Charlie Sheen: Talent Displaced By Bad Behavior

America is watching someone self-destruct before their eyes---and we’re eating it up.

While everyone is asking “What is WRONG with Charlie Sheen?”, I’m asking a different question:

“What is wrong with US?”

Really…..just how exactly are we extracting our ENTERTAINMENT from Charlie Sheen? As reminded to me in a Facebook post, there were several young and courageous American soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan last week. Were they honored, showcased—or even mentioned?

No.

Charlie Sheen’s antics sucked up all the air in the room.

A self-absorbed, hedonistic drug addict who believes the $2 Million he receives for every EPISODE of “Two and A Half Men” (that’s 22 minutes of performance time, folks) is somehow NOT ENOUGH. This complaint is being broadcast into the homes of millions of unemployed Americans who are struggling to keep their homes and feed their families.

And yet, we’re not turning it off, are we?

Charlie Sheen is just the latest in a never-ending stream of performers who are capturing the headlines for things having nothing to do with talent. It’s BAD BEHAVIOR that causes us to react, to fire up our search engines and keeps us glued to the TV.

Sheen is talented, to be sure, but his huge and exploding Facebook page and Twitter account has nothing to do with anything but his wild and selfish lifestyle, his “goddesses”, etc., etc.

“Winning”?

No, it’s not---and it’s a horrible example to our young people, who more and more are exposed to people who have serious addictions, character flaws or both—and somehow those "qualities" are glorified.

Before Charlie, we had (and still have) Lindsay Lohan. Can anyone name a movie she has appeared in since “The Parent Trap” when she was a kid? No, it’s her “partying”, her wild antics, her shoplifting that has news trucks parked outside of courthouses in L.A. Ditto for Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Mel Gibson and a seeming endless parade of “stars” whose personal lives garner more attention than their supposed “talent”.

Reality shows have added to the chaos, where “real people” like the stars of “The Jersey Shore” rocket to fame on……..what is it, exactly?

We watch shows on hoarding to laugh at pathetic people with serious problems who are too stupid to realize their misery is being exploited for our…..entertainment.

Maybe our lives don’t appear to be so desperate when we see others in far worse shape than we. This comforts us. Their excesses, their neuroses and their bad behavior have trumped real talent. Christina Aguilera is a talented singer, but we have delighted in the lousy 2011 she’s had so far. From her divorce late last year to forgetting the words of the National Anthem at the Super Bowl to tripping and falling at the Grammys to her arrest a week or so ago for public intoxication. All of this has put Christina in the celebrity blogs far more extensively than if she had, say, recorded a great CD.

Why bother?

When most of today’s pop music icons are known more for their criminal records than their musical records, we are heading towards a world where there needs to be little output from a creative standpoint.

Just enough to get name recognition-----then they’re free to go out and start making mayhem. The media will do the rest and we will consume it hungrily.

Without a market, this stuff cannot exist. I propose that we collectively RESIST the urge to follow the wanton misbehavior of idiots and instead derive our entertainment from sources that uplift and inspire us.

It won’t be easy. It’s tough to NOT stare when you drive past a car wreck, but the drivel will continue (and increase) until we tell them to stop.

Enough, already!If you’d like my blog in your box, just let me know: tim.moore@citcomm.com