I think people, as in nations, get the culture they deserve. I wonder about the mechanisms that propel certain people into the spotlight. How is it we get so many borderline sociopaths achieving positions of influence and sway in this country? I wonder what it is, exactly, about the American character that gives us this phenomenon of seeing perfect assholes become figures of national recognition.
The sad fact here is that - in real terms - it's the "people" who determine what is popular and topical and who is allowed a position of national recognition and who isn't. Us. We decide who is worthy of watching or not. This very article contributes to it because of the very topic itself. But - looking at the particular components that make up the pantheon of our cultural symbols - what does it say about us that there are so many... er... unfortunate people in prominence in our culture?
Michael Moore, for example, brought the intellectual rigor of UFOlogists and crop circle enthusiasts to the issues of health care and 9/11 and gets on talk shows and is interviewed and quoted and can make a living quite comfortably being a specious pedant with the personality of a bothered skunk. I sometimes look at Michael and see a dozen guys I used to work with in shops and factories and offices during my working life; not in an ode to the dignity of the "common man" way, but in a "you need to take a shower and why are you such a consistent jerk everyday I come in here" kind of way. If he hadn't had a fortunate series of breaks come his way in life he would probably be a guy who works at Toys-R-Us and thinks that room full of garbage he has collected over the years, sitting in the back room and stinking up the neighborhood will someday be worth millions. you just wait!
Druggies who rail against drug use. People who are all for sending other people's kids to fight dozens of wars all over the world to project the power of the country they love so much even if they, themselves, actually dodged the draft. Closet queens who bemoan the upsurge of gay rights in our country. Atheists who stand up for "Christian values". Christians who pick and choose what needs to be taken literally from the Bible and conveniently forget about the rest. Prickly, combative, intransigent, and self-realized demagogues like Rush Limbaugh seem to be a dime a dozen nowadays, and no one can seem to recall how the venom all got started. But the way it is - led by these kinds of folks - if you don't get up in someone's face immediately upon engaging in a debate THE AUDIENCE ITSELF (us) will consider you weak and pointless. We've come to the point where people who would support the idea of civility in the national conversation have to verbally cut the balls off anyone who disagrees with them first just in order to get heard. Talk about an endless cycle feeding on itself. The question we need to ask, though, is - is this the influence of these figures or are they our creation, held up in their positions by our patronage and maintained by our demand in the marketplace. All we'd have to do is turn it off - flick the switch - hit the button - and the power we've bestowed on them will be taken out.
Not to mention the overpowering double standard that exists in the culture when it comes to who can say what to whom. This guy (Jeremiah Wright), for example is still in his pulpit strictly because he is black. Were he white, and railed against Jews and blacks instead of Jews and whites - using Wright's own words but changing the particulars - we all know he would have been forced to step down by now. Were he white he would be getting drummed out of his denomination. Were he white there would be plenty of black leaders bringing his crimes to the attention of the media. Were he white he would be challenged on the facts of his positions. But because he is black he can say that Jews control the White House and white people are the Devil with complete impunity.
Furthermore hardly anyone wants to be caught saying "if he was white he'd be gone" or "because he's black he still has his job". No one wants to say it because saying that just is NOT OK. Black people have had it rough and black people can't be racists and yadda yadda yadda. So, instead, he stays in prominence in the general culture, largely unchallenged and even looked-up-to by folks who are afraid to even criticize somebody "of color." Once again a despicable creature from some lagoon filled with bigotry and hatred and rotten to the core of his being like Jeremiah Wright is right up there on the national stage. And we're the ones who keep him there. I'm doing it even by mentioning the fact that he's a spiteful, uneducated piece of crap who needs to slither back into the shit hole he was born from.
And the latest phenomenon is the "celebrity" who thinks that by admitting he's an asshole somehow absolves him from being one. This is the most dangerous trait yet. Just step up to the mic, tell everyone you know you're a fapping little prick, then sit back and have everybody say "well... you know... he admits it" and this somehow makes you a lovable fapping little prick.
Watch out for that curve ball. That's the next star we pin to the heavens. Stress the "we".
The Fars News Agency, Iran's captive "news" outlet has quoted President Ahmadinejad's response to President Obama saying he was "appalled and outraged" by the crackdown of Iranian protesters. 
