Do you remember the singer Sophie B. Hawkins? She had a couple of hits in the ’90’s … but I can’t remember for the life of me what they were.
She wasn’t very good at her peak but the poor thing must be really crap now given she won a court case against a guy selling promotional copies [via eBay] of her soon-to-be-released album and only got awarded US$346!!!
Three Hundred and Forty Six Bucks … that wouldn’t even cover the cost of a stereo to play the rubbish on!!!
Poor thing, talk about a reality check on the state of your career, the judge might as well of said, “Sophie, you’re a nobody, go and die under a rock!!!”
This got me thinking … when do you give up on a dream?
When do you realise or accept ‘it’s not going to happen‘?
Having religiously watched the wonderfully awful ‘American Idol’, I am continually amazed by the arrogance of some of the entrants … so many are absolutely crap and yet believe they are amazing … what drives this?
What do they call upon to keep their dream alive? What are they chasing … the fame, the money, the desire to fulfill their dream?
What is obvious is that fame used to be the end product of doing something worthy or great, and now, for many people, it is the actual goal … hence the incredible growth of reality TV shows like BIG BROTHER, which may be many things but certainly not ‘reality’!
Is ‘normal life’ so bad these days? Why do we crave a life ‘style’ rather than a life? Why aren’t we happy with our ‘lot’ in life? What has changed this and do you think it is going to get better or worse?
I recently watched a documentary on the UK / US schooling system and was reminded how much pressure is put on young kids to ‘achieve’ – especially the ones who are academically brighter than the average.
What really grabbed me was how they were being sold this dream that education equated to job and life satisfaction – which is sadly not always true.
Then this got me thinking about the drug consumption explosion … and if you remove things like distribution, price decline and ‘social status’ … I can’t help but feel many of the people who embrace it are the ones who were sold a ‘better life’ [by teachers etc] before growing up and finding they’re actually living a painfully average life – thus drugs help them hide/escape/forget the situation they find themselves in.
Of course I could be totally wrong … and there’s a damn site more reasons than just this … but as much as underselling life and opportunities to the young is wrong, so is overselling it – though what the ‘line’ is between the two, I don’t know.
If there are any parents who read this blog, I’d love to hear your comments … especially if you think the Government / Education system is inadvertently pushing people to drugs?