With the recent debauchery of Britney Spears performance at the MTV VMA award show and all of the front page news celebrities and their troubles are making on a daily basis, I've begun to wonder if we as the public (aided by the media) are really playing some strange sort of karmic game of dominoes with celebrities. We love to set them all up, look at them and then with a flick of our finger we love to listen to the clacking of the tumbling dominoes until ashes, ashes, they all fall down. Do we end up hurting ourselves by taking such fun and pride in the downfall of celebrities? Is there some sort of human kindness we should be showing instead? And are we inviting similar or worse tragedies into our own lives by being a bunch of "stupid gay bitchy" queens? (See comments from previous blog below) What is it about us that loves to see celebrities rise and then relish in their fall? Celebrities: Do we really build them up just to knock them down? - Don't Get Me Started!

My recent post about Britney's performance at the VMAs received the following comment...

http://hubpages.com/hub/Britneys_VMA_Performance_DOA

From a reader known only to me (and the world probably) as "Dancing Queen"

way too harsh,give the girl a fuckin break,like,im no major britney fan myself,but the girl is in complete dire straits at the moment.she married some scumbag bastard an had 2 kids that are now gonna b probably taken away from her.like who the fuck are you to make any type of judgement on her,u have absolutely no idea wat that girl is going through an wat she has to face everyday,with all that tabloid bullshit an people just assuming they kno wat kind of person she is.do me a favour an try get over your stupid gay bitchy bullshit an actually get a clue

Here was my response...

dancing queen, a quick prescription - 2 weeks in anger management classes and an entire semester of beginners English - to include spelling and grammar usage. Britney has all the advantages in the world and unfortunately for her she appears to have eaten most of them. Obviously during birth she lost a lot of fluids and her talent. And by the way, I elevated "stupid gay bitchy bullshit" into an art form!

Having grown up doing theatre, I learned early on that it's best to feel good about positive feedback but really investigate when you get some sort of negative criticism. Step back and take another look at yourself and determine if the comment that was made was valid and how you should possibly change what you're doing. As far as "Dancing Queen's" comments, I think he (and yes, I have a feeling he is a "he" and a "queen") has a little too much concern for Britney. Even at the most generous that you could possibly be, we all need to recognize that the performance given by Spears was way below the standards of someone who has all of those resources and is a so-called professional performer. It was like watching someone who has only performed in their bedroom singing into their hairbrush and then they suddenly go to American Idol auditions to find backup singers and dancers with a music track. That performance would not have garnered her a "golden ticket" to Hollywood nor would it even make her as popular as William Hung who is now a millionaire based on his delusional feeling that he was a singer and American Idol exploiting him. (Although let me just say, if the outcome was the same, they could exploit me tomorrow. What time is good for you?)

But dare I get serious for a moment? The thing is that it seems to be more about the fact that we expect our celebrities now to drive drunk, punch photographers and have a porn tape on the Internet somewhere as some sort of mark that they have "arrived" in the industry. Similar to rappers who need to be shot to seem as if they are the real deal, what are we really creating here and why do we crave it so much? I read somewhere that someone did a survey and 70% of tweens, teens and twenty-somethings believe they will be famous in their lifetime. Now I don't know if they asked them what they thought they would be famous for but it would seem to me that no one really needs to have a goal of say being an actor and then receiving recognition for it when all you have to do is be on one reality TV show and bang, you're famous. Just ask the Flavor of Love girls who are now doing red carpets and mall openings.

It just really seems to me that the world is starting to break down into two categories you're either one of the "famous people" or you're one of the "sycophants" - you know, the celebrity hanger oners (this includes the ones who visit tmz.com every hour to see the latest celebrity news and read the Enquirer at the checkout at the market). And the sycophants are a volatile group because while they love them the celebrities, there's also an underlying craving for fame themselves and like a good night club, they figure there's not room for everyone to be famous so no one is getting into the fame circle until we take one out of the golden circle. So whether it be a drunken escapade or a banged up Escalade, we'll take ‘em down any way we can. For fame is becoming the "ring" from Lord of the Rings, "my pretty, my precious" when you have it you seem to only be worried about losing it, yet you seem to feel unworthy having it so you end up fucking it up on your own and then it passes to one of the sycophants and then they become the same twisted creature trying to hold onto this fake brass ring. When you look at it in this light; who came blame Owen Wilson for being suicidal? (Owen, roll over and make room for me)

But the point I'm trying to make is that I have to wonder if when we build up and/or tear down a celebrity if we aren't on some level tearing ourselves down. Are we telling ourselves that we're innocent bystanders as we watch the rape happen and don't call the police or are we the person that gets involved and ends up getting hit by a stray bullet for even getting involved? Or is there a higher plan and purpose for us, do we help one another and instead of having tragedy befall us become a hero to ourselves for not just sitting at our computers being "bitchy queens" (Are you listening Perez Hilton) but start sending out some positive messages instead? It's easy to say that the public is only interested in "dirt" but could it be because we never give them another option besides "dirt" and Oprah? I know I'm still going to be critical because I know how critical I am of myself but maybe, just maybe, I'll try to send some positive waves out there, similar to a celebrity who was asked to dish about Britney's performance at the VMAs on a late night talk show, "I think her perfume smells really good." Celebrities: Do we really build them up just to knock them down? - Don't Get Me Started!

Read More Scott @ http://www.somelikeitscott.com/