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Mehluli Nxumalo
I see a time in the not too distant future when it will be impossible to tell the politician from the entertainer. These two creatures will be lumped together under the description “celebrity”.
My definition of a celebrity is confined to actors, singers, sportspeople and various other prominent crazies. After a recent conversation with my teenage niece, however, I must include President Thabo Mbeki, Tony Leon and the 10 000 other politically inclined South Africans in my definition.
I would have placed Mbeki on another shelf altogether and called him, simply, “politician”. Today’s leaders, however, assume more “celebrity” status with each day. What does this spell for the future?
We are not surprised when our “celebs” of the actor-singer-Big Brother variety are involved in yet another scandal. We even demand that they be controversial. These celebrities are judged according to a different moral standard. Not for them the strict Victorian-era morality that is used to judge us mere mortals.
It is acceptable for Hugh Grant to hire a prostitute; we’ll still watch his movies. Liz Taylor can have as many husbands as she wants. Brenda Fassie can get drunk at every South African Music Association awards ceremony and behave like a spoiled thirtysomething. If her music is good, we’ll still love her. I prefer not to mention Mike Tyson’s eating habits or Michael Jackson.
We are prepared to forgive our celebrities for all the sins and trespasses in the world because they entertain us so well. If Jackson’s upcoming album Invincible is good I’ll probably buy it. So long as they keep on producing good music and good movies, our celebrities have a licence to misbehave.
Our leaders get no such tolerance. They must be scandal-free. The skeleton lurking in the proverbial cupboard – or perhaps in our modern time one should say police records – must not exist. Why, even Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.
For our leaders we raise the standards by which we judge people. It does not matter that the average American does not know the king of Swaziland from his aunt. If George W Bush wants to be the United States president, he must know this vital piece of information. If he smoked dagga in 1976 he is unworthy.
Our leaders must have no shady financial dealings, no sexual scandals; they must be as clean as the tablecloth I saw on television the other day. It had been washed with the latest, most advanced washing powder with super this and that miracle additive. You get the picture.
What I am trying to achieve here is not a defence of either our leaders or our “celebrities”. It is also not an attack on them.
The lowering of our standards for the sake of our entertainers is a fact. Also a fact is the imposition of higher standards for our leaders. I do not condemn nor do I praise this shifting of the goalposts. I merely record the fact of their existence.
Let the record also show that our leaders are coming to be regarded in the same light as the entertainers. One has only has to look to the US to see this illustrated.
Bill Clinton was forgiven for his financial shenanigans. Never mind the fact that some poor ou committed suicide over the “Whitewater affair”. Clinton is also forgiven for his sexual affair with an employee while in office. Worse still, he lies to his people about this and gets away with it.
This is what happens when the politician and the leader are mistaken for the celebrity. We evaluate them by the low standards that exist for the celebrity. They become the celebrity.
Judging by my niece’s views on the subject, South Africa is not too far behind the rest of the “modern” world.
Every night when I go to bed, I pray that our celebrities do not become our leaders. Jesse Ventura, a professional wrestler, no less, made it into the office of governor of Minnesota. Still the nightmare comes: “I, Marc Lottering, do hereby swear to uphold the Office of the President of the Republic of South Africa.”