrush with them, so she can stop being shot at. It's tough being the bear sometimes.
I think Sarah typifies one sort of ego - the kind that can dish out heat but can't take it. As you implied, in her home, kitchen, and church, she was able to manipulate when she couldn't dominate - but when she moved to the big leagues, she had to take more than a few hits in reply.
Doesn't myth say something as well about how beauty, personality and, well, rhetoric, are - or can be - counterbalanced by their "darkside" equivalents?
Posted by: Bob Mustin | July 04, 2009 at 07:32 PM
Bob, Thanks as always for an intelligent and thought-provoking comment. I agree with you about SP's limitations as a manipulator. Some people are used to getting their way, but in order to get it wherever you are, you do need to have a huge amount of-- chutzpah. Cheney's an example of a person who just rammed through everything he wanted and didn't worry about the consequences, and it worked for a long time.
As to the "dark side," Aphrodite shows that in spades, as a divinity who embodies all the positive and negative qualities of sexuality, including the "sweet talking"/power talk side of it used to manipulate. See her conversation with Helen in Iliad, Book 3, or the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, where Zeus makes her fall in love with a mortal as revenge for her powers over him.
Posted by: DF | July 05, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Yes - I love the college football player not quitting mid-season to prepare for pros analogy.
Part of me feels sorry for the Governor, part of me wants to tell her to stop talking... and the other part - well, I won't vote for her, but I'm quite curious to see where she'll end up.
Speaker circuit is my guess.
k
PS - I put up a couple of websites since we've last chatted - www.kellyandperks.com and www.kellyplaner.com - have at 'em.
Posted by: Kelly Planer | July 08, 2009 at 03:51 PM