The Truth Hurts: At Least Fake Integrity

The Truth Hurts: At Least Fake Integrity
By Brad Stine

Remember when good moral character was at least contrived and manufactured by our celebrities via their P.R. people? If you were an alcoholic, for example, you had the courtesy to unleash your uncontrollable rage at home where it only affected your kids, but your fans were left to believe your screen image.

That was before celebrities' kids got cell-phones with video capabilities in order to film the rampage and sell it to the rags, since celebrity kids have been taught that all publicity is career enhancement, just spell their name right.

That is what our personality/celebrity-driven society has decayed into. Drug addiction, believe it or not, wasn't always considered an upside to one's career, and being sent to rehab wasn’t a great opportunity for a photo op or a reality show.

I miss the times when our celebrities were expected to at least give a nod toward integrity by faking it. Can you believe we actually lived in a time where celebrities who were having affairs hid it from the public so as not to ruin their careers?

That’s right, the public expected them to act with morals and if they didn’t, they didn’t get to flaunt it. They were outta work. Now, celebrities are running out of options when it comes to manufacturing illicit behavior in order to appear newsworthy.

They even make stuff up to garner press. Who would have believed there was untapped profit waiting for a celebrity just by becoming gay for a few months? It works; ask Anne Heche or Lindsey Lohan!

Even more inconceivable was that back in the day the press kept sins hidden so as not to make money off of others' indiscretions. Babe Ruth was a womanizing philanderer and nobody said a word. Can you imagine the mileage a newspaper or magazine would get today out of breaking the story about President John F.  Kennedy’s dalliances? The dude went hunting dames, and taxpayers subsidized it. No wonder Democrats still lionize him; virility passes for character in their relativistic world, and it’s the closest thing that has passed for testosterone by a liberal leader in decades.

But the real question is, what is more pathetic – that we used to hide our sins to create the illusion of moral mores, or the fact that not only do we now publish them, the public doesn’t even give a crap? The reason we as a culture used to hide our sins was to create an environment of cultural norms that as a society everyone expected to abide by.

People in the past were not less deviant than people today, but you had to pay a price for it. It was called shame. Shame actually worked as a societal deterrent by not necessarily instigating character, but by reminding each of us what was expected of us. Divorce used to be considered shameful and that alone could actually deter it. People were forced to count the cost of their marriage decision and it actually made them think twice before taking the easy way out and choosing not to honor their vows.

Sadly, political correctness instituted a no-shame policy when it came to sin so as not to make the sinner have to feel bad. Of course, feeling bad was the whole point. Relativism teaches that there are no bad decisions, just different ones. The only thing you're made to feel bad about now is if you make someone else feel bad.

Actually I can’t blame celebrities for behaving like children. Society has lionized them, and they in turn have made it clear they are “artists” and as such owe the children that look up to them … nothing.

Dang. I could have used this rationalization back when I was in elementary school and smarted off to teachers. Obviously their anger toward me was a clear case of antisocial-phobia, designed to stifle my creativity. I wasn’t disruptive or hyper or out of control; I was just practicing to become a celebrity.

Dubbed "God's comic" by The New Yorker magazine, comedian Brad Stine brings his irreverent, edgy, and politically incorrect message to both mainstream and church audiences across the nation. His fifth DVD, "The Best of Brad Stine," features the best material from his previous releases, "Put A Helmet On!," "Conservative Unleashed," "Tolerate This!" and "Wussification." Visit Brad online at www.BradStine.com.