Daniel from Improve Press
It feels not possible to speak about this incident with out additionally discussing our tradition of celeb worship. Each time one thing like this occurs, you see individuals dogpile on the offending celeb with a gleeful ethical righteousness, “OMG WiLl, I uSeD tO hAvE sO mUcH ReSpEcT fOr YoUU.”
Actually? The man who pretends to explode aliens for a dwelling?
I suppose I’ve by no means understood celeb idolization. Hell, I anticipate these individuals to fuck up and disappoint us. In spite of everything, they’re beneath 100x extra scrutiny and stress than any of us will ever be and plenty of of them come from troublesome backgrounds and wrestle with psychological well being points.
For years, one of many traps I’ve identified in my relationship recommendation is idealizing one other individual—to imagine that since you love them, they need to not have any issues in any respect. In relationships, there’s a reputation for this: codependency. Codependency just about at all times results in dysfunctional relationships and heartbreak.
But, individuals do that with the celebrities they love on a regular basis. For some purpose, we determine that simply because a man can shoot a basketball effectively, we anticipate him to be an awesome businessman, an awesome father, an awesome husband, an awesome neighborhood chief, to have knowledgeable and nuanced political beliefs (that additionally match our personal), to have upstanding ethics and little-to-no emotional dysfunction. Oh, and he has to do all this whereas by no means complaining.
But, it’s these similar codependent sorts that spend their lives idolizing strangers on screens who then develop into shocked—#ABSOLUTELYSHOCKED!!!—that so-and-so-with-the-basketball seems to be… effectively, human.
It jogs my memory of an interview with the rapper Lil’ Wayne that I noticed years in the past. The interviewer saved obnoxiously mentioning the truth that Wayne had just lately been arrested for drug possession, anticipating Lil’ Wayne to indicate some type of regret or remorse about it. But, he didn’t. Flummoxed, the interviewer lastly requested him, “However what do you say to the entire younger individuals on the market who look as much as you, who look to you to know how you can dwell their very own lives?”
Wayne responded with one thing like, “Man, if you happen to want a rapper to inform you how you can dwell, then possibly you ain’t actually livin’ in any respect.”
The identical approach you possibly can’t have a wholesome loving relationship with out accepting and even appreciating an individual’s flaws, I’d argue you possibly can’t actually be a “fan” of somebody except you’re additionally keen to simply accept and acknowledge that individual’s shortcomings.
So, the place does this depart us with Will? Are you able to settle for and tolerate his shortcomings? As disillusioned as I’m with what he did, I can. However I’ve additionally seen his unbelievable generosity up entrance and shut. I’ve studied the many years’ price of fantastic issues he has executed for the individuals in his life, his neighborhood and his trade. I’ve been round him sufficient to know that his coronary heart is in the precise place and he’s embarrassed by what he did.
In our Twitter-driven world, I imagine we’re over-optimized for ethical judgment and under-optimized for forgiveness. Ethical judgment comes simple and is rewarded with retweets and clicks. Forgiveness is troublesome and doesn’t go viral.
