Ironic Contradictions

It's been ages since I posted one of my thoughtful posts - those little reflections that I have about life, the universe and everything. Well not quite everything but you get my pop culture reference (am I still hip with the zeitgeist of the times?). Jokes aside I wanted to discuss an interesting phenomenon that more recently has captivated the world. The rise of the celebrity.

Earlier today I discovered (like many other people) that shockingly 100s of celebrities had found their privacy abused and nude images of them posted onto the Internet for everyone to see. I myself applaud everyone who has actively spoken out about how wrong it is to look at these images. Yet there are some people who seem to go 'it's on the Internet' or 'they have nothing to be ashamed about' or 'why did they have nudes anyway?' Well frankly none of us are those people and no matter how much of a celebrity they are it's none of our business. We might enjoy their songs, their movies, how beautiful they appear but guess what? We don't have a right to their privacy.

Sure, so many of these celebrities touch our lives personally. I was among the millions shocked and saddened by the death of Robin Williams. But I never owned access to his life, I don't own any access to his family - none of these celebrities owe me anything no matter what money I throw at them.

To me celebrities reveal one thing: the bigger issue. And this bigger issue is the concept of ownership. We have created a culture where we believe we're entitled to own things. Or own people. Slavery might not exist for the majority of the world but we seem to believe in a corporate slavery whereby our money gives us the right to do things.

Unfortunately Australia is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to online piracy and our telcos and the government are moving to shut this down by banning access to the internet to anyone who illegally downloads. Some of my friends argue that the government is ignoring the real issue - that we need better frameworks, faster internet, better access to products and so forth. Well guess what? Sure that might be true but it doesn't in my mind excuse you from piracy still. Something that's wrong is still wrong even if you might be able to legitimise it to yourself.

So here's my conclusion. Living in the blessed country that I do, I'm actually not owed anything by the world. I don't own the right to any movies, books, music or celebrities out there. Sure I can pay to buy or own access to such things and that's cool but that's where it all ends. So I say: stop making excuses for doing things that aren't right morally. And it's an argument to myself as much as to anyone, because I grow tired of those people, and myself, who just live in the Age of Entitlement when there are so many other people worse off. When not sure about whether to do something and you argue 'oh it's just me checking out that nude picture' think again about the celebrity, or rather the person, who is really being harmed. Then tell me: would you like to be in the same position? Reduced to an object for sale? I don't think so.