DOMA and Prop 8. Both History.

[kandrathe]

I get the impression eppie is using the word "respect" with more intensity. The idea that someone has to earn your respect by doing something that you appreciate is the sense of the word I'm getting from "someone who makes millions by singing crappy songs does not earn my respect." Notice the use of crappy, which indicates that the stronger sense of the word. That's not just saying "It must show craftsmanship" but "It must be something that doesn't suck."

That's the argument I feel like I've been watching.

I agree. When I said, "I can respect the work of Justin Bieber." I was reflecting on the difficulties and challenges he faces. There are many artists in many mediums I like and don't like, but I always reflect on the difficulty of the craft. He seems to genuinely be trying to be good at what he does, rather than taking it all for granted. And, he seems to be doing something constructive with his social position.

But I'm not denying that he may be acting like a adolescent sometimes, because he is pretty much still an adolescent. As he matures, we'd expect his behavior to be that of a more mature adult.

And, in facing temptation, give any one of us millions of dollars, fame, and an adoring devoted following of tweens and see what we'd do with it. Given the temptations he's facing, he's doing better than I would of had I been him. In fact, I was worse than him without all those trappings of wealth and fame.

We can debate the merits and difficulties of various art forms, such as photography, versus sculpting in stone, but I would challenge each of us to consider just how very difficult it is to even go sing well the national anthem at a local sports event in front of hundreds of critical onlookers. Now, imagine doing it as a young person who probably still cares what their peers think and tweet.

Then again, all this extraneous life style analysis is still irrelevant to his work as an artist.

I can't sing like he does, and I can't play any instrument very well. I can respect people who do, because I've dabbled in learning instruments, and I sing all the time -- and I know I'm an amateur. I also know that my innate talents lay elsewhere.

Let's tie it back to gay marriage.

This experiment by the Washington post demonstrates how peoples "prejudices" constrain their behavior. In this case, a world famous virtuoso violinist "panhandling" on the street -- getting ignored by people who in other circumstances would wait in line, and pay hundreds of dollars to sit in a packed concert hall with bad seats.

Sometimes we get comfortable with things the way they are. That is, we are jaded by the music industry who snatches up random performers based on marketing potential rather than on talent or merit. In some ways, JB was made bigger by Scooter Braun, but JB had established himself as a pop prodigy through Youtube first, and he learned to play instruments before he was made into a superstar. I think what eppie has prejudicially assumed is that ALL pop superstars are tainted by the institution (music industry) that so frequently creates them.

What reasons do most people have against legalizing same sex unions? It's mostly tradition -- and to a lesser extent religious dogma. Any objections I have about restrictions on marriage are all about the State, and not about the seemingly obvious civil equality of same sex unions. If marriage is a spiritual compact, then the State should have nothing to do with it and it would utterly depend on your churches stance. If marriage is a social contract for convenience, then why would we limit it -- and, then also, why does the State have any say at all in your free legal associations? The State (the powerful institution) should have really no say in my who or how many people we are (legally) sexually attracted to, nor how we might wish to cohabit, or relate to that one, or myriads of people.

And, to tie it back to JB, any objections I have about him relate to how his career is propelled and marketed by the powerful institution (music industry). And, also, I'm just not an aficionado of pop idols.

Really then, what we might want to do is set aside our prejudices, and see things for what they truly are, in respecting the aspirations and talents of people we know (or hear, or who's work we experience in our lives), and not be jaded by those powerful forces who try to tell us what to do, or what to buy, or what to like, and where.