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All hail Oprah

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by dmambo 1 view

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060511/en_usatoday/thedivinemisswinfrey

Now, exactly what the hell is wrong with our society that we are deifying talk-show hosts??? Here are some quotes:

"'She's a moral monitor, using herself as the template against which she measures the decency of a nation,' Lofton says." (She is just soooo great)

"'I am not God,' Oprah said in a 1989 story by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison that ran in The New York Times Magazine titled The Importance of Being Oprah." (Humility - the first sign of godliness)

"Marcia Nelson says that it's not going too far to call her a spiritual leader. 'I've said to a number of people - she's today's Billy Graham.'" (How much closer to God can you get than THAT?)

"Schlussel says Winfrey followers 'are incredibly gullible, bandwagon-jumping trend-slaves.'" (Much like many adherents to modern religion)

"It has to do with this deep American faith and yearning to be reborn. To start again." (How evangelical!!!)

Well, at least sleepin' dawg has some competition - :^0
" 'A self-righteous attack dog,' wrote arts and culture critic Steven Winn in the San Francisco Chronicle."

The way I see it, all you atheistic heathens out there no longer have any reason to deny the existence of God. Just turn on your TV.

Better get one of the wide angle sets. :^0

Frankly, I'm a follower of that great spiritual leader Maury Povich.

6 replies

by onbliss

I heard my local radio show host saying "Thank Orpah It's Friday". I did not get it in the first few seconds. Then I found it way too funny.

by dawgit

and sad, It's no wonder Americans has lost credibility in the world. Sad, very sad. (not you, just the fact that some people do actually think that way, as you pointed out)

by jardinier

I don't see this as any big deal at all. If anything, I think it is very positive.

For decades now, people of all ages, but especially youth, have idolised and followed trends set by pop stars, movie stars, and sports stars.

I have felt very strongly about this for some time. Just as Jesus died vicariously for the "sins of mankind," so people -- and especially young people -- have lived vicariously through their entertainment and sporting heroes/heroines.

The perverseness of this is that -- as I see it -- those people are idolised because they have achieved fame and fortune WITHOUT contributing anything productive to society.

They fulfil people's need to escape from the mundaneness of everyday life, by ENTERTAINING people.

Do people look up to and worship entrepreneurs who actually contribute substantially to society? Not on your life. They are scorned as selfish and manipulative. Do people look up to and worship politicians who have accepted the responsibility of managing society? No way. They are supposedly all self-seeking and dishonest.

This is the religion of the 20th and 21st centuries ? worshipping the entertaining non-contributors. For those who believe that religion is a crutch for the weak of mind, what say you about the religion of entertainment idol worship?

Oprah does far more than entertain. She instructs, leads and most important of all encourages people to face the less pleasant things of life.

We are living in an age when many people believe that the return of Christ in imminent.

I think Oprah is doing a fine job as stand-in until such time as Christ may or may not return.

I say: "Good for you Oprah," and if she has achieved material wealth along the way, then surely she is an embodiment of the American Dream.

I consider she has much more integrity, and credibility, than the mega televangelists who preach the "prosperity gospel" -- which is pretty much the antithesis of the actual teaching of Christ.

by dmambo

I'm a sports fan. I admire a lot of athletes for their performances, the way they carry themselves, the example of hard work and dedication they set. But there are cases where people, IMHO, carry this way too far.

I overheard a lady in the coffee room tell a co-worker that she cried when someone was voted off American Idol a couple of weeks ago. How much emotional investment does someone put into a show about lounge singers to cry over it. NB: I've never seen the show, so I'm somewhat whistling in the wind here)

Maybe it's because we are so far up Maslow's hierarchy of needs (if you believe that simplistic model). Our bellies are full, our homes are secure, blah, blah. We realize ourselves through people on the other side of the screen.

Oprah gets into people's lives every day. And I have to thnk that because her show is on during the day for the most part, it's people whose lives have a sizable chunk of free space. But how do you explain that apparently her followers would rather let her do the thinking for them - to tell them what to read, who to love, who to dislike? It seems to me a total abdication of the free will that we've been endowed with. It's much more than choosing a beer based on a celebrity endorsement.

by jardinier

I don't give two hoots about Oprah Winfrey, and I don't wish to demean any person who has attained excellence in their field of endeavour.

I am just taking this opportunity to let off steam about something I have felt very strongly about for many years.

I believe Australia is quite different from America in that it is only a nominally Christian country. I would be surprised if even 10 per cent of Australians attend church regularly.

And so over the years I have developed this hypothesis of the sporting, pop and movie stars fulfilling the role that was formerly the domain of Jesus the Christ.

In your own words:

[i]We realize ourselves through people on the other side of the screen.[/i]

Thanks first to TV, and now computers and the Internet, young people especially have learned to live vicariously through the exploits of others.

As for American Idol, I have watched it occasionally and it does feature young performers of outstanding talent. So your example of the woman in the coffee shop is probably not a very good one, as this is a quality show in which it would be easy to become emotionally involved.

While I concede your point that Oprah screens mostly in the daytime, do not overlook that fact that in today's society many people work shift work, and so a good cross section of the population would have the opportunity to watch the show.

There is a discussion running concurrently with this one about children being overweight. Many of the reasons given in that discussion are related to this one.

Through the visual media, we have to a greater or lesser extent become a society of spectators rather than participants.

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