In recent years there has been a significant trend in asking people in the public eye their opinions and ideas on a variety of topics no matter what their actual knowledge of the subject is or their life experience. The classic, but trivial example of this was last year when any and all celebrities interviewed by the British media were asked about the Royal Wedding, even though it was of little or no relevance to them and their opinions were not exactly profound or insightful. Nevertheless, the fact that these figures usually give answers lacking in knowledge or detail does not seem to deter the growing trend for knowing what so-called celebrities think about a number of issues of varying importance.
This trend is without doubt dangerous because although everybody is allowed to have an opinion, surely for it to be worthwhile, newsworthy and valid as a view it needs to be based on a foundation of knowledge and provable facts. However, at the moment the opinions and views of celebrities e.g. actors, comedians and musicians are in many instances given real weight, even if there is little or no substance behind them because of who said them. The result of this has been that in recent years you have had second-rate and ill-informed individuals proposing tax policies, addressing economic forums and even being appointed by some countries and organisations as special ambassadors. In performing these tasks these celebrities have shown themselves almost universally to be lacking in knowledge or real-life experiences, and a few have even started to believe their own hype, when it is obvious to most that they are out of their depth and merely parroting whatever they are told, in effect becoming talking mannequins. This means that opinions and points of view based on prejudice and partisanship are given the oxygen of publicity when if said by an average citizen would be ignored, ridiculed or at least questioned. The real concern coming from this is that we live in a world where so-called celebrities have a disproportionate influence on a wild tranche of the population compared to more informed and/or trustworthy sources.
It is true that people in the public eye expressing an opinion based on limited or incorrect knowledge has always happened, for example look at the people who flocked to the Soviet Union or at least supported what was happening believing that they were witnessing the birth of a new civilisation, but failed to realise it was based on grinding misery, repression and poverty. However, at least then most people were not as enamoured with celebrity and had not lost the ability to make their own decisions and form their own opinions, plus the views of these public figures were not as widely disseminated and were openly and critically challenged. This is in sharp contrast to today where the opinions and thoughts of any has-been or never-been are treated with reverence and awe just because of who has said them.
It is perfectly fine for everybody to have an opinion or viewpoint, but for them to be taken seriously their statements and pronouncements need to cross a much higher threshold than the simple fact that they were espoused by someone in the public eye. In reality they need to based on facts, evidence and more than just a little knowledge, However, at the moment we have become a society/world where the views of every z-list celebrity and overpaid sports star are given airtime and in many cases unchallenged even though they lack any understanding or knowledge. This has led to the example of a temperamental, spoiled, millionaire actor with anger issues and a history of violence towards both sexes being allowed to air his views in a supposed diplomatic role even though he shows a shocking lack of knowledge and understanding of the issues.
