Charlie Rose

REMant  01/12/2010 04:43 PM Report

I'll have to watch this to make up my mind, but the phenomenon seems like Susan Boyle, the kids in the Mumbai slums, or The Cosby Show. The question to me is whether white ppl like it because it makes them feel less bad about themselves, i.e., for purely sentimental reasons, or because they really care about the situation. Was this film supposed to be an Horatio Alger story, an exercise in political correctness, or something more meaningful?

Just after the Mumbai film a year ago, the govt bulldozed the slum, making no accommodation for the ppl, as I understand it. And while I don't disagree with his expressed views, Cosby, it seems, has almost reveled in his role as a token black, and AFAIK done very little aside from appearing in the pulpit, etc, and collecting honorary degrees as a commencement speaker. He's about as much a role model as a basketball or football player. And the theme of The Cosby Show was not his idea either. Susan Boyle seems genuine enough, but it remains to be seen how she will turn out, and while the applause is deserved, it is undoubtedly far more than merited, esp given the very large number of similar acts.

It seems ppl are more interested in tales of redemption than they are in stories of hard work. Even now while sportswriters may still recognize Tiger Wood's prowess as a golfer, his sponsors know his career as a matinee idol is over. But if he confesses on Oprah, he may rise again.

Many Europeans, I'm afraid, have a sort of smug, hypocritical interest in American stuff like this despite the fact that they are rapidly developing the same kind of problems, and are quite familiar with Africa. This started a very long time ago, when European philosophers split on whether we were noble savages over here (the liberals), or miscreants (the proto-Nazis). The answer, of course, is that we are neither.