I have noticed that a lot of people are being really hard on stars and cultural figures of late, and while I agree that we should always want the best out of our public figures, we should remember that in the end they are just people.
The media and the internet blew up over the Miley Cyrus twerking incident. Book lovers seem to love to hate Orson Scott Card for his stance on gay marriage, and geeks everywhere are jumping all over Penny-Arcade’s no doubt poor response to a controversial comic they produced, but here is the problem. They are all people. If you expect to put a person under a microscope and find perfection, you will sadly be disappointed, and the longer you keep them under the microscope the worse it gets.
We love to do this. We exalt some person, but as soon as they make a wrong move, do we act with forgiveness? Nope we get out the pitch forks and light the bonfires. It happened to Amy Grant when she got her divorce, or Britney Spears when she had her melt down. Heck, we are still doing it to Lindsay Lohan. But the problem is that they are not the problem. We are.
I am good guy from all accounts, but if I had to deal with the scrutiny of all these people it would be exhausting, and I would let you down because like the people above, I am a human being. Human beings are never perfect, ever. If we call out every slip up, and then pile them on. There is no escape until we have destroyed yet another hero.
I know a rant on the internet on a blog that few people read will not make a difference, but maybe we should let up and let people be people, and forgive them for their ills. They just might surprise you and turn out better than we expected.
