Are we just mindless pawns?

I got the urge to post this after watching countless repetitions of the same brand of commercials on television. These commercials promote the upcoming range of reality-based competitions which include singing, hosting, acting etc. The screen will then show hordes of people queuing up in 'god knows which shopping mall or empty area' for registration, feature on one or two excited faces, interview one or two potential starlets and end off with a similar slogan of "You could be the next blah blah blah!"

I mean, "What's the big fuss about all that?"

You see, right here in Singapore, we have a situation. A situation that looks win-win on the surface but may not actually be so. Admit the fact: we have too many wannabes. Yes, you read me right. Wannabes.

According to the online dictionary provided by http://www.dictionary.com/ (I am far too lazy to refer to a real academic version), a wannabe is someone who aspires to a role or position, which in this case, a "star" or celebrity. A wannabe is someone who dreams big and goes for the kill when chances arise. I am not discouraging anyone from taking part in this kind of competition, but my advice would be to check yourself before actually going for the queue (kill). Basically, you ought to be able to perform adequately well if going for such nationwide competitions. You've got to pass your own standard, and if your standard sucks, you've got to pass the standards of your friends at least. If not, you will just end up been mocked. The problem is that some people do not mind been mocked at. It's probably true that you can make some money by playing stupid in front of the camera and singing awful-till-my-ears-bleed songs in your CDs. (I do not wish to mention examples ok?)

But why? I simply don't get it when people sign up for such decent contests and end up performing non-relevant dumb-looking antics for the judges to laugh at. Do they really want to be remembered by the audience for their stupid actions and retarded expressions? Or are they simply proving the point that only the best and the worst are remembered in any battle? If the latter is true, then they must been thinking, "I can't be the best definitely, so I have to be the worst to be remembered by people." It sounds illogical to me that human beings behave in this way. And then my title kicks in. Look at it again.

Are we just mindless pawns?

Are human beings so caught up in their pursuit of fame (and the fortune that presumably follows) that they are willing to sacrifice their dignity and pride? Well, that certainly proved to be true for the examples mentioned above.

Is fame worth all the sacrifice then? A celebrity most probably enjoys certain benefits (other than the increase in income), but are the benefits really worth the bloody and dangerous climb up? Maybe some celebrity should really clarify what it's like been a "superstar". Let all know that life is not a bed of roses even if you are a well-known celebrity. Even King Mido of Greek mythology regretted having the power of turning everything he touched to gold.

Pawns are people who are being manipulated by some higher being or organization. The winners of such competitions are not "free" to produce their own CDs, but are instead bound immediately to contracts, recording studios and TV stations. This is another sacrifice that comes inevitably with fame: the loss of personal freedom, the feeling of being a pawn. As I watched TV stations promote their upcoming new starlets and "superstars", I got the feeling that they are just using them as "cash cows", trying to "milk" them for as much money as they could while they are still considered "famous". These tailor-made celebrities supplied the society with its dosage of non-ceasing idols, who probably cannot last more than a few weeks or months. Then the cycle repeats itself: a new "star" is born for the worship for all, the organization earns, the "star" gains newfound fame and stardom for a period of time and in the end, everybody is happy. The voracious appetite of this modern society for pop culture is satisfied. But is there something wrong along the line?

I could only gaze at the stars, not with longing.

But what is freedom?

I've spent a large part of my life enslaved to one thing or another, so I should know the meaning of the word. Ever since I was a child, I have fought to make my freedom my most precious commodity. I fought with my parents, who wanted me to be an engineer, not a writer. I fought with the other boys in school, who immediately homed in on me as the butt of their cruel jokes, and only after much blood had flowed from my nose and from theirs, only after many afternoons when I had to hide my scars from my mother did I manage to show them that I could take a thrashing without bursting into tears. I fought to get a job to support myself, and went to work as a delivery man for a hardware store, so as to be free from that old line in family blackmail: 'We'll give you money, but you'll have to do this, this and this.'

While I was fighting, I heard other people speaking in the name of freedom, and the more they defended this unique right, the more enslaved they seemed to be to their parents' wishes, to a marriage in which they had promised to stay with the other person 'for the rest of their lives', to the bathroom scales, to their diet, to half-finished projects, to lovers whom they are incapable of saying 'No' or 'It's over', to weekends when they were obliged to have lunch with people they didn't even like. Slaves to luxury, to the appearance of luxury, to the appearance of the appearance of luxury. Slaves to a life they had not chosen, but which they had decided to live because someone had managed to convince them that it was all for the best. And so their identical days and nights passed, days and nights in which adventure was just a word in a book or an image on the television that was always on, and whenever a door opened, they would say: "I'm not interested. I'm not in the mood."

How could they possibly know if they were in the mood or not if they had never tried? But there was no point in asking; the truth was they were afraid of any change that would upset the world they had grown used to.

(Adapted from "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, something which I am on currently.)

I tasted the dark. And I liked it.

Mr Black is a current undergraduate who resides in Singapore. This blog is a non-whimsical reflection of his life and the society in which he lives in at large.

- Confidental -

Music, Love and Freedom

May the One who Reins the World keep his fingers out of the bowels and holes. Okay, World Peace.

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