Christopher BJ Smith wrote:
> At 6:55 AM -0400 7/04/02, David H. Bailey wrote:
>
[snip]
> Hm, kind of like (again with the similes!) the ruling that once a person
> has entered into public life (either as a politician, a performer, an
> actor, or an author of cake recipes) then they have forfeited the normal
> privacy that other citizens take for granted. Reporters can hound them
> in the grocery store, photographers can take pictures of them through
> their living room windows, and columnists can make conjectures about
> their sex lives and criticise their choices in everything from sofa
> colour to their opinions about sports teams. Kind of scares me. What if
> one of my works gets well-known? Does that mean that my life as I have
> known it is over?
>
Having one work get well known does not spell the end of life as you
know it. Being greedy about it DOES.
Yes, I feel that since politicians, entertainers, movie stars, pro
athletes take so much of our money and (in the case of politicians
especially) demand so much power over us, they do forfeit their rights
to normal private lives.
I hate to be preached to about morality by the likes of Jimmy Swaggart
or Bill Clinton only to find out that they are immoral scum doing the
very things they would tell us are bad for the world. I hate to be told
how much wonderful work the players of the NFL do through their United
Way charities and Boys and Girls Clubs, as if I should be able to donate
a few weeks of my time (I don't get an off-season!) to improving the
lives of those less fortunate than my $20,000,000 salary makes me (don't
I wish!).
And anybody who really thinks they deserve a few million dollars for a
few weeks of work and that is a fair deal is totally wrong. When
somebody starts making that kind of money, they are "on the job" 24-7
whether they like it or not. Corporate executive, novelist, anybody.
Show me a movie star or a politician or athlete or musician who is
willing to work for the same average hourly wage as the rest of the
country works for (and doesn't have a say in it, can't automatically
grant themselves $5000/year raises like Congress does all the time, and
unfortunately hasn't got a face or a voicethat can command any salary
they want) and I will be the first to grant that those people have a
right to all the privacy I demand for myself and that I grant to others
around me.
But greed brings its own heavy baggage.
<end of rant>
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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