The Secret Teachings 10/11/17 – Seven Years Later & Celebrity is still Religion (LIVE Wednesday)

Religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power. It is also, by definition and symbol, the worship or veneration for the powerful. We find these men and women in politics, media and entertainment. Some are more well-known than others; they are celebrities, famous people. Some use their wealth and influence to market products they know nothing about and others to take advantage of the weak and vulnerable. Hollywood is ripe today as ever with abuses of power and celebrity and the casting-couch is not some new revelation. Those forced to perform a sex act on a producer, director, etc., may be terrified to say no, but career or not, they become responsible for their actions. Many may have easily given in and only later regretted their actions and thus call for charges of sexual misconduct. Some groups have even called for women to claim rape if they regret having consensual sex with a man. The disgust over offering a movie role for sexual favor or massage, as in the case of the producer Harvey Weinstein seems a bit delayed. Reactions seem slightly misplaced, and only slightly justified. Of course it is “wrong” by most standards to extort sex or related activities from anyone by promise of money or career boosting, and make no mistake women are also guilty of luring men into these confines. Arguments against the latter of course are made by remarks, “its rare if not non-existent for a woman to extort a man,” although I’m sure someone can find a case of this. The female teachers having sex with students are usually held in disgust but nothing to the level of male teachers, who become predators. One woman or thousand men, a thousand women and one man, extorting the opposite sex for sexual favor is not indictment of the entire sex!

While the exploitation and abuse of children in Hollywood, amongst other places, has gotten only minimal exposure, known as an open secret, it appears groping women is somehow more inapropriate than molesting spring actors and actresses often thrust into fame by parents and left with “trustworthy” and successful Hollywood fat cats. Either Weinstein was also abusing kids, and he is accused of raping multiple women, or this story is fresh blood and opportunity to sharks looking to acquire social justice against men for their advances on women. Yet the abuse of children in the same industry seems to remain uninteresting.

Likewise in the cases of mass-shootings, all attention is focused on horrific acts of violence resulting in the death of a few dozen people. Instead, on ay given day thousands die of heart disease and there are no reports on mainstream media or nighttime vigils for the dead. All hatred and anger is directed towards a mass shooter who usually ends up dead, a justice deserved. Few stop and think about daily mass deaths due to car fatalist or degenerative disease and why it seems to generate minimal concern. Perhaps the reason is that in the case of preventable disease responsibility relies on the individual. It can’t be placed on a evil shooter. Foreign policy of countries equally places ill-blame on “enemies” who usually oppose that States’ imperial advances.

Lacking any sense of worth or responsibility, and neglecting empowerment we tend to make heroes out of villains and villains from heres. Therefore celebrities that arguably are wealthy because of reasons that do not relate to their contributions to society for the better, a wealth that signifies success, and thus power and influence. This elevates celebrities to superhuman entities able to act in any deplorable way and to have their actions only questioned if political motivations become apparent. As is the case with many criticizing President Trump for comments made years ago about women throwing themselves at successful and powerful men, an occurrence that happens just as often as the question of Weinstein, who has invariably been given a pass for raping, groping or extorting women for favors.