As Paris Hilton gets ready for her short stay in jail, she increasingly is photographed carrying Jesus books. And today, she appears on my favorite blog wearing a "Faith" hoodie, and carrying Count Your Blessings, Spiritual Warrior, and some others.
Her behavior recalls Machiavelli's advice:
...a prince ought to take care that he never lets anything slip from his lips that is not replete with the...five qualities, that he may appear to him who sees and hears him altogether merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and religious. There is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this last quality, inasmuch as men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch with you. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them; and in the actions of all men, and especially of princes, which it is not prudent to challenge, one judges by the result.
Oh when will we outgrow this infantilism? It's scary that this pro forma "got religion" act, so frequently performed in this country, actually sways people.
- Log in to post comments
Yeah, if you look at the petition to (shudder) Governor Schwarzenegger, you can see how pious she is. So pious she never sinned in the first place, well a little, but not a real sin. I mean, not one that you'd want to punish.
She's not fooling anyone; we all know she can't read.
HJ
I couldn't agree more with your sense of consternation, Chris.
Way back when Dave Garroway came flickering black and white into my folk's living room I had a problem with Dirwood Kirby. He seemed to be on TV simply because Garroway was. Lacking the obvious endearing qualities of Jingles, say, or Festus or even Igor, he just wan't a sidekick. He was just the occasional foil and the guy who made a funny face at the camera whenever Garroway made a comment worthy of a rim-shot. That is, Kirby got a reputation and face time and celebrity not by being creative or clever or imaginative but by simple standing by and knowing when to pick up his cues.
This approach seems to be increasingly obvious not only in the notorious arena of unearned credit called "celebrity," but in that increasingly ignored arena of allegedly earned responsibility known as "leadership."
There is a deep need for us to mention this by calling or writing or posting to our elected "representatives." They really need to know. Letters to Op-Ed pages are useful too. That is, Comment Beyond the Blog.
True or not? Putin wore a crucifix to help Bush see his soul? I don't know.
Nah, Putin's soul is just so putrid and corrupt that it's hard to miss. It's actually toxic waste, and that's why Bush thought it was good.